rmation.

Regards

David

4 852900

Females always required

r my darling wife, Margaret FISHER and her family, in fact I keep hearing them mutter about ‘brick walls’’ and it's giving me a headache. So I thought it was about time to ask for help and if reading this letter triggers connections with your own research, that would be great. This letter contains most of the information that my descendents have been able to unearth about my family and they would really appreciate any additional information that you may have, their contact details are below.

Let me introduce myself, my name is Robert STRONG as have mentioned above, I have come back to help two of my many, many ggggranddaughters in New Zealand. I myself was born about 1792 maybe in Middlesex London, England. But ‘London or Timbuktu’ - its so long ago I can't really remember. We were a hardworking family, not much money, couldn't read or write so we all worked with our hands in jobs that were mostly connected to the waterways of London. Its not like today, those days we had no education and so whatever was recorded was done by hearsay and taking into consideration all the different accents in this part of the world, there is every possibility that items got recorded wrong, with names not quite right.

That’s me, let me now introduce to you the ‘love of my life’ ! While I was in Hornsey Middlesex I married my beautiful Margaret FISHER, she was born about 1793 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, ‘though I can't remember how she got to Middlesex from Norwich - but am pleased she did or I might not have never met her! We were married on 1st August 1813 in The Parish of Hornsey, North London and afterwards we headed south to the Thames River looking for work.

After duly arriving at the London docks we took up residence at Silver Street Rotherhithe.
I worked as a Sawyer, in the docks, it wasn't a very pleasant area to work in, with the Thames River at your door and surrounded by many old rat infested warehouses, but we were happy and blessed with seven children, John William, Robert, Rosina (Roseanna), Charles George, Sarah and Susannah. Can't remember if we named them after our respective parents, brothers and sisters we might have but those clues to our family origins haven't helped my girls find our families.

Our first born, John William appeared in 1816 and brought us much joy, but we lost him on the 1st Feb 1824, can't remember how he died. Robert was born 9th May 1817, later in 1856, Robert & his wife Sarah Anne Charlotte SELF and grandchildren Mary Ann Susan, Robert Charles, Rosina Elizabeth, Margaret Jane, Susannah Emily went to live in New Zealand, then in 1819 came my beautiful Rosina she is one of the lost souls the girls haven't found yet.

Our unpredictable Charles was born in 1823, I loved him like the others but have to say that he was the black sheep of the family, so Charles and his wife Mary Ann ROSS and grand-daughter Mary Ann were sent out with Robert in 1856 with the hope that things would improve, but with too much liquor and not a happy life the silly fool managed to drown himself in the Auckland Harbour in 1896.

George, my last son was born in 1826 and became a sailor with a thirst for adventure, being the first to set sail from home. In Oct 1847, he signed up to sail to New Zealand via Ireland on the Barque called “ANN” that the English Government had hired to transport Fencible Soldiers who were to protect the early settlers during the Maori uprisings. On board he met his fiery Irish lass Margaret MCMULLEN, daughter of an Irish Fencible who was traveling with his wife and four daughters. The ‘ANN’ arrived in Auckland during May 1848 and George & Margaret were the first couple to be married in the new St Paul’s Church in Onehunga Auckland on 9th July 1848.

Then came my lovely daughters; Sarah and Susannah. Sarah was born in 1830, and in 1865 she left with her husband George LEWIS and grandchildren Sarah Ann, Susannah Martha, Eleanor Margaret, Rosina Emma, Eliza Louisa to live in New Zealand. Those great boys of mine, Robert and Charles paid for her to join them, so that she wasn't left here in England on her own.

Susannah is the baby of the family and was born in 1833. She was growing into such a lovely young lady when both of us caught that dreadful illness, Cholera. As a result I passed over on 10th July 1849 and my lovely Susannah followed not long after, we are buried in St Mary's Church cemetery Rotherhithe, but don't go looking for our names because the head stones have deteriorated over time and what is left of them is leaning along a side fence in the Churchyard. Now at the time, everybody thought cholera came from the local water supply but it was actually the sailors off the foreign ships that brought it to the Thames area and that’s how us local folk got sick.

What my girls do know is that my dear wife Margaret and precious daughter Rosina were still living in Silver Street, Rotherhithe, in 1851 - working as laundresses to support themselves, but after that the records seem to have vanished and my girls are having trouble finding out what happened to them, where did they go, what happened to Margaret? Did Rosina marry? Why didn’t they come to New Zealand with the rest of the family?

As the years have rolled by I have sat up here watching all my descendents being born and thought I would never have kept up with them or remembered all their names, thank goodness my girls have written all the family names down. Robert and Sarah had 9, Charles and Mary Ann only had 1, George and Margaret had 8 and little Sarah with her husband George LEWIS had 8, that’s a total of 26 grandchildren!

From there my family has grown and spread throughout New Zealand, not too bad for silly old man who can't remember where he was born.

Grateful to any help you can give my girls.

Your faithfully mystical servant.

Robert STRONG (Snr.)

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