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Genealogy Investigations, Wellington (2026)

24/12/2025

From Fran, Deb and Cricket as Genealogy Investigations, we wish everyone a wonderful holiday break and Happy New Year. For all of you travelling, stay safe and join us in the New Year for more stories about murder, the strange, the heroic and historic. Thank you for taking the time to read in the last year.

19/12/2025

The Christmas murder that changed New Zealand law
Captain Alfred Albert Cash was well respected. For years he had helmed the ships of the Kaipara Steamship Company which served the Dargaville-Helensville run in the timber trade for years.
Cash had been born in London in 1873, to Martin and Ann Cash who brought him to New Zealand as an infant.
In 1892 he married Charlotte Sarah Cox - called Sarah.
And for a time they were happy.
Then Cash became unwell and was forced to leave the job he loved. He had what was called then consumption - what we now call tuberculosis.
Between them Alfred and Sarah ran a 14 room boarding house in Helensville.
On Christmas Day 1910 Sarah’s family was visiting. In the late afternoon Alfred told Sarah he was going into town the next morning as she went up to their bedroom.
A short time later Sarah’s sister found her in the bedroom clutching her throat which had been cut by Alfred with a razor.
He was arrested and brought to trial where his lawyer said he was insane at the time of the murder and had not known what he was doing. Doctors were called to give evidence but did not agree on Alfred’s state of mind although they thought his slowly progressing disease was affecting his mind.
Alfred had believed Sarah was having an affair. It was in fact not the first time he had threatened to take Sarah’s life and intended to then take his own.
The jury took less than four hours to find him guilty. The judge sentenced him to death.
Within days that sentence was commuted to a life sentence.
Which would have been the end of the story if it wasn’t for a little sequel.
A few months later the Public Trust brought a case to the Supreme Court - Alfred wanted his wife’s estate.
Sarah had died intestate - without a will - and Public Trust had been asked to administer it.
In other words, should a murderer inherit his victim’s estate?
Mr Justice Frederick Revans Chapman then gave a decision that is still with us - that Cash could not benefit from the murder he himself had committed.
None of it helped Alfred who died of the disease he had suffered from for years in 1913. His last few months had been spent in a hospital.
He is buried in Waikumete Cemetery.
Sarah is buried in the Helensville Cemetery.
This is our last story of the year. We want to wish you all well, happy holidays and safe journey if you are travelling. We’ll be back in the New Year with more.
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16/12/2025

Pies, bullets and exploding cows
If all John Pomeroy was known for was his delicious pies, that would be enough. After all, we love our pies.
But in fact Pomeroy is known for bullets - exploding bullets.
Pomeroy was born in Invercargill on August 17, 1873, and was an inventor from the age of 12 when he designed a non-slip clothes prop and sold the invention to a local engineering shop.
His father was a ship’s carpenter and fish merchant and for a while he worked on his father’s fleet of trawlers before signing on with a ship to sail the world.
He came back to New Zealand, marrying Mary in 1903 but the marriage did not last long.
He began inventing again while living on his Southland farm and later when he was living in Melbourne where he married again to Amy Blom.
Among his creations were a hat fastener, a process for removing bitterness out of oranges, a headlamp dimmer and a painless rabbit trap. Some even bought in money, his elixir of life got him £25,000 in the United States of America in 1919.
Some, however, never went anywhere, one was pneumatic leg-guards for cricketers which, when tested in Melbourne, sent every fast ball to the boundary.
But the design that carried his name was for explosive bullets used in the first and second World Wars.
The first one was in 1902 was rumoured to have been used on cows as test subjects. Apparently the cow was blown to bits.
The bullet was a standard round with a copper tube warhead inserted and inside that was an explosive compound of nitro-glycerine and kieselguhr - a porous earth clay - which makes dynamite.
He got so little interest in New Zealand that later, after he had left for Australia, he submitted it to the British War office. After a slow start he was asked to develop his design and with new ammunition, proved their effectiveness against Zeppelins.
After the war the British government granted Pomeroy £25,000 in royalties and he was offered a knighthood which he refused.
By the time of the Second World War he had designed a new anti-aircraft incendiary shell but got little response.
He told it to China and then the United States.
Despite the bullet's success he really earned his income from owning hotels in Melbourne and then establishing a pie cart drawn by a white horse that became a local landmark.
Pomeroy himself let down the counter flaps each night and sold pies, pasties, coffee, steak and kidney on toast and plates of peas until early morning and was known to all as Pop.
He died of cancer on August 21, 1950 and was cremated at Springvale Botanical Cemetery.
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12/12/2025

