Posts by David Haywood
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Hebe,
Nah… I’m still going with Holland as the JP: would be standard for the local parson to be a JP for signing births, deaths and marriage certs. And the ink is different to GC’s.
I can certainly see your tempting logic on that! Although, of course, as a reverend, John Holland could sign births, deaths and marriage certs without being a JP – and there is no JP appended to his name in any of the official mentions of the Rev. John Holland that I can find.
But maybe – given that there definitely was a George Coleman, JP – I’m just wishing that the two items were connected. It would make it so much easier to narrow it down to George Coleman the JP!
To further confuse the matter, it seems to me that the crossed out JP is in a different hand to the uncrossed JP. The fullstops in the uncrossed JP being similar to what (I presume) is the fullstop in the Geo. Coleman signature. Opinions?
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
oh, and also Skerrett & Wylie’s receipt has a ‘23/1/97’ written over the one penny postal and revenue stamp, to frank it!
Duh! I should have spotted that -- thank you for your experienced eyes!
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
but mostly I wonder how is this getting those towel rails finished?
This looks suspiciously like, fun…
Ahem... yes, well there is that...
PS how was the frost out there this morning?
Horrible and still there!
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A shy (but observant and analytical) reader has pointed out that the unintelligible month on the adoption receipt may be January, i.e. dated January 23rd 1897. (Your opinion on this, Mr Dalziel?)
If so, this would tie in with the passenger report about the ’Tasmania’ showing that a Mr and Mrs Coleman travelled from Christchurch to Wellington on January 8th 1897.
The same clever but anonymous reader also points out a possibility that I had not considered: that the adoption receipt was for a second child, who was quite unrelated to the Alington daughter from the adoption letter.
In which case this would mean that the documents in my possession originated from the Coleman family rather than the Alington family.
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Hebe,
All Saints Church in Methven is on Alington Street.
That's very interesting.
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Hebe,
The JP is the same handwriting and light ink as the Holland signature, so he could well have spread out too far and GC chucked in his signature in a hurry. Note also that the JP on the left bottom has been crossed out so it can be closer to Holland’s name.
Ah... I see what you mean when you say that the 'JP' appears to be the same ink as Rev Holland, but I think the handwriting is George Coleman's. Note the very curly loops on the 'J' and 'P', which match the equally curly loop of the 'G' of the 'Geo. Coleman' signature (if indeed this is actually what the signature says).
My analysis was that -- for some reason -- the adoption was made specifically to Mrs George Coleman (it's definitely Mrs in the text of the letter because it also says 'her') but that Mr George Coleman, J.P. had signed the document. It occurred to me that perhaps Mr Coleman was present at the signing of the document, but that his wife was not.
It also occurred to me that perhaps the Coleman's had had care of the child since birth, and that the document was in response to an attempt by the mother to reclaim her child. I hope not, as this would make the letter even more tragic.
P.S. Note that the dot above the 'her' must have been dust on my scanner. It's definitely not in the original document.
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Lynley Chapman,
I have posted the basic data from your blog post here (ie Geo ALINGTON born, married, three children etc) to NZ Rootsweb giving a link back to your blog post for any genealogists out there who might be researching any or all of the people in your story.
Thanks, Lynley! I don't know the first thing about searching for genealogical data, so this is extremely helpful -- much appreciated!
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
yay for the DPB
Exactly the same thought had repeatedly occurred to me as I've been thinking about all this...
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BREAKING NEWS: looking for the first time at high magnification on the adoption letter—does anyone else think that the unintelligible signature at the bottom might be ‘Geo. Coleman, J.P.’? Note that Coleman's name on the adoption receipt is written 'Geo Coleman'. If this is the name then I guess we now know which of the George Colemans is the adoptive father…
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By the way: I’m hanging onto these documents for the moment—just in case somebody reads this piece and comes forward to claim them. If no-one does then in due course I’ll send them to the National Library to be added to the Alington archives.