Family History in New Zealand If you are a DEBOO and a beginner genealogist, we're sure you'll have a head start in getting to where you want to be via direct contact with the helpful folks listed in our DEBOO Addresses Section and via the other information provided in this Issue of our De Bootje Gazette. For help or advice closer to home, try the Family History page at the NZ Research Library - www.manukau-libraries.govt.nz and the NZ Society of Genealogists - www.genealogy.org.nz - RFD
Military Service Records There are several good websites for looking up military history and service records for citizens of New Zealand. The New Zealand Defence Force controls access to Personnel Archives (eg, for service records during WWI and WW II). Information about access to the files is found at: www.nzdf.mil.nz/medals-and-personnel-records/index.html. Information about military service 1845-1913 is held at Archives New Zealand. For details, lease visit: www.archives.govt.nz/holdings/military_service.html. Another website of potential interest and offering NZ genealogy-military links is: www.genealogylinks.net/newzealand/nzmilitary.htm. I did not find reference to DEBOO during my brief and hurried visits to these sites. - RFD
The New Zealand Connection to Holme We are very glad to know that we have Lynette Leslie at Reefton and her Dad, Ian Noel De Boo of Blenheim, as our distant "Kiwi Cousins." They, like others from England, Canada, and Australia, can claim common ground at the Fens village of Holme in Cambridgeshire. Lynette's contribution to Issue 4 (retained below) summarizes their Fens heritage via her great-grandfather John who was baptized there circa 1816.
St. Giles Parish Church at Holme, Cambridgeshire, England Several other contributors to the Gazette share this English family point of origin, notably the ancestors of all of our known Australian namesakes, David Horwill, David Warn, and Rob Deboo-Jones of England, and myself (Canada). However, our knowledge of the Deboo folks of Holme is a bit murky at this time, and I believe we need some special effort to confirm historic relationships to ancestors living there in the 18th - early 19th C. For now, the route for New Zealand De Boo immigrants is Holme (Fens) to Poplar (East London) to northern Tasmania to South Island, NZ.
Our New Zealand Family My granddad, Albert Edward De Boo, was the sixth child of James and Sarah Ann De Boo (nee Moore). James, born in 1847, and Sarah Ann, born in 1859, was married on 20 April 1881. James (1847-1908) was a cousin of Ephraim William Deboo from whom many of the Australian namesakes are descended. James was also born at Poplar (East London), England. He was baptised on 11 April 1847 at All Saints Church, the son of John and Elizabeth Deboo. John, a carpenter, and Elizabeth had at least thirteen children, two of whom died in infancy. John Deboo (my great-grandfather) was born around 1816. He was taken by his parents to Holme (a village near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire) to be baptised. He married Elizabeth Cole on 18 November 1837 at St Catherine Cree Church, London. It seems he emigrated about the same time as his cousin Ephraim William. Ephraim went out to Australia in 1875 and married out there in 1879, two years before James married Sarah Moore. This would seem very much to give the impression that all DEBOO immigrants to Australia – and later to New Zealand – can trace their ancestry back to William and Mary Ann Deboo, with their daughter Emma going to Australia first, then their grandchildren, Ephraim and James. James and Sarah Ann had seven children: 1. John James Villiers, born 20 August 1882 at Ringarooma; married
Daisy _____ (?) James was a miner in partnership with a Mr McCarthy when he died as a result of a mining accident on or about 16 December 1908. Sarah remarried in 1915 to Charles James Warren. Now, about ourselves (Lynette and Ken Leslie)… We have recently purchased a second dairy farm, next door to our present farm. This gives us 260 hectares (650 acres) of milking land. At present, we are milking 280 cows on the home farm and 340 cows on the second farm. The new farm still has considerable potential, and we expect to milk 800 cows between both farms in four years time. Our son Mathew is Herd Manager on the second farm, and we employ two other staff plus Ken and myself. The home herd is composed of Jerseys and Ayreshires, the number two herd is a Holstein-Fresian and Jersey cross. Our farms are situated in the picturesque Inangahua Valley 12 kms north of Reefton amongst native bush-clad hills. Reefton is a small town of 900 people 80 kms inland from Greymouth on the Lewis Pass Highway to Christchurch. Our milk is transported 150 kms south of Greymouth for processing into milk powder.
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