The mail order man
Catalogues used to be all the rage. They arrived in the mail and housewives all over the country sat down with a cup of tea to look at the goods.
In some cases it was the only way to get some items and you could even buy a house by mail order.
The first mail order catalogue in New Zealand was started by Robert Laidlaw in October 1909.
Two years before he had picked up a catalogue by American company Montgomery Ward and decided it was a great idea.
He founded a company Laidlaw Leeds and created the catalogue which was then sent out to 5000 households. It included remarkable bargains like men’s denims for what would be about $7.25.
The very first order he received was for wire netting. In the first year his sales were £26,000 - over $1-million in today’s money.
Within a year he had a warehouse and a second catalogue was put out - with 280 pages.
Among the innovations he used was a money back guarantee. By 1918 he had put out ninth catalogue.
It was then the Farmers Union Trading Company made an offer to buy the catalogue and the two companies merged to become the Farmers Trading Company - which is still in business today.
Robert Alexander Crookson Laidlaw was born on September 8, 1885, to Robert and Jessie who came to New Zealand from Scotland a year later. His father started a hosiery business and then a hardware business.
He was raised Open Brethren and studied in Otago. The family moved to Auckland and Robert became a travelling salesman in Southland and Otago.
He later moved to Auckland himself where he founded his mail order catalogue business.
He married Lillian in 1915 and they went on to have three children.
The catalogue was not the only thing he did by mail order. In 1938 he founded, along with James Rowan, the Postal Sunday School Movement Bible Discovery Trust.
Rowan had done something similar but after six months they decided to merge the two operations.
PSSM was founded on the same idea of the mail order catalogue. Laidlaw used the mail order catalogue system to send 'Sunday school' lessons to children in these rural areas, thus creating the "Postal Sunday School Movement." This continued via post until 2011 when it was transferred to an email based system. At its peak, there were 9,000 subscribers in New Zealand and another 3,000 overseas. Countries served include Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Samoa.
He remained active in business and Christian work until his death in Auckland on March 12, 1971 and is buried in Purewa Cemetery.
The stories of New Zealand people: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

09/12/2025

The banned author
Books have always been banned in New Zealand. A few for good reasons but a large number were banned just because they did not fit the social ideas of the time.
It has usually also backfired - just like Whitcoulls recently refusing to sell a literary journal that then saw it become more popular than it would have been without being banned.
In 1927, Jean Devanny’s book The Butcher Shop was banned because it described marriage as a cage for women where they were s*xually, morally and economically oppressed. All things that are commonplace concepts today.
The truth was it was unflinchingly honest about the conditions some women were living in in rural New Zealand and no one wanted to think about it.
Jane Crook was born in Ferntown, near Nelson on January 7, 1894 to an alcoholic father who had emigrated from England, William, and Sarah.
She spent her childhood watching his abuse of her mother and left as soon as she could, changing her name to Jean and marrying Hal Devanny who she had met when she was 17.
Like her father, he was a miner but the difference was he was an activist for the local union.
When their first son was born he was named Karl after Karl Marx, the writer of the Communist Manifesto.
After losing a child Jean began to go with Hal to help with union work. The ideas of communism were becoming more and more common. As Jean became more active she also began writing.
She wrote about women’s issues, believing women were chained to men from the moment they married, becoming property.
Her ideas were revolutionary at the time, that r**e happened often in marriages and that women would prefer a more equal partnership and her writing included descriptions of s*x.
It was this that was part of her book The Butcher Shop which was published in London in 1926. Which was banned almost immediately and not just in New Zealand - but in Australia, Germany and some states of America.
The communist subplots were also considered “disgusting indecent communistic ideas.’
The book sold about 15,000 copies nevertheless - but was often criticised for its style and even Jean said it was terribly confused and foolish.
She did continue writing then in 1929 the family left to live in Australia.
There they tried an open marriage while still living in the same house.
Jean continued her involvement with the Communist Party - even going to jail in 1930 for four days for taking part in a communist march.
She was expelled from the Communist Party in 1941 in strange circumstances for what was called moral degeneracy and disobeying an order but was readmitted in 1944. She resigned in 1950 and moved to Queensland.
She continued writing and reconciled with her husband, dying on March 8, 1962 of leukaemia.
Jean is cremated at the Rockhampton Crematorium where there is a memorial.
The good and the bad of New Zealand: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

