The story so far begins with Thomas and Jane Heeley (note spelling) in Sheffield. With Sheffield being the home of British cutlery, it's not entirely surprising to find that Thomas was a springknife maker, the occupation stated on George's marriage certificate. Thomas and Jane had three sons; George, William and Joseph. All are listed in the 1851 census for Sheffield. Thomas is also Ten years later. the 1861 census shows Jane with the two younger sons. A Thomas of matching age appears as a lodger at another address, so it's possible he and Jane divorced sometime in the previous 10 years, although it could be that Thomas was absent. George is missing in 1861 because he was in London at that time, living in Hackney and working as a teacher, according to the 1861 census. He is my great grandfather; born 3 February 1833 in Sheffield.

Nothing is presently known about George's early life, but he was a teacher. A George Healey is listed as a schoolmaster in White's Sheffield Directory of 1857, and living in Rock Street. George attended London University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Homerton College in 1867. He had apparently also been teaching at Homerton as an undergraduate, because as noted above, there is a record of him aged 28 being a teacher there. His address was recorded as Tower Hamlets, a London Borough. Somewhere along the way he met Mary Roallons Blandford from Poole, and they married in Bath (not in the bath... the city of Bath in Somerset...) in December 1863. They didn't waste much time getting on with the family, and their first child George Blandford was born in October 1864 in Stainland, West Yorkshire. This implies that he married and started a family in the middle of his degree studies, even moving back north. Perhaps he left Mary in Stainland while he continued his studies in London. Whatever the case, the second child Mary Ethel Roallons, was born in Stainland in 1867, and the third child, Robert Harry, was born in Manchester in 1869, indicating that the family had moved.

The 1871 census has the family living in Hexham, Northumberland. The address given is Quatre Bras, which is an odd sounding place for England. It is the name of a village in southern Belgium where, in June 1815, it was the scene of some heavy fighting in the early stages of the Battle of Waterloo, and this is no doubt where the name came from. It was a stone-built terrace of houses just outside the main, built-up part of Hexham, to the northeast, although it has since been swallowed up by urban spread. Listed at the address are:

Two further children were born in Hexham; Alice Rose in 1874, and Muriel Edith in 1876. Muriel died in infancy, and Alice the following year, on April 11, 1877. Perhaps this was the reason behind the decision to emigrate. The mortality rate for children was high and many British people chose to head off to the colonies to give their families better opportunities. As with any immigrants, it would have been a huge upheaval, leaving family and friends to travel by sailing ship to the far side of the world. A decision to taken lightly.

George senior died in 1912 aged 79. His estate was valued at under £4200, and according to the probate document, was left to Tom Roallons Blandford, gentleman of Auckland and George Blandford Healey of Fielding, both of whom were executors of his will. Mary was granted furniture, plate, plated goods, linen, glass, china and other household goods. Also money, credits etc. From this, it looks as though the actual property in Arch Hill went to the eldest son George and Tom Blandford (Mary's brother), and the contents of the house to Mary, except for his books which were divided amongst his children. On the document, Tom's signature is very shaky, which suggests he may have been elderly. Dad recalls visiting the house in Home Street as a small child, but he cannot remember who was living there. It would seem that it was still in the family though. Tom Blandford was a teacher at Otahuhu College.

A primary source of leads in the search for history was the Healey family bible owned by George and Mary. This is a "Lord Wharton" bible. Some bloke called Lord Wharton established a charity in the 17th century and left a load of money when he died, to be used to produce and distribute bibles to young people from Anglican and non-conformist churches, and the Healey's had one of these. This charity is still operating today. Inside the back cover, the names and birthdates of George & Mary's children have been written. Take a look here.

Back to NZ now and on with my direct line, via my grandfather Arthur (Nickname "Hicks".).

