A LONG JOURNEY TO TIMARU

This is the story of a trip to Timaru, New Zealand, by a father and son from Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. They visited Timaru on Sunday, November 5, 1995, as part of a trip to Australia and New Zealand . In the last year, quite a lot of HOBBS family information has been gained through the use of genealogical resources on the Internet (World-Wide-Web), and by contacting long-lost relatives through E- mail. We were able to construct a family tree which included 87 relatives in New Zealand.

Patrick Hobbs, aged 84, had always wanted to visit the birthplace of his father since he was a boy growing up in Dublin, Ireland. His father had emigrated to Ireland from Timaru about 1905, and lost contact with his family in New Zealand, except for a visit by a brother stationed in France with the NZ expeditionary forces during the First World War.

Eamonn Hobbs, aged 37, has travelled quite extensively, and thought that inviting his father on this trip would be good for him (Patrick recently lost his wife of 53 years), and also would be a good opportunity for both of them to learn more about their family roots.
 
 
 

They first flew to Sydney, Australia from Los Angeles. While in Sydney they visited some Irish relatives for a few days. They then flew to Christchurch, and met Marian Hobbs, a recently-discovered second cousin. After that they drove to Timaru and did some sightseeing: Hobbs Street, where William Alfred and Margaret Hobbs (Patrick's grandparents) had a home in the 1870's; the cemetary, where they are buried; and a visit to the Timaru Botanic Gardens.

The trip was a great one for both, and fulfilled a lifelong wish of my father, Patrick, to visit the birthplace of his father, and meet long-lost relatives.

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Page last modified 31-OCT-03.