Margaret Jane LALOR- married William Hewlett

When I first began exploring my family history, a Lalor cousin generously sent me a lot of material, including some exquisite photos.  Included was this four generation photo, with my great-grandmother Catherine Lalor (née Rowland) seated on the right. Standing is her eldest daughter Margaret Hewlett (née Lalor), and her eldest daughter Eileen Hamilton (née Hewlett) is seated on the left. The child is said to be "Popsy" Hamilton, Eileen's daughter. Eileen had two daughters, Eileen (born 1922) and Daphne (born 1928) and at this stage I am assuming Popsy is the eldest daughter, Eileen. (Let me know if you are reading this and know that I am wrong!)

The eldest daughter and firstborn child for my Lalor-Rowland great-grandparents was Margaret Jane LALOR who was born in August 1872 while the family was residing at South Beach. She was baptised in the Greymouth Catholic parish by Fr Henry Belliard SM in early September 1872. 1.

The details on the Intentions to Marry form for her in August 1897 said that she was to marry William Hamilton HEWLETT, a sawmiller, and the marriage was to be performed by Rev D.P. Carew at her parents house at South Beach near Paroa. (1897b- page 280- District of Greymouth) 2.

Thanks to Luke Howison whose work scanning these Intentions to Marry registers has made them available to us all! https://itm.howison.co.nz/

There were six children in the Hewlett family, the first stillborn, then four more natural-born children, before the youngest was adopted. The first child, born stillborn in June 1898, was recorded in the burial register for Karoro Cemetery.  
The second child was Eileen Catherine, who was born just under a year later, in May 1899. She married William Anthony HAMILTON.
The third child, born in 1902, was James William, who became a printer, and who remained living in the area with his parents, and never married.  
The fourth child, William Thomas, was born in 1906, and had only a short life. He died as a baby, aged 5 months old, and is buried in what became his Lalor grandparents' plot. (The date of his death on the headstone has errors). He is buried along with his cousin Evelyn Schroeder who had accidentally drowned a few years earlier, as a toddler. 3.4.

The fourth child born in the family was their second daughter, Margaret Alice, who was born in 1908, and later married Bernard MYER, and they raised their family in Greymouth.

The last child in the family was David John (Jack) Hewlett, who was adopted in 1910. He married in Wellington in 1936 to Marie Eugene Denia, and they lived in Christchurch for many years, having one daughter called Marie. 5.

 

Margaret Hewlett and her husband William lived in the Paroa/ South Beach area for many years, and there is in fact a Hewlett Rd there. I haven't confirmed this is named for them, but it seems likely. 6.

 

Margaret lived to be 68 years old, and died in Grey River Hospital in March 1942. Her husband William died just under a year later, and is buried with her. Their son James died in 1955 and is also named on the same headstone at Karoro Cemetery. Their grave is in Section 3, Row 9 of Karoro Cemetery. 7.

 

If you are reading this, and are a descendant of Margaret Hewlett (Lalor) please feel free to contact me. I am a granddaughter of her younger brother James who settled in Kumara. 

1. Birth details from Historic BDMs, Ancestor Search Helper, and baptism certs from Chch Catholic Archives

2. ITM details courtesy of Luke Howison's scans of ITM registers at Archives NZ 

https://itm.howison.co.nz/

3. NZSG Cemetery Records (Kiwi Collection)

 4. Funeral notice: Greymouth Evening Star, 20 February 1907, page 2. Headstone photo held by author.

5: wedding report- Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 138, 12 June 1936, page 1 

6: Photo of Hewlett Rd & sign taken by author
7. headstone photo taken by author

8. Death notice, Margaret Hewlett- Greymouth Evening Star, 21 March 1942, page 4. 

Beulah Masciorini (1906 -1979)

Beulah was born in 1906, the second child born to Jane Masciorini of Goldsborough. Her birth registration has not yet been found, but on her death certificate her date of birth was stated as 10 August 1906.

Beulah had an older brother, John Antonio Masciorini, born in 1905, (1905/11188). However, John died at 19 weeks of age (1905/3648).

Her mother, Jane Masciorini, married Joseph Scetrini (son of Giuseppe senior) in 1908. (1908/4822).

Beulah had a close association with the Scettrini family, and in particular with Joseph Benada Scettrini. However, it appears that Joseph was her stepfather, as there is an entry for 1906 in the NZSG Illegitimacies collection where her mother Jane Masciorini was granted maintenance from a different man.

We see an early photo of Beulah at Goldsborough School in 1912 , and in a version of this photo from the Peter Tinetti Collection, we see her name handwritten as Beulah Cetterini. (from West Coast South Island History FB group- using a search for Goldsborough.)

