Old Family News

Tuesday 28 April 2009

I have been researching our family trees and I have had great success with Murray's which I have been able to trace his Tabley family back to 1694.


With my Donovan family, it seems that, in some small way, history is repeating itself.

Here is an article I found about my grandparents' hotel in Temuka, South Canterbury.
Mr. W. J. Donovan, formerly Proprietor of the Royal Hotel, is a son of Mr. C. Donovan, an early settler in New Zealand. He was born in Kaiapoi in 1865, and was at sea for about ten years, during which he was engaged chiefly in the Australasian trade. In 1884 he took a trip to England, and on returning went to the West Australian goldfields. He, however, came back to New Zealand, and took over the Royal Hotel in 1898. He is a member of the Alexandrovna Lodge of Oddfellows, and a member of the Tuscan Lodge of Freemasons, Sydney, New South Wales. In 1898, he married Miss Dempsey, of Christchurch.