The people on this section of my web pages are a subset of my database - those who are connected in some way with original documents I have copies of: letters, wills etc.
My thanks are due to those who shared them with me.

There are now several "collections" represented since the intial one of a large number of letters from Devon to the relations who had emigrated to New Zealand in the 1850s, covering a period from the 1860s through to the early 1900s.

Those originals are in the possession of a ROWE descendant, Marion in New Zealand, who kindly allowed me to photograph them. I'm not a professional photographer, the results are not brilliant, but at least the letters may now be shared. Others in this collection are from within New Zealand, Australia to New Zealand etc.

Subsequent additions are a number of wills (mainly RICHARDSONs), and several of my ROWE family documents.

Another major collection is a recent addition (Jan 2010) which will take rather a long time to sift through.
It consists of a treasure trove of family memorabilia rescued from a house clearance (or two) in Melbourne, and relates to the family of John SUTHERLAND and Jane McKENZIE of Shetland, several of whose children emigrated to Australia in the 1920s.

To see individual documents, either follow the links to specific lists on the left hand side of the screen, and thence the thumbnails on the resulting page, or click on the camera icon that appears on the page for the individual person.

If the document writer is included in the narrative portions of my main pages, a magnifying glass icon will appear next to their name near the top of the page.

Enjoy following the lives of my relations as they impart, often sad, news to others, or remember them in their wills.

 
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  • Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

    — Abraham Lincoln
  • My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.

    — Cary Grant
  • Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.

    — E. B. White
  • I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.

    — e. e. cummings
  • What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know.

    — Saint Augustine
  • Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

    — Mark Twain
  • If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

    — Henry David Thoreau
  • If two things look the same, look for differences. If they look different, look for similarities.

    — John Cardinal
  • In theory, there is no difference. In practice, there is.

    — Anonymous
  • Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

    — John Adams
  • People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.

    — Abraham Lincoln
  • History - what never happened described by someone who wasn't there

    — ?Santayana?
  • What's a "trice"? It's like a jiffy but with three wheels

    — Last of the Summer Wine
  • Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened

    — Terry Pratchett
  • I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

    — Terry Pratchett
  • .. we were trained to meet any new situation by reorganising; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illuson of progress

    — Petronius (210 BC)
  • The time we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it; and habit fills up what remains

    — Proust
  • You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

    — William J. H. Boetcker
  • Only a genealogist thinks taking a step backwards is progress

    — Lorna 1992
  • No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.

    — George Bernard Shaw
  • A TV remote is female: It easily gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know which buttons to push, he just keeps trying.

    — Anon
  • Hammers are male: Because in the last 5000 years they've hardly changed at all, and are occasionally handy to have around.

    — Anon