Goldsmith Family History

FAMILY WHAKAPAPA AS AT 14/12/2016.

COMPILED TO CELEBRATE THE RETURN OF A COPY OF LIZZIE GOLDSMITH’S HAND TINTED PICTURE TO TE REINGA MARAE 19/12/2016 WITH LOVE FROM US ALL.

The original art work in the old meeting house, TANE was lost by fire in 1995.

Much of this this whakapapa came from Aunty Hanna Cotter who was a first cousin to my grandmother Lizzie Andrew nee Goldsmith. Other facts have come from cemetery records, war records and the Mormon Church in Hastings.

Eru Te Rongo born 1824 died at Te Reinga, about 1879 Married Rawinia Kaiwai Born 1832 Dec Daughter, Heni (Jane) Rawinia Te Rongo Born about 1848 Died 1928 Married Frederick William Goldsmith Born 1844 Woolwich, London, transported to NZ Coast with two brothers and 400 other boys arriving 1857, put ashore with two brothers at Ruatoria.

Children Frederick- Goldsmith born about 1870/74 Several Fredericks are in different cemeteries, cannot trace or confirm as yet.

Louisa born 1872, Married Robert Knock, Nellie, Bessie and Muriel (Murl) Knock

Charlotte Goldsmith 1876 Married Jack Waring 1897, Anne, Sarah Waring.

Edwin Goldsmith 1874 Married Charlotte Williams, Eva, Charles, Harry, Maude, Sarah, Lena, Cathleen and Myrtle Goldsmith.

Bessie Goldsmith, born 1880 Married John (Jack) Campbell Died 19th Sept 1955.

Sam Goldsmith Born 1881 Died 1929.

Henry Goldsmith Born abt 1886

Kate Goldsmith born abt 1880 Married Jim Puriri 12th Dec 1897, Ra, James, Kaa, Hana, Adam and Jane Puriri

Jane Goldsmith Born abt 1883 Died before 1935.

Joseph Goldsmith born 29th September 1887, Gisborne, served in army WW1 and WW2. Married Helena Auguste Radtke 1918, Child Jean born 10th January 1919. He left his wife in England, Mrs H.A. Goldsmith at Old Manor House, High Street, Hornchurch England. Helena was named as his next of kin. Joseph died 4th Nov 1951 in Gisborne, 64 years of age, Taruheru RSA Cemetery Gisborne.

Elizabeth Goldsmith (Lizzie) born 1883, married James Andrew of Marlborough about 1906 both died in 1969 in Gisborne a few months apart. Headstone Taruheru Gisborne. A long marriage of about 63 years.

Children Fred Andrew born about 1913 deceased, Albert Lyle Andrew born 1916 Wairoa, died Whanganui, Soldiers Cemetery 7/7/87 Phillip Andrew abt 1918 died Gis [Gisborne] about abt 1995. Soldiers Cemetery. Sons, Peter and John of Gisborne.

Albert Lyle Andrew Married Patricia Helen Carr 1939, Michael Phillip Andrew/ Kitchin born 31/08/1940, Peter Lyle Andrew/ Kitchin. Born 05/03/1946. Michael Phillip Kitchin married Janice Ruby Richardson, 14/05/1963, Jansie was born 5/01/1938 Died 14/05/2004. Christine Jane Kitchin born 14/12/63 Darcy William Kitchin born 27th Aug 1964, Michael James Kitchin 3rd Sept 1968.

Christine Jane Kitchin Married Ricky Kingi 1982 Sam, Born 15/04/1984, Tama Born 27/04/86 and Isaac Born 24/06/1989. Ricky has whakapapa back to Wairoa which was a wealthy community in the period 1900 to 1928.

Darcy William Kitchin is married to Wendy Gordon. Their Children are Mitchell Gordon born 26/08/1995 and Pia Gordon born 25/1/2001

Michael James Kitchin is married to Carleine Ellen Receveur born 09/04/1969, two daughters, Caroline Kitchin born 18/06/98 and lmke Kitchin born 12/04/2001.

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We are related to Richard Nia Nia who is the Guardian at Te Reinga as was his father, George and his grandfather Jimmy Nia Nia. They whakapapa back to Eru Te Rongo who we will hear about when Richard speaks in the meeting house. He is also Chairman of Kahungnunu Executive in Wairoa.

