Winters Family

Good evening Hugh.

I was browsing Herts looking for an ancestor of mine who left sometime about 1874 and settled in New Zealand. Soloman Winters of Pukehou.
Soloman married and Amelia Empson and moved to NZ they raised their children who were all born in NZ. The second eldest daughter Margaret is/was my grandmother Margret Cullen nee Winters. Are we related and what info do you have on the English connection. I have a hypothetical line from LDS but it is not confirmed.

I do know the Winters came to NZ on the Bebington. Whether they landed at Napier or Wellington I have yet to find out. I have all the Cullen line from 1899 when Margret married Charles Henry Cullen. I have memories of Charles. And was present at Margaret’s funeral service in Napier in 1974

My name. Gordon Sylvester

My mother was Alma Joyce Cullen; Margaret’s youngest daughter.

I live on the West Coast my phone number is 03 736 9930
email southcol

Regards
Gordon

This is not very likely to work. This is too late for bastardy bonds to apply (after 1834).  There is also confusion over the source of poor relief – it was (pre 1834) dealt out by the Overseers of the Poor, not the church or vestry.  The Overseers handled allowances for single mothers/their babies, collected from the father.
After 1834, ordinary poor relief came (ultimately) from the Board of Guardians of the Union of parishes, and was physically paid over by the Relieving  officer. But this did not usually apply in filiation cases. There possibly could be a record of the birth in a workhouse. Not many Workhouse records for the Unions exist in the early years.

In any case, maintenance had to be applied for from the Petty sessions, so by far the best source is newspaper reports of the proceedings of magistrates, which could well name the father. The court proceeding should be reported in the local newspaper within about 3 weeks of the child’s birth – assuming that the father was not careful and generous enough to pay up a lump sum without prompting, thus keeping his name out of court. If he paid something on account, or promised to pay and stopped doing so after a while, then there could be a filiation case later, even after a matter of a couple of years.

rptsearchresults Winters

This is a database of Winters Family in Te Kopuru New Zealand.

Dear Hugh,

I am currently engaged in Winter(s) family genealogical research and I’m seeking information on my late g/uncle Nathaniel Alfred Winter (1861-1942). He was born in Co. Limerick, Ireland, the son of William Winter and Jane Gardiner (later resident in Co. Cork). He emigrated to New Zealand in 1910, at 49 years of age. He was a teacher by profession and later took up journalism and owned or edited the Taumarunui Press. I think he lived initially in Auckland but about 1913 he published book entitled The King Country. On his retirement he took up sheep farming and had an island which he appropriately named "Winter Island". He passed away in 1942 at the age of 81.

My local research here in Ireland (with the help of my fourth cousin in NSW) has brought me back to the marriage of my g/g/g grandparents c.1794. In Ireland, the surname of Winter(s) is quite rare (or so I thought!) but in the course of my search I have uncovered a lot more Winter(s) families in Co’s Cork and Limerick than I had bargained for. I am acquainted with most of my relatives of that name but there are numerous Winters about that I cannot establish any connection with. Moreover, almost every Winter(s) family has Williams, Edwards, Johns and Janes, with a few Samuels thrown in for good measure.

My g/g/g grandfather was from mid-west Co. Limerick but the name occurs with considerable frequency in east and west Limerick and north Co. Cork. So, I’m wondering if it’s possible that we all have a common origin.

But for now, while I do not wish to cause you any inconvenience, I would greatly appreciate any information on g/uncle Nath and on his work and career and particularly on his family and decendants. If such information is readily available from your sources, I would be glad to hear from you.

Yours Sincerely,

Edward J. Winter,
Cork, Ireland.