It was a sunny day

I remember sitting in the sun on the verandah at Nana & Grandad's farm at Arahura with Mum. It must have been the late 1970's and she was just starting to look into the family tree.

She was showing me a page from the Cyclopedia of New Zealand about Edmund Thorn (a name that meant nothing at the time) along with a collection of letters. These letters were typed from the original letters that Edmund, his wife Anna Maria and his brother Ernest had sent home from New Zealand to Devon, England. A descendant of the English recipients had inherited them and had made contact with my great aunt (there will be more about this later).

It was from this collection that I started my addiction/passion for family history... thanks to Edmund Thorn.

This is my attempt to share some of my research with the rest of the family... the postcards of our past.