Birds of Waiotahi

Birds of Waiotahi I inherited a box of Bird family photos. Maybe they're your family too?

A great article in last week's Valley Profile about William Bird, the son of William and Mary Bird.
05/08/2025

A great article in last week's Valley Profile about William Bird, the son of William and Mary Bird.

Throwback to the February 2015 'Romance' issue of the Grahamstown Gazette, where I wrote about Violet Bird's wedding to ...
10/02/2025

Throwback to the February 2015 'Romance' issue of the Grahamstown Gazette, where I wrote about Violet Bird's wedding to James Stoddart Thomas in 1914.

Postcard sent from Violet Bird to Gertrude Bird. Violet's the last woman in the back row. I'm unsure of the date.
10/10/2024

Postcard sent from Violet Bird to Gertrude Bird. Violet's the last woman in the back row. I'm unsure of the date.

Thames in the 1940s.Althea from Thames Museum was kind enough to send me some information about the Quality Inn, the bus...
01/10/2024

Thames in the 1940s.

Althea from Thames Museum was kind enough to send me some information about the Quality Inn, the business Stella Christe ran in Thames with her friend Rachael Kerby in the 1930s. In this photo, we're pretty certain the Quality Inn is the building marked 'Restaurant' on the far left.

The McKenzies building is Noel Leeming today, which'd put the Quality Inn in what's now the south end of Farmers.

Here's a mystery I've been puzzling over for a while - what happened to Thomas Canty, Mary Bird's father?This fantastic ...
22/09/2024

Here's a mystery I've been puzzling over for a while - what happened to Thomas Canty, Mary Bird's father?

This fantastic description is from an Australian police gazette, a couple of months before William and Mary's wedding in 1869. The wedding announcement refers to 'the late' Thomas Canty, so it looks like the Australian investigation didn't have any success!

If I ever start a punk band, I'm gonna call it One Finger Wanting.

Today, I'm sharing this photo of William Z. Bird. I've still not been able to narrow down exactly when William emigrated...
16/09/2024

Today, I'm sharing this photo of William Z. Bird.

I've still not been able to narrow down exactly when William emigrated to New Zealand; I know he was in Auckland in 1869, because that's when he married Mary Canty, but before then he's been difficult to trace. His parents were John Bird and Eliza Bird nee Dicker, both of whom were native to Dorset, England. My nan - William's granddaughter - has handily written a note on the back of this photo to say William was born in Wales, but that contradicts the information I've found elsewhere that points to Devonshire - sorry Nan! Ancestry.com gave me a hit for a William Bird arriving in Melbourne in 1862, but that wasn't quite enough information to definitively say that's the right William Bird.

By pure fluke, I stumbled across some info on The Treasury's website today that I hope I'll be able to check out once they reopen. It turns out that Victor Augustus Christie, who was the son of William's daughter Clara, has a whole collection named after him in The Treasury's archives! There's heaps of neat stuff in there, including Victor's war diaries and family photos, but one thing that caught my eye was a medal belonging to a 'W. BIRD. 2ND WAIKATO MIL.' See the record here: https://thetreasury.catalogaccess.com/objects/413

Unfortunately The Treasury hasn't been able to add a photo to their catalogue record yet, so I googled the medal and found this image on Auckland Museum's catalogue: https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/collection/object/801082
Good match for the medal in my photo of William, eh?!

I also found a William Bird on this page, listing men of the Waikato Regiments who received the New Zealand War Medal between 1860 and 1870: https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~ourstuff/genealogy/WaikatoWarMedal1.htm

So now I'm going to go read up on the British invasion of the Waikato, while I wait for the Treasury to reopen.

Still on the topic of Stella Christie - shout-out to Jenny Cooper, who included this neat illustration of Stella camping...
14/09/2024

Still on the topic of Stella Christie - shout-out to Jenny Cooper, who included this neat illustration of Stella camping in the Australian outback with Gladys Sandford in the book Gladys Goes to War, by Glyn Harper. It's a beautiful book, and finding this picture really made my day!

You can find copies of Gladys Goes to War at your local library: https://tepuna.on.worldcat.org/search/detail/947043764?queryString=gladys%20goes%20to%20war&commit=Search
Or at your local bookshop: https://www.bookhub.co.nz/p/gladys-goes-to-war?barcode=9780143507208

Here's a VERY cool photo - not from my box, but one I wouldn't have found without the box.Have you ever read Glyn Harper...
13/09/2024

Here's a VERY cool photo - not from my box, but one I wouldn't have found without the box.

Have you ever read Glyn Harper's picture book Gladys Goes To War? That's Gladys Sandford herself on the right - NZEF ambulance driver, New Zealand's first female pilot, a teacher and a pioneering motorist. Very cool lady who led a fascinating life!

On the left, we have Stella Christie - daughter of Augustus and Clara Christie, granddaughter of William and Mary Bird. The photo was taken in Perth in 1927 - the pair had embarked on a 17000km journey around Australia in that Essex 6. Gladys had been a car saleswoman in Auckland, and she chose Stella as her companion for the trip because Augustus was also a car dealer. Unfortunately for them, Stella didn't know how to drive!!

This photo is from the State Library of Western Australia - you can find it (plus a couple more in the series) here: https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b1919657

Here's a book I've found useful for researching the Waiotahi Creek settlement generally, as well as the Bird family spec...
10/09/2024

Here's a book I've found useful for researching the Waiotahi Creek settlement generally, as well as the Bird family specifically - Althea Barker's Waiotahi Creek School: the forgotten valley school 1873-1912. The book is a great little potted history of the school, recounting major stories published in the local newspapers about the school, its staff and students over the decades.

The appendix lists ten of the Bird children as Waiotahi Creek School alumni - Alexander, Caroline, Clara, Eliza, Emily, Ernest, Frederick, Gertrude, Violet and William. There are also Augustus, Samuel and Victor Christie - Clara's husband, and two of her sons.

Alex, Samuel and Victor appear on the list of ex-students who served in - and survived - World War I. Their father, William Bird, also gets a fond mention in a chapter about the families that called the Waiotahi Valley home.

If you're in Thames, there are reference copies of this book at Thames Library, Thames Historical Museum, and The Treasury. Outside of Thames, there are several libraries around the country with copies: https://tepuna.on.worldcat.org/oclc/922553341

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