A Tauranga woman researching her family history has discovered postcards sent from the Bay more than 100 years ago. Winsome Edwards had been delving into her family tree with My Heritage when she saw a request for old Christmas cards.
A Tauranga woman researching her family history has discovered postcards sent from the Bay more than 100 years ago.
Winsome Edwards had been delving into her family tree with My Heritage when she saw a request for old Christmas cards.
She had been handed down a book of more than 100 postcards, birthday cards and Christmas cards but did not realise some dated back to 1908 with three being sent from Tauranga.
All the postcards were written to "Dear Nel" and signed off only "R".
"I'd had them in the cupboard for a long time, I thought they'd be of historical interest," Mrs Edwards said.
Mrs Edwards said she stored them in an old postcard album that was "just about falling to bits" but they were still in good condition.
A Tauranga woman researching her family history has discovered postcards sent from the Bay more than 100 years ago. Photo / John Borren
One postcard's picture looks across Pilot Bay towards the Mount, another from the Mount back towards Matakana Island and the last is of a very rural Tauranga looking back towards Mauao.
"It's quite fascinating, you wonder what was their relationship?"
The postcard of Tauranga read, "A view of one of our quiet streets. Quite a country scene and just at the back of the PO."
The postcard of the walk around the Mount with Matakana Island in the background, reads "Isn't this pretty of the Mount? All the little boats are getting painted ready for the trips to it."
Nel was Miss Everiss of Stratford, Taranaki and was Mrs Edwards' step grandmother.
Local woman, Winsome Edwards, discovered she is the owner of 1900s post cards. Photo/John Borren
Mrs Edwards said her grandfather was William Austin Wright.
He had left Taranaki because the first five of his 11 children died in infancy.
Mrs Edwards' father, William Theophilus Wright, was the first of the remaining six children to reach adulthood.
He bought a farm in Manawaru, near Te Aroha, where his first wife Annie (nee Ralfe) died. He then had a series of housekeepers, one of them being Helen (Nel) Everiss, who he later married, she said.
Mrs Edwards said her step-grandmother seemed to have quite a few friends and suitors, as there was a whole book of beautiful postcards, many of them Christmas and birthday congratulations, postmarked around 1908 to 1913.
One of the earliest printed souvenir picture postcards was posted in Vienna in May 1871. Cards showing the Eiffel Tower in 1889 and 1890 gave impetus to the picture postcard heyday a decade later. Heligoland cards of 1889 are considered to be the first multi-colored cards ever printed. In the US, the first cards printed with the intention for use as souvenirs (postal cards) were the cards placed on sale in 1893 at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Local woman, Winsome Edwards, discovered she is the owner of 1900s post cards. Photo/John Borren
