Biography contributed by Bernadette Siebert
Sarah Louisa Sidwell was born in 1875, the fifth child of Frederick William and Mary. They were an English/Scottish couple who settled and farmed in the Wade district, north of Auckland (now known as Silverdale).
James Blackwell married Sarah Louisa in 1896 in Auckland. James Blackwell’s parents were George and Elizabeth, an Irish couple who immigrated to Auckland 1864. James was their first son born in Auckland in 1868. They took up a land grant on Great Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
Sarah and James had seven children:
- Frederick George (1898–1975)
- Ruth Lilian (1900–1983)
- Sylvester Ralph (1903–1984)
- Iris Rose (1906–1930)
- Phyllis Orewa (1908–1997)
- Clarice Neta (1910–1998)
- Joan Clarke (1921–2014) adopted in 1930
When they married, James was a miner on the Great Barrier Island, and then the family moved to Waihi for a few years where James continued as a miner. By 1905 the family were living in Auckland and James began working as a dairyman. Around 1920 the family made their last move to Bayswater on Auckland’s North Shore and James continued working as a dairyman.
In 1930, James and Sarah’s daughter Iris died, aged 23, in a motorcycle accident in the Waikato after being overturned from the sidecar. And in the same year, the couple adopted a nine-year-old girl called Joan.
James died in 1954, aged 85, at his residence in Bayswater and was buried in O'Neill's Point Cemetery with their late daughter. James left all his effects to his wife until her decease or remarriage and then to the children in equal shares.
Sarah died in 1958, aged 82, and was buried with her husband in O'Neill's Point Cemetery. She left no will, and her children made affidavits to that effect and agreed to share equally her estate worth 7000 pounds.
Sarah Louise is the sister-in-law of #380 M. E. Blackwell and daughter-in-law of #380 Elizabeth Blackwell
Sources
Aotea Great Barrier Island historic heritage survey
Historical BDMs
PAPERS PAST Feilding Star, Volume 8, Issue 2507, 21 March 1930, Page 5
Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com)