I’ve previously mentioned that I had only one blood relative at Oxford Cemetery – John Phillips. However it turns out there is another: David Bell.

David was the second cousin of my great-great-grandmother – a distant relationship, to be sure. Many people – families, and singles – left Ireland to seek a new life in the colonies. David was one of the latter; first coming to New Zealand in 1907 to work in coal mining at Westport, before switching careers and becoming a Canterbury farmer in partnership with other Irish relatives who emigrated after him.

I was down at the Oxford Museum this morning. Chatting to one of the custodians, Mr. Dunlop, he mentioned a family mystery regarding his grandmother, Jane (Gillespie) Dunlop. We will write more about her in a future post; this one is about her husband and in-laws.

John Dunlop & Jane Holmes’s marriage

Jane Gillespie’s husband Robert Dunlop was born 6 January 1870 in the townland of Magherahaan, which is just outside the village of Raphoe, County Donegal, Ireland.

This is part 1 of 3 in a series about tracing Jane McNabb.

Francis & Catherine McNabb, my great-great-grandparents, came to New Zealand in 1873/4 aboard the ship Isles of the South with four children – recorded as: Jane (7), Edward (5), Catherine (3) and Mary A (5 months).

Francis & Catherine were from near the village of Drumquin, County Tyrone, Ireland. His parents were Michael McNabb & Jane Mullins, while her parents were Patrick Farnan & Catherine Percy.