Arthur and Clara set up house in Home Street, Arch Hill, building a house on the empty section next to Arthur's parents. Arthur and Clara's children were all born while they lived in Auckland, where Arthur worked for the city council laying concrete. Their first child Constance Alice (Connie) was born June 12, 1916. A second daughter Ethel Madge was born March 7, 1918. Dad came along on March 3, 1921. Named Ernest Caleb after his uncle and maternal grandfather, he particularly disliked his middle name.

The family returned to Waiuku when Ernie was just six weeks old, moving into a house on Collingwood Road. Tragedy struck the family in January 1922 when Connie died from diphtheria at age five and a half. Clara herself was very sick due to having nursed Connie and the other kids were sent to stay with relatives while she recovered in hospital. Losing Connie made Clara very protective of Madge and Ernie, and she never really got over it.

There wasn't a lot of money coming into the house. Arthur worked a various jobs, including concreting and orchard work, and they made a little extra selling plants they had grown.

Like her parents, Clara was an avowed Methodist, and she maintained a very close connection to the church throughout her life, although she did not impose her views on others. She even sang hymns while doing the dishes and the housework. Favourites were "Abide with Me" and "Glory Glory Hallelujah". When things went wrong she would always say "goodness gracious me!" Interestingly, Arthur did not share Clara's affection for the church, and I wonder how that would have gone down with his in-laws, who took their faith very seriously. Perhaps the reason for the long engagement was them trying to get him to come around to their thinking before he carried off their daughter. In later years Clara was very involved with the Country Women’s Institute and the Church Guild.

The eldest son, George Blandford came out to NZ with his parents at the age of 12. He would in fact have had his 13th birthday during the voyage. In order to confuse those tracing the tree married yet another Mary. Mary Rutherford was a local girl in Fielding where George worked as a saddler. They had two children; Clarrie (who disliked his name and used his nickname Pete), and Muriel. Pete was a real hard case, who later in life went on to marry Hilda Baigient, a nurse from Nelson, but they had no children of their own. There are stories of family visits where Pete upset Clara by using the term "away to blazes". Shocking! We also visited them when I was quite young, and famously commented on the meat being tough at dinner. Hilda was a talented painter in both water colours and oils.

Muriel married Frank Whitehead, and they had one daughter Kathleen, who continues to reside in Fielding.

George was not a well man, and suffered from what was at the time called "creeping paralysis", or in modern terms, Multiple Sclerosis (MS). George died in 1925, aged 60, after a long period being nursed by his wife.

Mary Ellen Healey nee Rutherford

Eldest daughter Mary Ethel Roallons also came out on the Otaki, and she would have been 10 years old. Mary never married and eventually lived in St Heliers, in Auckland. She died in 1929. Rumour has it that she was a bit of an old bat.

Mary Ethel Roallons Healey

Second son Robert Harry was the last of the children to come out to NZ, the two youngest having died in infancy. What became of Robert is not known. He died in 1887, cause unknown, aged 18.

The first child of George and Mary to be born in NZ was Ernest, in Waiuku in 1879. Nothing is known about his early life, but he went on be a pharmacist and had a pharmacy in Foxton for many years. He initially bought out the pharmacy of a W.Hamer in 1903, and from 1906 the premises were also used as consulting rooms for Dr. Charles Mandl. Business must have been good because Ernest bought and moved into a new building on Main St in 1908. This building was destroyed in what was called "the great fire" on June 2, 1912. After rebuilding, it appears that Ernest stayed in Foxton until moving to Wellington during the 1920's. Early in his career he had invented a treatment for varicose ulcers, and this was registered as "Varex" Ointment. His advertisements appeared in newspapers like the Evening News and NZ Truth at least as early as 1919. He was shown in the adverts as "Ernest Healey, Chemist, Foxton" until things changed and a 1928 advert has him as "ERNEST HEALEY, VAREX LTD." with a Wellington address. Interestingly, Ernest found another use for his Varex ointment, and that was to treat horses with "swollen and inflamed tendons, weak ligaments and enlarged joints" as stated in another advertisement in NZ Truth in 1928.

