Newsflash from 1920s touches Barry

Newsreader Hilary Barry and her grandmother Bev Hill were thrilled to make a connection with Barry's great-grandparents via a buried time capsule. Photo / Dean Purcell

A letter, an old shilling and a little piece of family history played a role, but it was an article in the local paper that led newsreader Hilary Barry to find the link to her great-grandmother.

Last week the North Shore Times printed a story about a Milford man who found a 90-year-old time capsule wedged behind the fireplace as he was renovating his home in Prospect Tce.

He found a letter that seemed to be addressed "Dear Cytos", and called on anyone with information to contact him.

"We were reading our local newspaper on Saturday morning," said Barry. "My husband said, 'What was your great-grandmother's nickname again?' and I said, 'It was Cytos."'

They contacted the man and realised that he was living in the house her great-grandparents built in the 1920s.

Inside the small box was a letter addressed to her great-grandmother, a hairpin, art deco cards, a shilling coin dated 1877, timetables for the Auckland-to-Takapuna ferry, and a ticket for a ladies' evening down at Takapuna's Masonic Hall.

"It was just such a real thrill to find a little bit of family history," said Barry.

There's also a story behind her great-grandmothers nickname.

When she was born, her father thought she looked like a perfect little loaf of bread. So she was nicknamed Cytos after the brand of bread her father used to eat back in Ireland.