In 1865 Robert emigrated to New Zealand to take up a land offer in the Waikato district near Aucklan

It’s a sobering thought: how little trace people leave behind vital records them after their death. A few possessions nobody values the same way as their owner; a few memories of the person, often unreliable ones. Travel vital records back to the nineteenth century, and even family members have not preserved memories, and photographs have all but vanished, if they ever existed.
I have a great grandfather like this, my father’s mother’s father. His name was Robert Irwin, and he was born in Northern Ireland, possibly vital records Antrim, in about 1834. Almost every fact about him is doubtful or ambiguous.
In 1865 Robert emigrated to New Zealand to take up a land offer in the Waikato district near Auckland. In Auckland he married a woman who had been one of his fellow passengers on the immigrant ship; her death certificate gives her parents’ names as Robert Irwin and M Hughes. These are most likely Robert’s parents, written down under his wife’s details by mistake: even his ancestry is ambiguous. There are other, later, marriages between Irwins and Hughes in Antrim to support this surmise.
The Waikato vital records Immigration Scheme was designed to open up that district in the north of New Zealand to European immigration, but as first conceived it was a failure. Many skilled tradespeople were offered free passage and an allotment of land under the scheme, ten acres initially. But almost immediately after drafting and publicising the Scheme, and while recruiters were active signing up emigrants in Great Britain and Ireland, the British vital records holding loan destined to finance the Scheme fell through, while there were also delays in passing the Act in New Zealand to make the land available for settlement. Thousands of migrants were left stranded on arrival in New Zealand, living with their families and luggage in camps outside Auckland. While some waited over three years for the promised land, others gave up the struggle and moved into nearby towns, obtaining what work they could. It was a bitterly disappointing introduction to the new country, full of hardships and deprivation.
The emigrants’ ship Ganges set sail 04 November 1864 from Queenstown in Cork, just a week after the Scheme had come to a standstill. The migrants on board knew nothing of these problems over their land grants. When the ship docked at Auckland 14 February 1865 they had had a terrible voyage, and were glad to see land. The Ganges boarded 474 emigrant passengers, vital records but 56 of them died on the voyage, 54 children and two adults, from bronchitis and whooping cough. It is thought that in the rush to get the Scheme underway some usual medical checks were omitted, and infected children were allowed vital records on board. Only extreme vigilance vital records and constant medical vital records attention on the part of captain and crew prevented the contagion from spreading further on board. There were also two deaths of seamen by misadventure. On the other hand, there were 16 births during the voyage. One can only wonder at the fortitude with which emigrants travelled to the other side of the globe, on craft which seem impossibly frail to modern eyes.
Among vital records the passengers were 11 with the surname Irvine. These were not all related, as Irvine is a common name, especially in Northern Ireland. One of these Irvines was Robert Irwin, my ancestor. Not the least confusing thing about his name is that Irvine was spelt also as Irwin and Erwin (the way it was pronounced). Sometimes these three names represent variant spellings of the same name, sometimes they are distinct family names. The only way to tell is to refer to documents transcribed by the name’s owner. My great grandfather was an Irwin, but the passenger list called him an Irvine. Another passenger was Marcella Irvine. She was an Irvine vital records by marriage. She had married John Irvine 08 December 1862 in Enniskillen in Fermanagh. As Marcella travelled alone on the Ganges (as far as we know) it is to be presumed her husband John had died sometime in 1864. Her first marriage certificate mentions her family name, Waters, and her father’s name, Richard Waters. Waters pronounced with an Irish brogue sounds like “Watters” and is sometimes spelt that way. Among the passengers was also a James Preston and his wife Rachael, who will crop up later in Robert Irwin’s story.
Less than three months after disembarkation, Robert Irwin and Marcella vital records Irvine (born Waters) were married, vital records on 09 May 1865, in Saint Matthews Church of England Auckland (Marcella’s name is spelt Irwin on the certificate). A mystery surrounds the birth of their first child, Richard Waters Irwin, presumably named after Marcella’s father. The child was born sometime in 1865, so Marcella was pregnant when she was married in New Zealand in May. She may have been pregnant when she boarded ship in 1864, the child’s father John Irvine, or became pregnant, while still a widow, to Robert Irwin in New Zealand. The child was said to have be