The Goldsmith name is Jewish and goes back 1,000s of year to the Old Testament. Somebody should look at this connection. I learned more about life in three weeks in Israel in 1984 than I learned in years in many other places. The Israel connection has always been strong inside my body and my head.

I met Peter Andrew of Marlborough about 1990 on the farm in that district which had been described to me by my natural father Albert Lyle Andrew when I spoke to him on the telephone in 1978.

I telephoned Peter Andrew and invited myself out to the farm. Peter said that he had not been out shopping and didn’t have much to eat in the house, I went to the super market and filled my chilly bin with good food, some wine and some beer and away I went finding the farm easily, not far from the Waihopai Spy Satellite Station. The entrance to the farm was absolutely depressing, a miserable sight, a half collapsed hay barn built with railway lines salvaged from the Dunn Mountain Railway, two grossly miserable clap board houses devoid of paint or any redeeming features, just a look of misery and utter poverty. Peter’s sad face completed the scene as he came to the door. I felt like running but I pushed the cheerful button and the smile button at the same; stating that I had some hot dinner and that I wanted to hear about this side of the family.

After a few glasses of wine Peter said thank god you have come, you are the first one to come back in years, I can’t remember my father saying that anyone had returned and lots of young boys had gone out into the world with their farming skills, some harness and became self- employed teamsters all around New Zealand. Drought and misery had plagued his life, his father had died, his wife had taken the children and left. Chirping a bit, with the wine, we went for a tour of the farm finally coming to a box thorn hillock that consisted of great blocks of rammed earth at all crazy angles.

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What is this I asked? Grandfather house and all the original farm buildings, the blacksmith shop, stables, shearing shed, the whole lot. Dad got a bulldozer in and pushed it all into this heap. Now a complete museum of family history is a box thorn hill. Peter broke into tears as he told me what had confronted him when he came home from school.

Peter said that the dining room table was still set as it was the day his grandfather had died, all the building were intact, they were all surrounded by a low block wall with two gates, it was his special place that made life bearable, he wanted to live there and he hated the miserable wooden houses that his father had built.

At that time Peter may have been about 35, we were both crying, it was time to change the subject to some good stories about the Andrew family. There were some sad stories starting with being cleared off the Highlands of Scotland in the 1700s from their crofts which were tumbled by their loving Highland/English masters to run sheep, they became tin miners in Cornwall until 1798 when they left for Karlgoolie [Kalgoorlie] in Australia where they toiled underground until 1849, arriving at Ross, on the West Coast of the South Island in 1850 being among the first at a new gold strike. They spent about three months driving a tunnel up the side of a creek bed to get at the terrace above, cleaned out the GOLD in three weeks and abandoned the mine to buy some land in Marlborough. There were two Andrew families that came over from Australia. Both families were on the 500 acre farm. I hope to be able to have a look at the sites again, maybe staying in Hokitika for as long as it takes. My father told me some of this, I had already been to UK, travelled to Scotland where l heard some good stories about the clearances and treachery inflicted on the loyal people who had been fighting invaders since Roman times.

My abbreviated story ….

Hyper activity was always in my genetics, up in the morning early at 4 years of age to help grandfather Jim call the Clydesdale horses for breakfast, trim any bits of broken hoof, tighten shoes, groom and harness for the day’s work, have

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breakfast and be off to work doing contract ploughing around Gisborne. My father was still at the War, everyone had to work very hard to keep up food production with 117,000 men overseas in the Army, many thousands in the Navy and the Airforce.

We were busy from daylight until dark with farm chores, ploughing and gathering food from the sea, swamps and rivers. We were all brown people in those days from being in the sun, life was full of fun especially when the war was being won and wounded soldiers started arriving home to families glad that they were now safe even if they were wounded. There was a celebration every time someone arrived home.

My father arrived home with his brother from North Africa in 1945, I was at the Ormond school which I hated, they hated me because I could speak Maori which was punishable with a flogging at school. I wet my pants every day building up more hatred as the days went bye. I had never been thrashed at home, I was always busy and useful, I was taught to read before I went to school, was a book worm reading the Auckland Weekly News avidly each week, grandfather would read to me each day pointing out the words as he went, then I would read a bit. Then there were the little pictures of all our dead soldiers to bring home the futility of war. We had a daily certainty, after dinner it was off to bed so that we could get up early and get ready for work. The end of the school year came which was a huge relief, you guessed it, back to work during the day with Granddad. We got all the work finished, crops sown, hay made, then it was time to get ready for Christmas, up went the tarpaulins for shade over the outside dining area under the spreading trees.

