It's happening
21 November 2024
Saturday is the Unveiling. We went to the Southern Cemetery yesterday but we didn't peek!
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A ship half the length of a rugby pitch, 247 people and 117 days at sea. Let's remember our pioneers
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You did it!!!!!
13 February 2024I am pleased to tell you that together we reached the target of $5,750 for the Wallace/Riley Memorial stone to be erected in the Southern Cemetery in Dunedin. I am delighted! After consulting with others it has been decided to go with proof #2 with a few slight amendments. As soon as I have rechecked the dates I will order and have it installed. I will keep you up to date on the progress. I have also been asked if we are going to have an unveiling. I think that is a great idea. The Philip Laing left Glasgow on 27th November 1847. So I'm thinking a weekend about that time would be fitting. 2024 though! Also Dunedin should be warming up! Let me know your thoughts. A cèilidh!!! I am so proud to be part of this fantastic family. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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8 days to go. Help me choose.
3 February 2024One week to go!!!!! How exciting is that. It hasn't been quite as easy to raise funds as I had thought but I really appreciate the contributions that have been made. I know also that our Ancestors would also be pleased to know that their family recognizes and appreciates the hardships they encountered. On a personal note I know that my mother, Myra Baker, would have been delighted. She shared so much with me as I grew up and she started putting the family tree together over 50 years ago. Back in the days when the only way to research was by snail mail, phone and word of mouth. How hard that must have been.
Now I need your help. I posted two proofs of stones from the Dunedin Monumental Masons. I will post them again for your perusal along with one I have changed. The alterations I have made to proof #1 are: (a)removing the baby ( we think this was John's child but since this is a memorial stone NOT a headstone it doesn't make sense) (b) shifting the "In remembrance" sentence from the top to the base as in proof#2.
Let me know your thoughts.
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An article from the paper Dunedin, Sat, Jan 3, 1852. Also on facebook The year 1851 has drawn to a close, and its young successor has been welcomed with all the joy and festivity of a bride.
14 January 2024The light-hearted though decorous rejoicings of the colonist have ceased, and they are again steadily setting to work with their ordinary occupations with a determination to outdo the efforts of former years and that too with a confidence of success which had in some cases, almost deserted those who have gone through the nearly four years of uphill labour. But the top of ascent has been gained and, to the first colonists the victory may be said to be won. Who of those who landed in the autumn of 1848 can fail to be moved to serious reflection on the blessing of Providence, mingled with self-congratulation in looking back to the condition of Otago when they landed with scarcely a house or place of shelter erected, and comparing its then void with its present prosperous condition ? Who can fail to be struck with the rapid and energetic progress of the colony or to mark the almost magical alteration? There, where yet scarce four years since all was resigned to the peaceful and majestic hand of Nature has arisen a prosperous town with its busy hum but yet not the noise of the larger city of our native home with its vices and virtues; its magnificent wealth and squalid poverty contrasted ; but the happy, peaceful content of a rural town not yet deprived of its rustic beauty, where the singing of the birds yet mingle with the musical ring of the blacksmith's anvil, and where yet poverty and vice have not intruded but all is happiness and contentment And this is as it should be.
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Merry Christmas
4 December 2023With 69 days to go until the Give a Little page closes I want to thank you all for your commitment to this project. Members of the family have guarateed to pick up any shortfall so the memorial stone will proceed. I cannot begin to express my personal gratitude to these and all of you who have made a pledge. If you know of someone who has indicated they would also like to be part of this can you remind them to make their pledge official. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas with family and friends, hopefully in the beautiful sunshine that our forebears travelled to find. Regards Verity
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Great work family
7 August 2023Over $1000! A little about William Wallace. 173 years ago on this day 8 Aug 1850 he was born in Rattray St, Dunedin. The youngest of 7 children, William Wallace was the first generation to be born in New Zealand. His parents John and Letitia had arrived on the “Philip Laing” on 29th April 1848, just over two years earlier with William’s siblings Letitia (13), Elizabeth(8) and Samuel (6). He passed away at the age of 78 on 24th Nov 1928 and was laid to rest at Southern Cemetery, Dunedin.
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189 Years today
1 August 2023John Wallace, my Great-Grand Uncle was born 189 years ago on 1 August 1834 in Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire. At the age of 13 his father John and his mother Letitia emigrated in the Philip Laing and he remained behind in Glasgow. The following year he arrived in Dunedin on the Mary. He worked at Pt Chalmers as a servant and then in the Royal Hotel before joining Ross & Kilgours grocery store at the age of 20. John married Mary Sinclair at her parent’s home in Cargill St on 14 June 1861. Mary and John had nine children in 24 years. He had a grocery shop in George St, Dunedin. The business was sold in 1879 and another business was opened in Great King St, however shortly after John was declared bankrupt and the shop was sold. The family moved to Albany St where Mary signed the suffrage petition, at that time John was working as a storeman. He acted as the Inspector of works and in this capacity was overseer for the erection of the Boys High School, North East Valley School and Waitaki School. John died on 10 July 1897 in Arrowtown, Central Otago at the age of 62 while travelling for business. He is buried at the Northern Cemetery, Dunedin. He does not appear to have a headstone. $960 pledged to date.
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