Ernest continued to own the building in Foxton until 1952. He was married to Florence (Flo) Crane and they had two children, Eric and Robert, both born in Palmerston North in 1905 and 1911 respectively. The family moved to Australia in the early 1930's and settled in the up-market suburb of Rose Bay in Sydney. Ernest set up his business at 502A George Street as shown in a January 1934 advertisement.

There is a story that during World War II a Japanese submarine sneaked into Sydney Harbour, surfaced and fired a shell that passed over their house. Dad visited his cousins in 1945 after the war, on the way back to NZ. Bob had married Dorothy Edna Dunkerleyand they had two daughters, Anne and Susan. Anne had a sailor doll and Dad clearly remembers that when was with them, she commented that now she had a real sailor. Bob was an optometrist and both he and Dorothy were thought to be rather aloof. Eric was an electrician. He had married Madeline Dorothy Nielson and these two were pretty hard case. Madeline would call a spade a spade according to Mum, and used to go out shooting kangaroos. They had no children, and were reminded often that having no sons would spell the end of the Healey line.

Eric and Madeline

In 1950 on one of his visits back to Waiuku, Ernest commented to the local paper about how backward Waiuku had become and this was printed in the October 27 issue. The article says that he had left Waiuku at four years of age, but this is clearly a mistake.

Moving ahead to more current times, in 2009 I had a call out of the blue from Anne in Australia. We had a good catch up and I also got a lead on Kathleen Whitehead in Fielding so I gave her a call - also out of the blue. She had old family photos I had never seen and posted scanned copies of some to me. A number have been used on this page. In August 2010 Anne and her second husband Don Edge called at Auckland for a few hours near the end of a world cruise. I got in touch with Kathleen and she came up on the 30th. The next day we went into town and met up with Anne & Don for lunch at Sky City. It was amazing that here I was at age 56, meeting two Healey relations for the first time - both second cousins.

I guess this is indicitive of how good my lot are at keeping in touch with the rellies.

L - R: Jenny, me, Anne, Kathleen, Don

Captain Thomas Blandford

Anyway, here is a bit of information from the 1841 census on two Blandford households in Longfleet Road, Poole, as well as a Roallons household in Wimbourne Road. The two roads are close together and are in the Poole St James parish.

Although the data is somewhat scarce, it is tempting to draw some conclusions. The Mary Blandford  at 156 Longfleet Rd is described as wife of mariner. At time of census he could have been at sea, and hence not been counted at the residence. This Mary may have been George's younger sister. Families usually lived very close to one another.

Mary Roallons at 156 could be the mother of Mary Blandford  at 156. (With mother in law living with them, it's no wonder her husband spent so long at sea!). Mary Roallons could also be the mother in law of Ann Roallons who lives on Wimbourne Rd and is also wife of mariner, bearing in mind that Roallons is (and was) an uncommon name. The two families are definitely connected. Perhaps the husbands of Mary from 156 and Ann were shipmates. Both seem to have been absent at the time of the census. One thing is clear, and that is the fact that a number of the Roallons were seafarers.

There was a Mary Roallons listed in the 1851 census living in Poole (address illegible). She was shown as a widow and annuitant aged 68, which would tie in with a birth recorded in "about" 1783. It would however mean a 3 year discrepancy with the Mary Roallons shown above, living at 156 Longfleet Rd. This could simply be an error in the recording. A contact in the UK has provided information that a John Roallons, Master Mariner of Poole (married to Mary) died at sea in 1834. This could be why Mary is living with Mary Blandford's family, Mary Blandford perhaps being her daughter.

Again, we see an almost obsessive use of the name Mary, which appears frequently within the Blandford and Roallons families, and this makes it difficult to sort out who's who.

Another bit of info that came to light was a sea captain named Roallons who sailed the brig "Nemesis" from Poole to Newfoundland sailing on 24 March 1831 and arriving 16 April. He reported “no ice”. Another account has a Captain Roallons of the ship "Eagle" reporting rocks on his voyage from Hamburg to Newfoundland. By coincidence or design, there is in fact a Port Blandford in Newfoundland. The plot thickens.