05/12/2025

Death by dentist
Once upon a time it was popular to remove all your teeth and get dentures.
Having one’s own teeth meant getting them treated, tooth decay and disease that came with that.
So the option was to have all your teeth removed when you were young and have dentures for the rest of your life.
At the time in the early 1900’s, dentistry was changing. New advancements were things like chairs that could be raised or lowered, x-rays and the use of laughing gas.
But it was still popular to have all your teeth removed and use dentures so you would not have huge ongoing costs. Going to the dentist was expensive!
So fair warning. If you hate going to the dentist and hate horror stories about it, this one is not for you.
So it was with Donald Keith McIndoe who was not quite 16 when he went to a dentist in May 1926.
He went into the General Hospital in Auckland to have 27 teeth removed and died after a swab was left in his throat.
Donald had been born to William and Anne in 1910. William had been born in Surrey, England and came to New Zealand where he married Anne Scarborough in 1888.
The surgeon who had put Donald under anaesthetic said he had had to give him extra oxygen during the operation. Donald had initially taken the anaesthetic well but after about six teeth had been removed he appeared to have trouble breathing. He had thought there was more blood than usual.
Dentist Stanley Stuart Hamilton told the inquest he was a fully qualified dental surgeon who had studied at Otago University and had three and a half years experience
He said a swab with tape attached to it was put in the entrance to the throat at the beginning of the operation and then put a new swab out part way through.
At the end of the operation he removed the swab.
He could not account for a swab remaining in Donald’s throat.
He said a large number of swabs had been used as there was severe bleeding from the extractions.
A house surgeon said he was called to Donald after his surgery and moved to a recovery ward. He told the coroner that it was the operating surgeons duty to remove the swabs and to count how many had been used.
Eight minutes later Donald died.
After his death he was examined and a swab was found in his throat. It was made of gauze and the size of a walnut. The doctor who removed it said it was saturated with blood.
The coroner commented that would be big enough to choke anyone
The coroner then found that Donald had died by asphyxiation by the swab on May 20, 1926 and called it careless.
Donald is buried in Purewa Cemetery.
Photo by Caroline Im.
We love stories: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

02/12/2025

The beautiful sky
There is a piece of music many of us will know - it was the last thing on TV every night but many don’t know the story behind it.
F***y Rose Howie was born on January 11,1868 to Thomas William Porter and Herewaka Porourangi Potae also known as Te Rangi-i-pāea, the eldest of their nine children.
Her mother was the daughter of Tama-i-whakanehua-i-te-rangi, a high-ranking Ngāti Porou chief and signatory to the Treaty of Waitangi and Mereana Tongia, and held high rank in Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Te Whānau-ā-Ruataupare and Ngāti Porou. From her mother, Howie would inherit the title of ariki tapairu, meaning first-born female of a family of rank.
The family lived on the East Coast where her father became mayor of Gisborne.
She attended a ladies school and received musical education. Her voice impressed other musical artists and she began training.
In 1891 she married John Howie and they settled in Nelson where she became an amateur opera singer.
Seven years later they went to Australia to study singing and toured there briefly, coming back to New Zealand and using the stage name Te Rangi Pai - the beautiful sky.
In 1901 she debuted in Liverpool - amending her stage name slightly to The Princess Te Rangi Pai.
Critics loved her and she toured performing, singing at the Royal Albert Hall. A reviewer said that Howie "has a voice of admirable power and quality, and knows exceedingly well how to use it".
She toured with other New Zealand artists and was asked to sing by Queen Alexandra.
When her brother and mother died in 1904 she returned to New Zealand intending to just visit before going on tour but became ill herself.
When her father sold some of her mother’s land there was a family dispute which she ultimately lost.
She retired from performing in 1908 and moved to Gisborne, moving to her ancestral land at Maungaroa, near Te Kaha as her health got worse.
Later in life she continued to teach singing and to compose her own original songs. She also learned to speak te reo Māori which she had not been allowed to learn as a child. She died at Ōpōtiki on May 20, 1916, and was buried under a pōhutukawa tree at Maungaroa by SH 35 marked by a headstone and plaque.
And the song we remember - is Hine E Hine - and every night an instrumental version of it was played as part of the Goodnight Kiwi TV shut down.
Stories of our history: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

