Watkins - male (electrician?) emigrated to NZ abt or aft1890 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Wednesday, October 31, 2012, 14:54 (4412 days ago) @ Lorri

Hi Lorri,
welcome to this friendly forum, despite your understandable reservations (we've all been there) I'm confident members will try and help you if we can. However clearly your query isn't a simple one... so please can you clarify a few more points to help us to help you.

1. Why this forum ?. Yes the Forest of Dean does contain several Watkins links and yes we are near to, but not within, Wales, but is there by any chance more to it ?. Are you aware of any more perhaps substantial links to this area, eg place names in your family history, records etc etc ? I have some thoughts of my own in this respect but it can only be helpful to know yours too.

2. Where have you previously searched ?. Have you searched this site's PRs ?
Have you checked the subscription websites eg Ancestry, or the free Church of Latterday Saints(Family search) site ?. I suspect shipping passenger lists could be a key starting point, have you searched there ?. In this respect do you know which is the most likely port of arrival into New Zealand for your ancestor?.
This is to reduce possible duplication of effort here.

3. Do you know, or can you find out, the names of the engineering companies who were involved in the electrification of the Auckland trams, hopefully? British companies ?. Perhaps there is a tram museum or website with history info on ?.
Starter: from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_New_Zealand
"Auckland City had horse trams from 1884, and the electric trams was officially opened on 17 November 1902 - public service was delayed because the motormen from Sydney, Australia, were involved in the SS Elingamite shipwreck. Public service commenced a week later, on 2 November 1902, and continued to 29 December 1956. With services running from downtown at the Waitemata Harbour, across to Onehunga on the Manukau Harbour, meant Auckland had the worlds' only 'coast to coast' tramway system. They were replaced by trolleybuses and buses."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Queen_Street_Lower_Auckland.jpg
http://www.aucklandtram.co.nz/auckland-tram-history briefly mentions rolling stock being supplied from Australia, doesn't mention the trackwork etc.

I have very limited local knowledge/geography wrt NZ placenames, if you could please study this and similar sites for clues relevant to the Auckland trams that may well be useful.

4. Have you searched old Auckland newspapers etc for details of the Drowning, I would have thought it would be reported at the time, this might give other names etc that may help ?.

5. Re Ivy Watkins b1895, do you have any clues preferably with approximate dates as to her later life and residence, whether in NZ or GB ? I presume she was resident in NZ before her child Beryl's birth in 1920, but I don't think you give any more clues ?. (Apologies if I'm missing the wood for the trees!).

eg Do you know if she was in NZ when her father drowned ? (wrt UK 1911 Census searches).

6. Finally, for now, re the Bruce part of name, I strongly suspect this reflects the father's name in some way, ie he could quite easily have been a Bruce Watkins.

WRT the WATKINS name, I know a little about the Dean company Watkins Engineering which may possibly be related to your ancestor, indeed this site's founder was Dave Watkins who sadly passed away recently after many years living in Australia, so there are possible Dean links; was this part of your thinking wrt your posting on this forum ??
see prior thread:
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=1829
I havent studied this thread in detail (yet), but I have searched this forum for Bruce Watkins without success.

Sorry for just questions not answers (yet!), but as I'm sure you realise this query is a difficult one, my spare time today is sadly minimal altho there are of course many other likely contributors many better than me, and this forum is dedicated to the Forest of Dean Gloucestershire, England, see http://www.forest-of-dean.net/

Thanks again for your query Lorrie, looking forward to your reply, Jeff.