Thomas Logan Traill Williamson

It would be great to find any descendants of Thomas Logan Traill Williamson - and to find out more about him - including photos. Please send me a message if he is your ancestor and if you have any information you would like to add. 

Thomas Logan Traill Williamson (Photo: Ancestry.com) 

Here's an interesting find in an Australian newspaper from 1898: 

In The Age (Melbourne) 2 August, 1898, an advertisement was placed seeking Thomas Williamson, the son of Thomas Logan Williamson (refer previous posts on him). 

Thomas Williamson must be Thomas Logan Trail Williamson (1), born 1856 or 1857 in Waiuku where his master-mariner father, Thomas Logan Williamson,  appeared to be having a few years  ashore as the first postmaster of Waiuku and  licensee of the Kentish Hotel.  The family were based in Onehunga before and after their sojourn in Waiuku. 

B Cunningham must be Bertha Alice Cunningham born Leathart (1872 - 1942), daughter of Elizabeth Leathart born Williamson and Robert Alexander Leathart,  and grand-daughter of Thomas Logan Williamson master mariner, and Elizabeth Williamson born McKenzie. The missing Thomas would have been Bertha's uncle - her mother Elizabeth's brother. 

Bertha married James Fraser Cunningham on 28th December 1897.  So, I wonder if Bertha and James were visiting Australia as newlyweds, and decided to track down her uncle while they were there? 

This advertisement places Bertha in Melbourne or possibly with a connection in Melbourne - or a forwarding address? I can find no other evidence of Bertha or husband James in New Zealand or Australia at this time to corroborate this.  Also, I can find no news or evidence of Thomas Logan Trail between his birth (1857) and his marriage (1899), but clearly he must have spent some time in Australia in between. 

Thomas Logan Trail Williamson can be placed back in New Zealand in 1899 when he married  Winifred Isobel Atkinson (born 1874) (2).

It seemed Thomas and Winifred moved around a bit during their life together.  In 1900, Thomas was registered in the Patea electorate, living at Otairi as a farmer. It can be assumed that Winifred was with him, but she does not appear to be registered to vote. 

They were probably back in Auckland by 1907. The first of their recorded children was Jean Winifred, born 1907 (possibly Onehunga, reg. in Auckland) but died on 21 March 1909 and is bured in Waikaraka Cemetery,  

Their only son, Thomas Arnold, was born in Onehunga on 31 March 1909,  ten days after Jean Winfred's death.  The following year, on 17th December 1910, another daughter, Barbara, was born. 

In 1911, the Williamsons were recorded as living on Norman's Hill Road, Onehunga, and Thomas was a house decorator.  By 1913, in the Wise's Directory, Thomas is  still in the same line of work, listed as a painter and still living at Normans Hill. 

The following year, Thomas and Winifred moved to Whangarei, where Thomas is listed as a theatre proprietor, and Winifred's details give their address as Mill Road, Whangarei in the 1914 Marsden electoral roll.  It appears they took over the local picture theatre - in February which would have been in the earliest days of moving pictures.   On August 5th,1914, at Whangarei, Winifred gave birth to their last child, a daughter called Nancy Winifred. 

NORTHERN ADVOCATE, 20 FEBRUARY 1914

Seems like they were there for only a while, as I can find no further evidence of their advertisments from later that year.  

WIlliamson's  Queen's Theatre was advertised as "bright and cheerful, and furnished almost to extravagence". A wide-ranging programme was advertised in local papers, and it seems pictures were shown every night. The last found  advertisement of the Queens' Theatre which  included "Williamson's" in the name was in late July, and the last mention of the Queen's Theatre's programmes was in December 1914. 

By 1919, Thomas and Winifred are back in Auckland, living at 57 Upland Road, Remuera,  and he is described as a dairy farmer. In the 1928 electoral roll, Thomas is listed as a dairyman living with Winifred at nearby Remuera Road in Auckland (no number given  - but probably 228?). 

According to Auckland City Council records, Thomas Logan Williamson, dairyman, was living at what is now known as 606 Remuera Road between 1923 and 1931.  The houses have since been renumbered and 226 become 606.  I can not account for the one-house-number discrepancy (226 /228), but the records certainly help confirm the family's location.  (Check out this document for further information on the area they lived. Skip to page 62 for the actual details.) 

Son Thomas Arnold Williamson died at their Remuera home, aged 12 years old, on May31st, 1921. He was buried in the same grave as his sister Jean Winifred at Waikaraka Cemetery. 

 

Jean Winifred Williamson 1907 - 1909 
Thomas Arnold Williamson 1909 - 1921 Waikaraka Cemetery 

Thomas died in Epsom on December 31st 1933, age 77, and is buried at Hillsborough cemetery. 

The 1938 electoral roll has Winifred (widow) and youngest daughter (spinster) Nancy Winifred living at 88 Balmoral Road, Auckland.  

Assuming Nancy Winifred (at the time of her engagement) was living with her mother, by 1940 they were living at Kingsview Road, Mt Eden. 

In 1946, Winifred was living at 16 Croydon Road in the Eden electorate.  She died on 17th December, 1948, and her address was given as 42 Meola Road, Point Chevalier.  She was cremated at Waikumete, but apparently not buried there, with her ashes being returned to the funeral director. 

Barbara (married name Allen)  died at Amberlea Rest Home, Algies Bay in June 1997 and was buried next to her second husband John Ashwin at the cemetery in Matakana.  Nancy Winifred (married name Newman) died in 1999 and is buried in Hillsborough. 

Meanwhile, Bertha Alice and James Fraser Cunningham ended up running the hot springs at Ngawha in Northland for several years.  They had no children. 

We may never know why Bertha was looking for Thomas in Melbourne, what he was doing there, and if she found him. 

Notes:

(1) Thomas's name has been variously spelled Trill, Trail and Traill.  See New Zealand Births, Deaths, and Marriages index for more information. 

(2) For some time there was a discrepancy in the information on Thomas Logan Traill's wife.  In NZ Births, Deaths and Marriages records, it had his marriage registered as number  4767  and his wife as  Christina Clara Tasker.  Yet all electorate records and other births and deaths records had his wife as  Winifred Isobel Atkinson.  After doing research on each of the supposed wives - and wondering if Thomas Logan Traill  had a double or secret past - it came down to a simple transcription error at NZBDM.  Christina Clara's correct marriage registration number was 1899/4767 (to Frank Reid) and Winifred Isobel's marriage registration number was 1899/4768 (to our Thomas). These numbers had been incorrectly assigned to the other - it appears.  Someone must have noticed this and contacted NZBDM as they are correctly registered now.  So - check your family tree records - in mine, I have released Christina Clara to her correct husband, and acknowledged Winifred as Thomas's wife.