(Getting many of the records of out, whakapapa, has made some things clearer. Grandfather had a number of teamsters working for him, Joseph Goldsmith who was Lizzie’s younger brother served as a Teamster with NZ Division in France, came home and gave his next of kin as his sister Lizzie, occupation teamster, odds on are that he was the quiet man who came to work on his bi-cycle every day, didn’t talk much, had a glass of beer with granddad and pedalled off. He died in 1951 at 64 years of age. He left his wife and daughter Jean in England and I wonder if he had shell shock or was shattered by what

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he had witnessed at war. Likewise, Sam Goldsmith born 1881, died 1929 was only 48 years old, I wonder if he worked with Jim as well.)

Christmas 1945 was a great treat, a huge feast, seemed like fifty or sixty people all singing and dancing, speeches, Aunty Hana from Wairoa with her family, of course there would have been plenty of Goldsmiths, my mother’s father from Trentham Military Camp Warrant Officer 1st Class, we had an archery competition on the front lawn with big targets, haka which Granddad Jim was fierce, waiata from Aunty Hana , it went on for hours. My excitement with presents had me bursting with excitement, a little cycle of my own probably hidden away for this occasion. Christine inherited that bike in 1967 learning to ride in a matter of hours.

New Year came around quickly with the party continuing, Albert Lyle Andrew disgraced himself badly soon after causing a huge sad disruption to my life and for his parents, my grandparents, it disrupted the whole family forever which still hurts 70 years later. In a few days I will be able to say that I can put that to rest at Te Reinga where I have found my whakapapa and peace knowing that Albert Lyle Andrew saved a copy of the original picture of Lizzie Goldsmith and it is now returned to a place of honour in this house.

When I came here in 1986 I pulled up opposite the old homestead, Uncle George Nia Nia came out of the house, greeted me in the middle of the road. I was bursting with the realisation that I had been here before and had to tell him. “When he asked” January 1946 I replied, “who were you with?” My grandparents in a red open tourer motor car. “George grinned with delight, you met my parents and I was the soldier just back from the war.

George took me into the meeting house Tane and introduced me to my Grandmother and other members of the family.

For some reason I never twigged to the fact that this was my Grandmothers Marae and therefore my Marae. l was fixated on her coming from Ruatoria where Frederick Goldsmith had come ashore. l visited Ruatoria on several occasions but

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could not find the connections, a Goldsmith who jumped ship in the 1840s had married a local girl, they had a large family which my friend Walter Goldsmith is a descendant. Walter was able to tell me that Frederick William Goldsmith had landed later in the late
1850s which was about the date given by Aunty Hana Cotter.

The East Coast was a fairly comfortable place in the 1850s, The Williams family brought Christianity and valuable skills much appreciated by locals about 1810. The William [Williams] did not want to buy or steal Maori land, they were happy leasing the land, farming and sharing those skills. Trade with Australia and the Californian Coast was profitable with pickled meat, wheat, barley butter and vegetables being in the mix.

Frederick could have been involved with the Williams because later a son married a Williams. It would be interesting to find out more about life in Ruatoria or if in fact he walked down to Te Reinga, met Heni Te Rongo or if she had in fact walked to Ruatoria and taken Frederick back to meet her father Eru Te Rongo. Walking 200 miles to meet someone was fairly normal even I have to remember.

I think that Heni and Frederick had a long happy life to have stayed together for that length of time and to be buried together at Taruhere Cemetery in Gisborne. They were together for about 70 years which would have been a record in those days.

It been a beautiful task just linking this treasured information of our history together for family and friends who are so precious to me. For those that are sharing this day it will remain a beautiful occasion forever. For those who are in other places we will take your love as we continue this beautiful this journey.

Te Arohanui, a very special love to you all,

Now a proud Father, Grandfather and Great Grandfather,

Michael Kitchin

Apologies for errors of omissions, update will be coming after this hui.