28/11/2025

The German professor
The name von Zedlitz is remembered now for the tall red building at Wellington’s Victoria University Kelburn campus but once it was feared. And for no good reason.
As the First World War broke out, Kiwis became suspicious. Anyone with even a slightly foreign name came under scrutiny.
The anti-German hysteria led to businesses changing their names if there was any chance they felt aligned with anything foreign. A butcher in Whanganui called Heinold who had to be defended by the mayor because of the hatred against him.
But for George William von Zedlitz, it ruined his career.
George had been born near Neukirch in Germany on March 10, 1871 to Englishwoman, Mary Bethia Wolff, and her husband, Baron Sigismund von Zedlitz und Neukirch.
The marriage did not last and he grew up, educated in different schools in different countries before going to Trinity College in Oxford.
He taught for several years before he was appointed chair at Victoria University in 1901. He joined, speaking several languages.
He and four other professors became the foundation staff of the university. He also composed the university song.
George enjoyed teaching and New Zealand became his home, even more so when he married Alice Maud Fitzherbert, the daughter of the Lower Hutt mayor in 1905 and they settled in the Hutt Valley.
When the war broke out George went to the German consul to offer his services as a non-combatant but very shortly after Britain joined the war and he could not serve in any way. In fact, he offered his resignation to the university but was refused.
But not long after the stories started, that he had sought to fight for Germany against Britain, that he was a German agent, that he was in radio contact with Germany or with German ships. The New Zealand losses at Gallipoli aroused feelings even more. New Zealanders of German descent were dismissed from public employment.
The university council refused any attempts by the Government at dismissing George, but then the Alien Enemy Teachers Act was passed and they had no choice.
He was unable to regain a position at the end of the war and ended up started the University Tutorial School, aimed at helping students through exams.
In 1936 he was made professor emeritus at Victoria, and also elected to the Senate of the University of New Zealand, on which he served for five years.
He died in Lower Hutt on May 24,1949, shortly before Victoria University College celebrated its first 50 years.
In 1979 the building was named after him as one of the founders of the university and houses the school of languages and cultures.
He was cremated at Karori Cemetery.
Stories of New Zealand: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

