Riordan Quane family via James

There was a time, not so many years ago, when I thought that my Irish family history would remain unknown- but in recent years more and more documents are being digitised and are now accessible from the other end of the world.

Last night. Christmas Eve, I was fiddling around, and made yet another fortuitous combo of words in a Google search. Bingo! Thanks National Archives of Ireland! It led to a census abstract from 1916, that seems pretty certain to have been made by Patrick's older brother James to prove his age for the pension. Down the side of this document, it also has a list of names that must be his siblings. I haven't been able to get Patrick's birth entry- it was too early for the microfilm online from Ballylanders Parish- but his name is listed in the siblings, as are the names of Ellen and Bridget who I had found on the register. It also lists John who came to New Zealand and Margaret who was my great-grandmother via her Malone marriage. The only one I wasn't aware of before was Mary...

Oh- and for some reason I had to use Safari to access this document properly on my Mac- in case that affects some of the rest of you...

Payn Headstone- how things can change

Sometime early in my genealogical discoveries, I found out that the grave of my great-grandparents Frank Payn and Johanna Scettrini, was in Hokitika Cemetery, and I went there and found it.
It was a very simple headstone.

I might yet find I have another photo stashed away- though at the time I took fewer as they all had to be developed and paid for!- but it seems that I may have totally 'ignored' the fact that their son John F Payn, who died in France in WW1, had a plaque underneath his parents. This is visible in this online photo on the Westland Cemeteries site.

At the time I visited the cemetery it took me sometime to find the grave, so I drew myself a little 'map' for future visits. This might help some other visitors, but on a return visit my wayward use of left and right still had me muddled for a while even with my 'map'!

In the last couple of years Maurice Payn of Nelson, Frank and Johanna's grandson, and my mother's first cousin, has taken it upon himself to do something about renovating some of our original pioneer headstones. He arranged to have Frank and Johanna's grave redone to include more information about them, and here is what the headstone now looks like.

(And yes, the Arthur Thomas Payn in the next grave, is another grandson.)

Thanks are due to Maurice Payn for his efforts in taking care that these pioneer graves will still be able to tell their story to future Payn-Scettrini generations.

Next up- I must write some sort of summary of Frank Payn's life. 'Papers Past' has lots of bits about him...

Etaples Military Cemetery

I am nearing the end of collating all the information I have about James Riordan, fourth and youngest son of Patrick Riordan and Mary Burke. I've previously written about where he was buried in France. But I realise it might be useful if I describe how exactly to find his grave site, in case any family members want to visit the grave to pay their respects.

He is buried in the Etaples Military Cemetery, just a few kilometres north of the town of Etaples, south of Boulogne-sur-Mer along the Pas-de-Calais coast.

screenshot from Google Maps

The cemetery is huge- overwhelming. I cried when I saw it.

Luckily I had a map from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that helped me quickly identify which section of the cemetery to head for.

James Riordan's final resting place in France lies in Section VII, C.1.

We will remember them.

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.

James Riordan

The plan is ... to stick to a plan! I am going to collate all the information I have about James Riordan, who died of wounds incurred near the Somme during the battle of Flers-Courcelette in WW1.

Today I found a map of where the battle of Flers-Courcelette took place, on a NZ History website. James Riordan was wounded in action on 22 September, 1916.

Map produced by Geographx with research assistance from Damien Fenton and Caroline Lord.
It originally appeared in Damien Fenton, New Zealand and the First World War (Penguin, Auckland, 2013).

Malone great-grandparents

Yes, I know I should be more 'disciplined' and should stick to some sort of research plan for doing my genealogy- but..... Sunday afternoons are great for random explorations. And especially now that the National Library of Ireland, and National Archives of Ireland have digitised access to so many more records... So somehow I found myself on the National Archives of Ireland census search page.
And here is the 1901 census entry for my Malone great-grandparents: Jeremiah Malone and Margaret (nee Riordan) his wife. I love that they spoke "Irish and English".

By the time of this census my grandmother Margaret and her sister Bridget were in New Zealand. Also another brother Patrick was known to be in New Zealand- but another day I will have to 'chase him up' to find out more about him.

The family are in house #2 of this house and building return- in Ballinadrideen, the place of my grandmother's birth.

Thanks to National Archives of Ireland for this information. I hope one day to get to Ireland to find Ballinadrideen, somewhere just south of Charleville.

James Riordan- WW1

James Riordan was the fourth son of Patrick Riordan and Mary Burke of Charing Cross, Canterbury, and he was born in 1887. He enlisted for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, arriving in Etaples, France, in mid-August 1916. He was wounded in action on 22 September 1916, and subsequently died of wounds on 11 October 1916. He is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, about 27 kilometres south of Boulogne, Pas-de-Calais.

Last year, 2016, the New Zealand government commemorated the centennial of the entry of NZ troops into the Battle of the Somme, near Longueval, and the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery. As I read news accounts about this, I realised that James Riordan was killed around this time. I knew that he had died of wounds in a military hospital, but as the Etaples Cemetery was a long way from Longueval, it did not seem likely to me that he could have been in this battle. Still, the timing was close.

A few weeks ago at the NZSG conference I spoke to one of the historians at the NZ Defence Force stand. He checked the details on James Riordan's casualty form with me, and when he looked at the date he was wounded, and the fact that James was a Rifleman, he said it was quite likely that James Riordan did take part in the Battle of the Somme. He also told me that because he was wounded in the thigh he possibly got gangrene from bacteria and died as a result.

The historian told me that the Somme was a huge long battlefront, but that the battle the New Zealanders entered was at Flers-Courcelette. He gave me a brochure with the web address where I could check the unit's history. I found the website, then the NZ history link, leading to a WW1 link, and then to a link for the NZ Rifle Brigade history.  This history detailed the battle around Flers that the Rifle Brigade was involved in from September 15th. There were heavy casualties, and James Riordan must have been wounded in action as part of this battle, before being moved back to a military base hospital at Dannes-Camiers, near the Etaples Military Cemetery.

Coincidentally, John Joseph, another Reardon from Darfield, the son of Bartholomew and Maggie Reardon, was killed in action in the same battle, and is buried at the Caterpillar Valley New Zealand Memorial. Both men are listed on the cenotaph in Darfield, Canterbury.

I have visited the grave of James Riordan in Etaples Cemetery, and hope I might return there one day. It is comforting to read, from the NZ Tablet, 26 July 1917,  that the graves of many of the NZ soldiers were visited by their comrades, including the grave of James Riordan.

From the Papers Past website, NZ Tablet, 26 July 1917.

Lest we forget.

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them."
~Laurence Binyon