Beulah’s mother Jeannie Scettrini died on 6 October 1919 at Otira, aged only 33 years old.
The funeral left Greymouth by train for the Stafford Cemetery, where Jeanie was interred on 9 October 1919. On her death registration there was a Coroner’s Verdict recorded: “That deceased died from Syncope brought about about by alcoholic gastritis”.

Beulah was only 18 years old when she married David Joseph Yorwarth on 23 February 1925 in the Presbyterian Church in Greymouth. Her birthplace was recorded as Reefton. Only her mother’s name is listed, on her marriage registration - Jane Andrietta Mascorini- with the space for her father’s name left blank. David was 23 years old, born in Ross, and a motor mechanic.

Within just six years Beulah and David had had five children, one stillborn:-
Coleen Angelica (1925);  William David (1927); Beulah Jean (1928); Stillborn (1930); and 
Betty Josephine (1931).

From the electoral rolls we can see that in 1928 Beulah Yorwarth is listed as living in Marlborough St, Greymouth. David Yorwarth is listed with the address of 110 Tainui Street, Greymouth, with the occupation of mechanic. (Perhaps this is a business address?) 

In the 1931 roll, both Beulah and David are listed at the same addresses as in 1928, but it would seem that Beulah separates from David this year, as she also appears in the 1931 Supplementary roll for Motueka, with her details given as: Yorwarth, Beulah Jane, Gowan Bridge, married.

Beulah remains living at Gowan Bridge for many years. She appears in the 1943 roll with the same details. And in fact both Beulah Yorwarth and Joseph Beneda Scetrini are listed as living in Gowanbridge on the electoral roll until 1966 when Joseph dies, aged 90.

In the 1938 Wise’s Post Office Directory in the listing for Gowan Bridge we see both Yarworth Buelah and Scetrini Jos B listed. There is also a listing for the store keepers Percy and Ralph Diserens.

This is a map showing where Gowan Bridge is, not far from the Kawatiri turnoff. Both Joseph and Beulah are listed as living here until 1966 when he died. Joseph was living near here in 1928 when building the railway at Pikomanu, while Beulah first appeared here on the electoral roll in 1931.

Near the Kawatiri junction, there is the Kawatiri Historic Railway Walk, which is apparently a short easy walk that goes through a tunnel.

Brian, a descendant of Alice Scettrini, told me that he recalled a Beulah Yorwarth, who lived at the Gowan Bridge Store with a "Dizzy". He said they used to call in when up that way, and the store was a pure delight. Very, very, old style, with a great smell, and farm merchandise hanging from the rafters.  He said that his brother Bill recalled Beulah visiting their grandmother Alice in Greymouth.

Although it appears that Joseph Beneda Scettrini was Beulah’s step-father rather than her biological one, they clearly had a close bond over many years. When Joseph died in 1966, it is stated on his death registration, that he had one female living issue.

In the death notice that was placed in a Nelson paper for Joseph, it is listed that he was the ‘beloved husband of the late Jane Scetrini of Gowan Bridge, formerly of Otira, and loved father of Beulah (Mrs B J Yorwarth, Gowan Bridge.)'

He was also listed as the grandfather of eight grandchildren:
Colleen (Mrs Granger, Stoke).  Jean (Mrs D. James, Picton).  Betty (Mrs E Blain, Nelson)
Nola (Mrs N Yanko, Auckland).  Dorothy (Mrs A Bradley, Murchison). Sandra (Gowan Bridge)
William (Huntly). Neville (Murchison). And also as Great-grandfather of 18, and Grt-grt-grandfather of 2.

After Joseph died, Beulah moved into Nelson. In 1969 her address was listed as 26 D’Arcy St, Richmond, and she was listed as a widow.

 Joseph was buried in the Marsden Valley Cemetery, Nelson, on 6 September 1966 in Block 01C, Plot number 118, aged 90 years. Beulah died in 1979 and was interred in the same plot on 13 October 1979. They have a shared memorial plaque, where Beulah Jane Yorwarth is described as Joseph’s ‘beloved daughter’.

 

Catherine Rowland- Summary

 I have decided that 2025 needs to be a year of summarising and sharing much of my genealogy information, starting off with my eight great-grandparents. I have recently been busy finding out as much as I could about my Arbuckle and Heneberry lines in Victoria, so thought my first summary should be about my great-grandmother Catherine Lalor née Rowland, whose mother was an Arbuckle. But I realise she has already been paid some attention paid via this blog. (I wrote about her here already.) So this blog post just has a few points.