25/11/2025

The New Zealand tank.
There are any number of jokes about how well equipped our military are or have been.
But once upon a time, we designed our own tank.
Well, what we really designed was uniquely Kiwi. An armoured tractor.
In the Second World War we needed military hardware. In particular we needed armoured vehicles. So in the usual Kiwi way, we adapted.
Minister for Works at the time was Bob Semple and he and Thomas Beck, a Christchurch engineer, set about designing and creating one.
There were no blueprints or formal plans. What they had was a postcard from America. One that showed a tractor-tank conversion.
It was decided that a 'tractor-tank' would be an adequate design; if the need for defence arose, a large tank superstructure could be bolted upon a tractor base within a few hours, allowing for quick transformation and deployment of the tanks.
It also needed tracks rather than wheels so the first prototype was built on a Caterpillar D8 crawler tractor. We didn’t have heavy artillery of course, so instead it was equipped with six Bren light machine guns.
When finished, the ‘tank’ was 12ft tall - making it unwieldy. And it’s armour plating - well we used corrugated iron. That’s right, a good old Kiwi tank made out of corrugated iron.
The first was built at a Temuka workshop in June 1940 for the grand cost of £5,902 by the Public Works Department who could make 81.
The intention was to disperse the hulls at locations ready in case of a Japanese invasion at which point they would be mounted on tractors for use.
But the tanks were too heavy, with not enough armour, and slow, having to stop to change gears.
They never saw combat and were eventually quietly disposed of.
Robert Semple was born in New South Wales on October 21, 1873, to John and Mary and began his working life as a gold miner at the age of nine.
After being blacklisted during a strike he moved to the West Coast and became president of a miner’s union.
He was jailed in 1913 for supporting the general strike and again in 1916 after fighting conscription for overseas service during World War I. Semple served as the President of the Labour Party from 1926 to 1928.
Semple was also a Wellington City Councillor then elected to the Wellington South Parliamentary seat.
He later won the seat of Wellington East which was later renamed Miramar.
During his time in Parliament he was the Minister of Public Works and Minister of Railways.
He did not seek re-election in 1954 and died on January 31,1955 and was cremated at Karori Cemetery.
Stories of New Zealand: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

21/11/2025

The Great White Fleet
If 16 American warships sailed into Auckland today it would look like an invasion but in 1908 it was a show of strength.
In 1907 American president Teddy Roosevelt sent the warships on a world tour.
It’s a name that would be frowned upon now, but back then, the fleet was named for stark white paint of their hulls.
It was, essentially a public relations mission, to send off the warships to visit various countries and at the same time show off America’s new naval strength.
Behind that was a secondary mission. Grumblings with Japan had been going on a long time and the tour would help familiarise American sailers with various ports. The ships were all relatively new - the first time in many years America had a fleet of any power.
The fleet arrived in Auckland with great pomp and ceremony for a six day stay.
The city had been decorated for the visit, including a a 55-foot-high triumphal arch covered in native lycopodium fern, erected over Queen Street.
It was a foggy Sunday morning when the New Zealand training ship Amokura gave a gun salute as the ships, in formation, sailed in.
Despite the early hour, some 100,000 people—10% of New Zealand’s population— lined the shores of the Waitemata Harbor and Rangitoto Channel to witness the arrival.
But as a Sunday there was little open in Auckland so it was the next day that Rear Admiral Charles Sperry, in charge of the fleet, was officially welcomed at a civic reception and a display of military power.
That evening the first state banquet ever held in New Zealand was given for the men.
The city had a fair-like atmosphere for that week, with side show-like attractions being put on.
And at night the battleships’ search lights roamed the sky.
Fourteen thousand men roamed Auckland and as far away at Rotorua and Hamilton, with trains laid on for them to see the country.
Then, on August 15, the ships took to the sea again and sailed for Sydney.
The trip had been a success - and it was at the invitation of Prime Minister Joseph Ward.
Ward had been born on April 26, 1856 in Melbourne to William and Hannah. His father died when he was four and he was raised by his mother, herself a successful businesswoman and in 1863 they moved to Bluff.
Like a lot of boys, he went to primary school but had no formal secondary school training, educating himself from books as he got a job in the Post Office.
Ward got involved in local politics early, and at 25 he become the youngest mayor in New Zealand in Campbelltown - Bluff.
In 1887 he stood for Parliament and won and from there held a variety of posts, like Post Master General, Treasurer and Minister of Railways.
He was knighted in 1901 for introducing the penny post to New Zealand.
He was sworn in as Prime Minister in 1906 after the death of Richard Seddon while in office.
Ward died in 1930 and given a state funeral before he was taken back to Bluff to be buried at the Bluff Cemetery.
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18/11/2025

