Carolbea on Family Tree Circles

Searching for a photograph of the house "AVERLEY".

The ATKINSON's of Ballykelly, Londonderry, Ireland lived in a house called "AVERLEY". It has been described as a beautiful large home in the main street of Ballykelly. The property stood there until 2001 when it was sold to a company called Nicholl Fuels and the site is now one for petrol station.

I am looking for a photograph of the house and also interested in how the house was named?

I am looking for information in relation to the family of Anne STARRETT who married William BOLTON ( born abt 1814)in the Londonderry region.
They lived at either Lismoyle of Ballynian in the Bann Valley region.Anne STARRETT was the daughter of Stewart STARRET of Lismoyle and Jane WALKER of Timaconway, Ireland.
The had a family of six:
possibly a child called Margeret
son JOHN BOLTON( 1851- 1941 ) married Mary Ann BLOOMFIELD who stayed on Lismoyle farm Ireland
sons JOSEPH, WILLIAM and HUGH BOLTON moved to Glasgow Scotland to work in the Singer Factory some time between before 1877.
daughetr ANN MARGERET BOLTON who married 1st Alexander GILMORE and later WILLIE ( WILLIAM JAMES) BOLTON.

I am looking for information in relation to the family of Anne STARRETT who married William BOLTON ( born abt 1814)in the Londonderry region.
They lived at either Lismoyle of Ballynian in the Bann Valley region.Anne STARRETT was the daughter of Stewart STARRET of Lismoyle and Jane WALKER of Timaconway, Ireland.
The had a family of six:
possibly a child called Margeret
son JOHN BOLTON( 1851- 1941 ) married Mary Ann BLOOMFIELD who stayed on Lismoyle farm Ireland
sons JOSEPH, WILLIAM and HUGH BOLTON moved to Glasgow Scotland to work in the Singer Factory some time between before 1877.
daughetr ANN MARGERET BOLTON who married 1st Alexander GILMORE and later WILLIE ( WILLIAM JAMES) BOLTON.

Charles Robert Whyte was born 7 June,1889, son of George Whyte and Hannah nee Cherry and they lived in the Cust area of Canterbury in New Zealand. Charles Robert Whyte had 13 other brothers and sisters and later a step- sister. After George's death Hannah remarried widower William BROWN and they moved to the Taranaki area finally settling in Straford. Some of the older children of George and Hannah stayed in the South Island and others came north about 1903- 1904. The family separated throughout New Zealand and it was not until researching the family that we became away that there was such a large family.

Until recently I had not been able to find any further information on Charles Robert WHYTE execept that he had attended school in Cust, Canterbury, New Zealand Recently I found information in Taranaki Puke Ariki records that a Charles Robert WHYTE had been a member of the 11th Taranaki Rifles from 1905- 1907. He is identified as being a groom. It would appear from this that it is possible that he mayhave come North with his Mother and siblings.

My grandfather and another brother were Mounted Riflemen with the New Zealand forces during WW1. Most of the brothers who came up to Stratford saw action in either of the two wars. Family verbal history states that there may have been a brother killed at Gallopi but searches to date do not confirm this. While a Charles Robert WHYTE was killed at Gallipoli this is not our family member. His step-sister Margaret Brown born 1904 when I met her in the late 1980's thought he may have gone across to Australia so it may be possible that our search maybe in Australia.

Robert and Matilda (nee Crombie) Potts arrived in HawkesBay New Zealand on the "Waitara" in 1856 , orginally from Newcastle on Tyne . Their daughter Matilda Potts( born in NZ) married Richard Rogers, son of William Rogers and Eliza Scandlyn, and grandson of Mary Rogers nee Faull who was the first European woman to be murdered in 1854, in the developing New Plymouth settlement in New Zealand. I am descended from this family line.

At some stage, perhaps 1919, a R POTTS was managing a hotel for anglers and tourists at Makuri. Is this the father Robert who came out from the UK or his son Robert?

In 1895,a Miss POTTS was the school teachers at Egmont Vilage School. My assumption is that this maybe the sixteen year Matilda who later married Richard but she would have been very young to be in sole charge of a school th size shown in a photograph of the school in 1895. At this time Robert and Matilda Potts were living in Midhurst.

I am interested in closing any gaps in the life of this POTTS family in New Zealand, but also interested in members of the family members who remained in the UK. A letter to the son Albert Potts from two aunts during the first world war indicates that there were still family members remaining in the UK.

George Whyte and wife Margaret Beaton came to Canterbury, New Zealand in 1863 on the " Lancashire Witch". They brought their son James born 1856 with them but not their son Alexander born 1854. The Whyte/White family have a long association with the New Aberdour area in Aberdeenshire.

George and Margaret farmed in the Cust area on Poynters Road.

When Margaret Whyte nee BEATON died in 1879, her death certificate shows both sons as being alive at this time. George married Hannah Cherry and they had a large family- one being Arthur Whyte who married EMMA ROGERS my grandparents.
While there is considerable knowledge in the family on the lives of the WHYTE children from the second marriage , there is almost no knowledge on either of the two sons from the first marriage.
It is believed that George's brother James Whyte later came to Canterbury, New Zealand and I would be interested to verify this fact.
After George's death on the 4th July, 1902 Hannah married a widower William Brown and they moved to the Straford area in Taranaki with some of the WHYTE children. The older WHYTE family members remained in the South Island.
I have considerable information on the family of George and Hannah WHYTE.

William ATKINSON married Sarah ATTWOOD in Southbridge, Canterbury New Zealand in 1872. I am a descendant of his grandchild Albert Charles sometime known as Albert Edward ATKINSON.

William ATKINSON's obituary in 1928 states that William went to Australia at the age of twenty, where for a time he was a member of the Melborne constabulary. There is a William Atkinson aged twenty years, Irish on the sailing of the " Lightning" from Liverpool to Victoria in 1861. Communication with an Atkinson family researcher in Australia indicates that William may have been the son of John ATKINSON and Sarah McCAULEY of Ballykelly in Ireland and grandson of Marmadule and Mary ATKINSON. Marmadule ATKINSON was a Solicitor in Londonderry, Ireland. There is much annocdotal evidence to support this assumption.

If this assumption is correct then William ATKINSON farmed at Magherafelt in Ireland in 1860( ref: Griffiths Register), went to Australia in 1861, was in the Melbourne Constabulary and got married in New Zealand in 1872. His application to marry states that he had been in the Southbridge area for a period of four months. There were other ATKINSON's in Southbridge when William and Sarah lived there - Thomas and Annie ATKINSON and a Joseph ATKINSON who was a sponsor of one of Thomas and Annie's children.

Can anyone assist in closing the gaps?
Is there a record of the Melbourne Constabulary in the 1860- 1872 period?
To date have not been able to establish when William came to New Zealand.
Who are the other Atkinsons in Southbridge, Canterbury, New Zealand?