Originally mis transcribed as 'E. G. Currie'.
Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert
Eliza Jane Keyes was born in Donegal, Ireland in 1853 to George Keyes and Eleanor nee Lowry. George Keyes died in 1886 in New South Wales, Australia. But mother Eleanor arrived in Auckland in November 1875 with her adult sons Alexander and William.
Eliza Jane married on 3 June 1873 in Coleraine, Londonderry, Northern Ireland to Joseph Lyons Currie. He was one of seven children of William and Maria nee Lyons. The following year, a son was born in Londonderry:
- George Keyes (1874 -1955)
Joseph, Eliza and one-year old George left, probably from Belfast, on board the ‘Dover Castle’ and arrived in Auckland 24 August 1875. Also on board were Joseph’s mother Maria and his three teenaged sisters.
Another daughter was born in Auckland:
- Ellen Maria (1876 -1951)
Around 1880 Joseph and Eliza Jane separated. Eliza Jane lived in O’Neill Street, Ponsonby, Auckland, and for a while with her mother-in-law Eleanor until she died in 1902 aged 95 years. Her only daughter Ellen was married at that address in 1908 to Longford Dutton Kemp. The young couple moved to Ohaupo, Waikato and Eliza went with them.
Joseph Currie moved to Towai, a small settlement in Northland where he was a gumdigger and later described as a settler. He died in 1917 aged 63 years, in Kawakawa and was buried in Towai Cemetery. He had made a will two months before he died leaving his whole estate about £100 to Francis Montague “a stranger in blood”. Francis claimed that “property in which the estate consisted, had been preserved to the deceased mainly through his [Francis’s] efforts.” Eliza applied to the court to alter the provisions of a will. She said they had been living apart from him for 39 years. The separation, she stated, was the outcome of his conduct, and after leaving him she supported herself and two young children entirely without help from him. Eliza said she possessed no property except a small house, the rent of which was almost swallowed up by rates, interest on a mortgage, and necessary upkeep. The court remarked that the widow’s rights were paramount and suggested ''that counsel should try to arrange a settlement on the basis of an allowance of, say, £50 to the widow.”
Eliza Jane died at Ohaupo aged 93 where she had lived for thirty-six years. Her probate left her house at O’Neill Street, Ponsonby, worth 600 pounds to her son-in-law Longford Dutton Kemp.
Eliza Jane is the sister of #382 S CURRIE Auckland
Sources
- PAPERS PAST New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25350, 3 November 1945, Page 8
- PAPERS PAST Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 110, 16 May 1919, Page 5
- PAPERS PAST Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXI, Issue 5678, 24 November 1875, Page 2
- Electoral rolls (ancestry.com)
- Historical BDMS
- Archway probate Joseph Elizabeth Jane