Talk:Jessie Yvonne Hazel Copeland/@comment-120.136.4.67-20130403024038/@comment-4013722-20140115145730

Hi. Sorry that my response has been so delayed - I have just found the notification of your comment as I was clearing out email from the account that this wiki is attached to.

I know very little of the Prestons. Grandma had a sister Harriet who I remember visiting in Manaia, Taranaki twice as a child. And I remember my mother's cousin Olive on that side, who I met once or twice at my aunt's place in New Plymouth in my teens. There was a lady called Mrs Theobald who lived near us in Waitara, and was a cousin of Mum's,but I don't know whether she was on the Preston or Adlam side.

I'm puzzled over the names and dates you give, though. I didn't know Grandma's mother's first or maiden name, but my understanding was that she died when Grandma (born in 1885) was a child, and James Preston remarried - a lady with the surname Percival. Grandma was very attached to her stepmother. According to the accounts of my aunts and uncles, Grandma was sometimes punished by being sent to bed without her dinner, her stepmother would sneak food in to her, and if Great-grandad found out, he would beat the stepmother. If Rachel was Grandma's original mother, it would imply that there was a divorce, rather than a death, and Rachel must have left in the late 1880s or 1890s. I find the idea of a divorce surprising, as Great-grandad was a Baptist, and in some sense devout, though he hardly seems to have been a Christian in his treatment of his family (which would account for Rachel's leaving). I had - still have, I think - an old bible of his, with all but the first six verses of the Song of Solomon torn out of it. I also have an old Anglican prayer book that belonged to his second wife.

I remember my Uncle Bill (born 1905) telling me that Grandma used to travel up to Auckland on her own quite a lot when he was a child, to the extent that he felt he and the other children were neglected, and Mum (born 1927) talked of her mother going away from time to time. Possibly, in the light of your information, the trips were originally to see her mother, but continued after her mother died - either to see other family, or perhaps she just liked Auckland.

Anyway - I don't know if you'll see this, as you've posted anonymously, but many thanks for getting in  touch!

Cheers

Neil Copeland