The sad end of Dr Hanratty
Doctors held a position of respect in our early communities. But like everyone they are human.
Michael Hanratty’s credentials appeared to have come from Ireland and was a specialist in midwifery.
He seems to have come to New Zealand in about 1880 and began work in the Wairarapa communities. He advertised his practice widely.
But even then the seeds of his downfall were there. He often said he could be consulted at hotels rather than in medical offices.
In 1881, the first problem emerged - he was picked up by police in Wellington and ordered to be examined over his mental health.
He received a short prison sentence where the opinion was he had been drinking a bit too freely.
Hanratty went back to Featherston and resumed his practice. And for a couple of months all was well.
Then in August he was called to the bedside of a woman giving birth. The tiny baby, a boy, was born without signs of life.
Hanratty immediately asked for hot water - he covered the infant with a towel and poured the hot water over the baby which immediately began to cry. Despite being asked if the baby would have blisters he said no and the child was wrapped up and handed over to his parents.
But hours later the blisters emerged and five days later some of the flesh on the child’s legs was turning black and the child died.
Sometimes after burial the story came to the attention of the police who ordered the body exhumed.
At inquest the jury decided the scalding water had caused the death and Hanratty was arrested on a charge of manslaughter.
It was an unpopular decision - many thought Hanratty had done his best and should not have been charged.
In the end he was acquitted and again returned to practise, with the fall out being many newspaper articles railing against what was called an unfair prosecution.
But less than a year later Hanratty is back in the papers for drunkenness. And that was to continue for several years with charges like drunk in charge of a horse, drunk and abusive language until in 1891 a prohibition order was made against him which would make it an offence for him to buy alcohol.
He received a variety of short prison sentences, some for vagrancy, but all came back to drinking.
By 1894 he was thrown out of a hotel for demanding a drink, literally thrown out, so that he broke a leg and ended up confined in a hospital.
He continued to practise sometimes but finally and sadly in 1906 he was found wandering the streets of Wellington on August 21 looking for somewhere to stay. He was put in a home but would wander away and ended up in prison for vagrancy.
Hanratty died on September 8 having been taken from the prison to hospital, his years of drinking having caught up with him. He was believed to be about 70 years old.
He is buried in Karori cemetery.
Picture by Felipe Ponce.
Everyday stories: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

14/11/2025

Death by water jug
Falls in the home often caused death, but even by usual standards the death of Samuel Osborne was odd.
Osborne had been born on May 1, 1862, in Queensland, Australia. But by the time he died in 1902 he was living with his wife Augusta in Greymouth.
At one time he had been well known in racing circles but at the age of 40 he was working odd jobs on the Greymouth wharf and living near his brother George.
The night before he died he had been at the Opera House and had been drunk enough to be tossed out when he disturbed the play.
The man who had been with him, Robert McTaggert got him home but did not see him again until 11.30pm when he went to Samuel’s home and found him on the kitchen floor groaning and with blood all around him.
McTaggert called another man, Felix Campbell, to get a doctor.
Campbell found a doctor and told him of the accident but did not ask him to come.
He found another doctor who told them to bring him to the surgery.
By the time a third doctor William McKay came to the house at 1am it was too late. By then Samuel was lying with his head on a pillow and quite dead.
The doctor found that there was a large wound to his head under his right ear and extending around in a horizontal line. It was also deep, going to the base of the skull.
He told an inquest that several arteries had been severed and the wound was sufficient to cause death from blood loss in a short time.
Neither of Samuel’s friends had thought it was that serious. The doctor said with immediate attention Samuel’s life could have been saved if someone had got to him in 40 minutes or so.
What had caused the wound was a water jug. He had apparently fallen on it. It was found beneath Samuel and the doctor found a chip fromthe jug in the wound.
The coroner said it was unfortunate the two witnesses had not told the doctors just how serious the case was, that Samuel could not walk and was dangerously hurt.
The jury returned after a brief deliberation and found that Samuel Osborne had died because of bleeding from a wound caused when he fell on the water jug.
A funeral call went out to the Greymouth Labourers industrial Union to accompany Samuel to his grave. The cortege lined the streets and he was finally laid to rest.
Samuel had been 43, and is buried in the Karoro Cemetery.
New Zealand stories: https://genealogyinvestigations.co.nz/index.html

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