52 Ancestors - Week 6 - Favourite Name - Angelina Lovell/Bliss/Wilkinson
Sometimes you see a name and it creates a picture of the life that person might have had. I always thought that my 3x great aunt Angelina Bliss would have had a wonderful life. However, when I started looking, frankly, I was shocked by uncovering things that hint at a life that belies her name.
Angelina Lovell, the youngest surviving child of Benjamin and Hester, was born in 1852 in Motueka, New Zealand, probably in the middle of the town where I now live. Just behind her likely birthplace is Wilkinson Street. I assumed Angelina had married Mr. Bliss, he had passed away and she had married Mr. Wilkinson, who may or may not have been the local dignitary after whom the street was named.
Angelina's parents had arrived as assisted immigrants and first settlers to Nelson in 1842 and within a few months had moved to what is now Golden Bay. They quickly moved back to Motueka where there were more Europeans because Hester did not feel safe and, unlike her sister in law Ann, struggled to get on with local Maori. Angelina would have grown up in an isolated frontier village and would have been expected to work from a very early age, though she would have attended the local school just across the paddock. As a teenager, she may have occasionally sailed to Nelson to visit her older sisters, Christina and Mary.
In the late 1860s at the time of the West Coast gold rush, Mary moved to Greymouth where a thriving store was set up by her husband. Newspaper articles suggest that other family members followed, and there is a tantalising glimpse of a sister working as Mary's servant. In the same newspaper, is a mention of an Alfred Bliss applying for a gold mining claim. Angelina may well have met Alfred in Greymouth, though they married in Nelson in 1879.
Alfred's name used for the registration of his children's births is Alfred Horace Eustace Rawland Bliss. The fancy name, the fact that he supposedly came from Walworth in Surrey and published the marriage in the newspaper suggests a man with some standing. By 1885, Albert and Angelina had five children and were living in Wellington. Albert had been working as a cook and had got into financial difficulties owing nearly a hundred pounds. His only asset was twenty pounds worth of furniture. By the end of that year he was a discharged bankrupt and their four month old daughter had died. In the next five years Angelina gave birth to and lost three more children including a twin daughter. Their final child, Frank, was born in 1890. No more can be found about Alfred Bliss, although Frank stated when he married that Alfred was a seaman so perhaps Alfred died at sea.
Nothing much more was seen of Angelina in the newspapers either for a few years apart from a charge of obscene language relating to a slanging match with another couple in 1893. Her children then started to appear in the papers instead. In 1895, her fourteen and a half year old son, also Alfred Bliss, was charged with being a destitute child and was committed to an industrial school as his mother was unable to support him. (You'll be pleased to know Alfred made good in the end, becoming a marine engineer and fighting in both South Africa and on the Western Front. Sadly he was killed in 1917, but not before winning the Military Medal.) In 1896, Angelina married Thomas Joseph Wilkinson.
By 1900, Angelina was living in Christchurch. The NZ Police Gazette shows that Thomas, a 35 year old English seaman and labourer, had deserted Angelina leaving her with no means of support for her two small children. He was also at risk of fleeing the country. When he finally appeared in court a year later, Angelina begged the magistrate to give him a second chance. He obviously deserted her again because while her sons were in South Africa in 1902, she is listed as next of kin at Ohau, south of Levin, where they had been working. When Thomas was arrested in Auckland in 1903, the desertion charges were dropped. Things hadn't gone well for Angelina's eldest daughter, Esther, either. She had also been in court, charged with being a vagrant after being found sleeping rough in Hagley Park, Christchurch. After running away from care twice, she was sentenced to a month's imprisonment. She was only seventeen.
What started so well for the the girl with the beautiful name ended in late September of 1903. Aged only 52, Angelina passed away at Epuni Street, Aro Valley, Wellington. Even today, though it has been gentrified, the small, close packed wooden houses in narrow streets tucked in under a hill, do not suggest affluence.
Angelina Lovell, the youngest surviving child of Benjamin and Hester, was born in 1852 in Motueka, New Zealand, probably in the middle of the town where I now live. Just behind her likely birthplace is Wilkinson Street. I assumed Angelina had married Mr. Bliss, he had passed away and she had married Mr. Wilkinson, who may or may not have been the local dignitary after whom the street was named.
Angelina's parents had arrived as assisted immigrants and first settlers to Nelson in 1842 and within a few months had moved to what is now Golden Bay. They quickly moved back to Motueka where there were more Europeans because Hester did not feel safe and, unlike her sister in law Ann, struggled to get on with local Maori. Angelina would have grown up in an isolated frontier village and would have been expected to work from a very early age, though she would have attended the local school just across the paddock. As a teenager, she may have occasionally sailed to Nelson to visit her older sisters, Christina and Mary.
In the late 1860s at the time of the West Coast gold rush, Mary moved to Greymouth where a thriving store was set up by her husband. Newspaper articles suggest that other family members followed, and there is a tantalising glimpse of a sister working as Mary's servant. In the same newspaper, is a mention of an Alfred Bliss applying for a gold mining claim. Angelina may well have met Alfred in Greymouth, though they married in Nelson in 1879.
Alfred's name used for the registration of his children's births is Alfred Horace Eustace Rawland Bliss. The fancy name, the fact that he supposedly came from Walworth in Surrey and published the marriage in the newspaper suggests a man with some standing. By 1885, Albert and Angelina had five children and were living in Wellington. Albert had been working as a cook and had got into financial difficulties owing nearly a hundred pounds. His only asset was twenty pounds worth of furniture. By the end of that year he was a discharged bankrupt and their four month old daughter had died. In the next five years Angelina gave birth to and lost three more children including a twin daughter. Their final child, Frank, was born in 1890. No more can be found about Alfred Bliss, although Frank stated when he married that Alfred was a seaman so perhaps Alfred died at sea.
Nothing much more was seen of Angelina in the newspapers either for a few years apart from a charge of obscene language relating to a slanging match with another couple in 1893. Her children then started to appear in the papers instead. In 1895, her fourteen and a half year old son, also Alfred Bliss, was charged with being a destitute child and was committed to an industrial school as his mother was unable to support him. (You'll be pleased to know Alfred made good in the end, becoming a marine engineer and fighting in both South Africa and on the Western Front. Sadly he was killed in 1917, but not before winning the Military Medal.) In 1896, Angelina married Thomas Joseph Wilkinson.
By 1900, Angelina was living in Christchurch. The NZ Police Gazette shows that Thomas, a 35 year old English seaman and labourer, had deserted Angelina leaving her with no means of support for her two small children. He was also at risk of fleeing the country. When he finally appeared in court a year later, Angelina begged the magistrate to give him a second chance. He obviously deserted her again because while her sons were in South Africa in 1902, she is listed as next of kin at Ohau, south of Levin, where they had been working. When Thomas was arrested in Auckland in 1903, the desertion charges were dropped. Things hadn't gone well for Angelina's eldest daughter, Esther, either. She had also been in court, charged with being a vagrant after being found sleeping rough in Hagley Park, Christchurch. After running away from care twice, she was sentenced to a month's imprisonment. She was only seventeen.
What started so well for the the girl with the beautiful name ended in late September of 1903. Aged only 52, Angelina passed away at Epuni Street, Aro Valley, Wellington. Even today, though it has been gentrified, the small, close packed wooden houses in narrow streets tucked in under a hill, do not suggest affluence.
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