Worgan (Parish Records)

by jhopkins , Sunday, June 08, 2014, 22:53 (3821 days ago) @ IanMcIntosh

Hi Ian - a reply from NZ for you. My GGfather's sister married one John Holder Worgan, and they emigrated together to NZ as follows:

Extract from the passenger list of the ship: MATOAKA
1092 ton vessel
Bristol (2 Sep 1860) to Lyttelton (2 Dec 1860)

HOPKINS William 25 Miner (my great grandfather)
HOPKINS Sarah Ann 23 (my great grandmother)
WORGAN John Holder 25 Shepherd
WORGAN Jenatta 32 (misspelling of Janetta – sister to William Hopkins)
WORGAN Mary Elizabeth 4
WORGAN Frances Emma 3
WORGAN Julia Jenatta 3mths (died on voyage)
Janetta died in Lyttelton 29 Nov 1863 (puerperal peritonitis) Note: age at death is given as 37 on the NZ Return of Deaths record, but it should be 36. Her age on voyage was 33, not 32).

My father never mentioned the Worgan family, so either he didn't know about them, or my side of the family had lost touch some time after Janetta's death. It seems odd that Janetta had never left Lyttelton, which was the main port in Canterbury. There was an immigrant camp there. I cannot imagine that there was any shepherding work there for her husband. The rest of the five Hopkins children who emigrated to NZ from the Forest from 1860 to 1862 all settled in North Canterbury, which in those days would have been a difficult journey to and from Lyttelton, so there may have been limited contact with Janetta.

There are other connections between the Worgan and Hopkins families so they must have lived close to each other in the St Briavels parish.

Best wishes on your search. John