a family story

My mother Cathie was named after her grandmother Catherine Robertson, one of a family of McKenzies who migrated to New Zealand from the West Coast of Scotland in the 1870s and settled first around the Manawatu and Hawkes Bay and then further afield including Ngarua in the Waikato.

When my mother retired she began to do further research and writing on the story of Alexander and Ann Mckenzie from Achindrean. She had on her travels visited the now empty spaces north of Ullapool where they came from and her work with her cousin Barbara uncovering forgotten gravestones around New Zealand drew in others for a remarkable family reunion held in Feilding in January 1990. One publication which did get completed for the reunion was a cook book of recipes from members of the family. There are still copies available if anyone would like one.

For years after the reunion colour coded draft sections of "The Book"  were lent out to different members of the family. A partial publication was made of the early section and Roderick's story for the dedication of Roderick and Margaret's gravestone in Waipukerau in 2002. However the whole project was never quite complete and it quickly became a story in itself. We talked about it regularly; photos were looked at and their stories turned over as the memories of Mum's childhood and the characters in her history were recalled. I began to realise how much they revealed of her own attitudes through a remarkable and adventurous life.

The Book was still on the verge of completion when Cathie died in November 2007 and its multiple versions, extensive documentation and boxes of photos and letters are still very much with me as an extraordinary family archive. Some documents Mum should probably never have had, like early minute books of the Ngarua School Committee. They at least are now in Auckland archives and other material will follow in due course.

As we eventually realised failure to complete is a problem common with family histories as the story keeps expanding with the passage of time.  Mum became the centre of a network of people she had connected with and her interest in each one, old and young, never faltered. It was difficult not to want to hold on to it all.

In order to at length make the book available in more or less its original scope I have decided not to take the story past the death of Nan Bell in 1994. Puting Cathie's work on this website means it will be possible to add more photos and to perhaps make a pdf copy of the book as originally conceived, but that will come later. Other parts of this website will tell more of the Matthews side of Cathie's heritage and also the story of her husband Bill which she also researched.

My hope is that Cathie's labour of love in bringing people together will continue for other generations. Also that by making the story available in this form the work of all those many people, friends as well as relatives, who supported this project and encouraged Cathie in it will in part at least be acknowledged.

If there are questions or comments please email me on john@roxborogh.com . 

John

John Roxborogh