Janet McKinney

Signed family name

McKinney

Signed given name

Janet

Given address

Mahurangi

Sheet number

378

Town/Suburb

Mahurangi

City/Region

Auckland region

Notes

Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert

Janet was born Janet Ballantine in 1866 in Auckland, one of the seven children of James and Grace, early settlers to Auckland and both of Scottish origin. James was a receiving and forwarding agent and they lived first in Papakura Valley and then back in Auckland. They were very involved in the Presbyterian Church. She first came to Warkworth to teach the infant classes in Warkworth school and there she met her future husband, who farmed in the district. On May 1 1890, at the residence of bride's parents, by the father of the bridegroom, Benjamin Holmes, third son of the Rev Robert McKinney, Mahurangi, was married to Janet, third daughter of Mr James Ballantine, Wellington street, Auckland.

They had seven children:

Gracie Holmes (1891–1977)
Robert Holmes (1892–1926)
Aileen Martha Holmes (1894–1972)
James Ballantine Holmes (1897–1916)
Lyndsay Stuart Holmes (1898–1966)
Edna Margaret Holmes (1903–1962)
Emily Cuthbert Holmes (1905–1986)

Their son James B H signed up for the war in September 1916, and one moth later he died in the Trentham Cottage Hospital, Wellington, of meningococcal septicemia. He was buried in a military grave in the Warkworth Cemetery. Another disaster befell Janet and Benjamin in 1926, when their eldest son Robert died from the accidental discharge of his gun while he was getting over a wire fence. After his death, they sold their farm and moved to Mt. Eden with their four daughters. There was a farewell social for them in Warkworth where they, 'has been actively and usefully associated with the church for all their lives'.

Benjamin died at his residence in Mt Eden in 1935 and was interred in the Warkworth Presbyterian Cemetery, 'was attended by a number of old residents and friends of deceased.' In his probate Benjamin, he left shares equally to his children, and if deceased and left to the grandchildren, their parent’s share, if deceased, 'for the maintenance, education and advancement in life.'

Janet lived on at the same address for a further nine years, dying in 1944 and also being buried in the Warkworth Cemetery. The newspaper reported, 'many old friends from this district attended. The grave was covered with beautiful flowers, testifying to the love and esteem in which she was held during a long and useful life of 77 years.' They belonged to old pioneer families and their good works do follow them." Janet’s will provided more shares to any unmarried daughters, and was valued at 3500 pounds.

Janet is the daughter-in-law of 378 Martha MCKINNEY