Monday, October 5, 2015

The Tucker New Zealand and Australian Family

I am still doing research on the English Tuckers. While I was doing research for my paper on my Great Great Grand Uncle William Tucker, I made contact with a cousin whose family had immigrated to New Zealand in 1877 He was a descendant of the grandchild (Mary Ann Emily) of my Great Great Grand Uncle Job Tucker. He contacted another descendant of the other grandchild (Florence Grace) who was part of the family that had moved to Australia.

I just finished doing a USB drive for the Australian cousin and am trying to finish Family Group Sheets for her to use to track everyone. The two granddaughters of Job were abandoned by their father Job Jr. and their mother Emily Hampton Tucker. The couple with the two youngest children Percival and Herbert disappeared off the face of the Earth. Not one of the four has ever been found anywhere.

Her grandmother, Florence Grace Tucker, was born at Church Street, Godalming, Guildford, Surrey, England in 1873 and so was just three years old when she traveled to New Zealand. Their way was paid as part of a movement to bring settlers to New Zealand. Job Jr. had worked as a laborer and most probably knew nothing of farming. It is believed that he gave up farming at the time he disappeared.

The family story is that the sisters were found abandoned at the Marton Railway Station some time after Herbert was born in May 1878 and before September 1879. Neither girl spoke much about their parents and there seemed to be a lot of resentment. During times of hardship it was not unusual for other families to take in children who were not their own so it might have been that and not abandonment. The fact remains though that there are no records anywhere for Job, Emily, Percival, and Herbert after that time.