This is the way Catherine and I are connected:

It is quite tricky finding out more about a woman in the mid-late 1800s, and early 1900s. Just as a basic, you have to remember to use their husband's initial in any search of old newspapers etc. (This shouldn't surprise me- my mother was always addressed as Mrs JK Riordan, and even after she was widowed she had to make a determined effort to reclaim Mrs KH Riordan.)

However, here are a few things about Catherine Rowland, my great-grandmother, from my summary:

Catherine Rowland was baptised on 20 December 1845 at St James Church, Melbourne. Her father was described as a gardener, and the family was living in Heidelberg.

 

Catherine had two younger sisters. Isabella was born in 1853 but sadly she died of Diphtheria aged only 7, on 1 May 1860, near Kyneton. She is buried in the Kyneton General Cemetery, where her mother Margaret was also buried just 15 months later. Margaret suffered from consumption (Phthisis Pulmonalis) for 12 months, dying in August 1861. 

 

Catherine’s youngest sister, Margaret Jane Rowland, was born in 1856, so was only four years old when their mother died. Margaret was later listed on the Victorian Children’s Register, and was admitted to care in 1867 as a result of neglect. Her father Christopher had deserted sometime after her mother Margaret had died. She was discharged on 21 November 1872, to her sister, Mrs J Lalor (Catherine Rowland) in Greymouth on the West Coast, per the Albion S.S.

 

It appears that sometime in early 1871, Catherine crossed the Tasman and ended up in Greymouth. On 14^th September 1871, she married James LALOR in the Roman Catholic Chapel. In their ‘Intentions to Marry’ form, she was described as a spinster who dwelled in the Greymouth District. Her stated ‘length of residence’ was possibly 8 months, but I found the entry hard to decipher. A marriage notice appeared in the Grey River Argus, 18 Sep 1871 in which she was described as a native of Victoria.

 

 

Catherine and James had six children. Their first daughter, Margaret Jane, was born 22 August 1872, while they were residing at South Beach, and subsequent children were named John, Mary, Robert, James and Thomas.

 

In a very sad instance of family news, Catherine was recorded as the one looking after a grandchild, Evelyn Schroeder, in 1903, when the toddler went missing and was found drowned in Nelson Creek nearby.

 

From the electoral rolls, we can see that Catherine lived for many years at South Beach- possibly her entire time since marriage.
In the 1899 West Coast (Grey) roll, she is listed as “Lalor, Catherine, South Beach, housekeeper, residential”

In the 1914 West Coast (Westland) roll, she is listed as “Lalor, Catherine, South Beach, married.”

In the 1928 West Coast (Westland) roll, she is listed as “Lalor, Catherine, South Beach, Greymouth, widow.”

Catherine was left a widow on 3 October 1916 when her husband James Lalor died of throat cancer. All their children were still living at that date, four males and two females. 

 

Catherine herself died on 3^rd January 1934 at South Beach of  sudden myocardial failure. (In the causes of death on her death registration it is also noted that she had a leg amputated due to ‘senile gangrene’ two years previously.) She was said to have been in New Zealand for 62 years.

Trying to find out more about Catherine Lalor née Rowland in newspapers has not led to many finds. In 1915 there was a euchre and dance evening at South Beach for which she contributed some beautiful handwork as a prize. She donated 2s6d to an X-Ray Fund in 1920.

 

** On 2 November 1928 in the Grey River Argus, it was recorded that: “Mrs J. Lalor, senr., of South Beach, has received word of the death of her sister Mrs E. Bradley, at Auckland.”

Mention of Catherine Lalor happened a few times in the military records for her son Thomas Patrick Lalor. When he enlisted for war service, he listed his mother as “Kate Lalor”, born in Melbourne, Australia, and resident in NZ for 45 years. In September 1917 when he was in Featherston Camp, he was in the hospital with influenza and Mrs J Lalor, (Mother), Greymouth, was listed as the person to contact in case of necessity.

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James and Catherine Lalor- Karoro Cemetery

Sometimes someone asks me something about one or other line of the family and I go searching for old info I haven't looked at for a while. In this case a fellow Lalor descendant in Greymouth has become interested in genealogy, and found that the grave of our mutual great-grandparents, James Lalor and Catherine Rowland, had been recently restored. So she asked Rhodes Monumental who had organised it, and they contacted me, and I contacted her...

This is what the grave looked like on the last day of December 2016, with arum lilies growing profusely out of the base, and the lettering mostly quite difficult to read.

I decided to get the grave redone, and Rhodes Monumental masons have done a superb job. This next photo shows what it looked like at Easter time this year.

It was nearly finished...
And just a few days later it was finished, and I was e-mailed this final photo from Rhodes Monumental in Greymouth.

Now the lettering on the headstone of these original pioneers of ours has been renewed for more generations to come to read. Rhodes Monumental have done a great job.