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Damtown. - Map of Damtown and article. -2 PHOTOS-

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DescriptionAlice Stielow.."Does anyone have any information about Damtown, no longer exists but on old survey maps appears somewhere near Goldsborough. My family were living here in the early days of the gold rush, they ran a general store."

SEE COMMENTS BELOW FOR REPLIES.Map^[1]External LinkPapers pastContributorHeather Newby

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Location (city or town)DamtownGoldsborough

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Category TagGoldminingGhost town

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Date Created17th March 2019CommentsAlice Stielow Glenn Johnston Thank you, last night I just discovered an application for liquor licence where both RJ Seddon and my great great grandfather John Kennedy had applied for in Big Dam so was wondering if Big Dam and Damtown were the same. My great grandmothers birth certificate says Damtown.

The Kennedy family also moved to Kumara and set up general store when the Seddon's moved there.

Alice Stielow Glenn Johnston PS Do you know what the legal name was? Damtown or Big Dam.. or was the name

Glenn Johnston It was known as Big Dam on most of the official documents but if an individual was filling in a form they would would often use the colloquial local name. Seddon was at Big Dam about this date. Incidentally my great grandfather was a publican in the general area at the same time too and one family member birth was just recorded as Waimea which is sometimes Goldsborough but often a name encompassing the whole "Waimea" goldfield.

Alice Stielow Glenn Johnston Our ancestors were probably all well known to each other if they were both publicans in the same area at the same time... as always, it's a small world.

Maggie Riordan Glenn Johnston Our Scettrini family also lived at "Big Dam" before moving to Kumara.

Maggie Riordan This obituary for Johanna Payn nee Scettrini says she lived 'near the big dam' but I have read it as Big Dam elsewhere.

Glenn Johnston Some well known goldmining surnames among those mentioned. e.g. Scetterini, Honey and

Mary Moffitt Maggie Riordan I am wondering about the name, Mrs Roberts. Do you have the full name for her husband Roberts, please?

Mary Moffitt Maggie Riordan I am wondering about the name, Mrs Roberts. Do you have the full name for her husband Roberts, please?

My great grandmother's first husband was John Domico (Damico) and also in that area before 1868, He was Sicilian and was naturalised in that year. Dick Seddon gave him a glowing testimonial saying he was a man of good repute. He did not know his subject very well, because he accepted the 'single' status of the man. He also accepted the fact that JD had only been a short time in NZ even though he had married in Dunedin several years beforehand, and afterwards
fathered a child in 1864.

Fascinating world. My other paternal great grandmother was in Hokitika before 1864 also, but both families moved on to Southland.
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Glenn Johnston Mary Moffitt Hokitika was only founded during 1864 so your paternal great grandmother could not have been there before 1864 as Hokitika township did not exist then!

Maggie Riordan Mary Moffitt Hi, Alice was born in 1880 and in 1898 married William John Roberts. They are both buried in the Greymouth cemetery.
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Mary Moffitt
Mary Moffitt Thank you for that. It has made me think again. Her mother in Australia was looking for her via a Hokitika newspaper in 1868. It seems clear that communication had been lost early in the sixties, because, by then, she had moved on, being in Nokomai to …See More
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Mary Moffitt
Mary Moffitt For example, goldminers George and Michael Moffitt , came to New Zealand in 1861 (Zealandia), soon being followed by two other brothers, James and John (Shipping and Mining records). I found them in Thames as well) They ended up in Moffitts Gully and o…See More
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Mary Moffitt
Mary Moffitt The Joyce party travelled to New Zealand from Australia to the goldfields in 1857, according to Herries-Beattie. My great grandmother arrived in Sandhurst (Bendigo) Australia aboard the Grand Trianon in1857. Who knows? They couple could even have met then. The Moffitts were there as well, but I am not yet sure of the dates in Australia for them.
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Mary Moffitt
Mary Moffitt Maggie Riordan Thank you. I have just begun researching our Roberts connection and have almost no information. I am gathering data from where my lot lived.
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Heather Newby
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Glenn Johnston
Glenn Johnston Alice Stielow So was Seddon's well known associate Martin Kennedy one of your lot?
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Alice Stielow
Alice Stielow Glenn Johnston I don't know for sure, I found that name in my research last night too. One of my fathers distant cousins has done the family tree for the Kennedys and has all that information so now I'll have to check that out. I think the connection is quite likely as we all knew as children growing up that there had been a strong association with the Seddon family.

Glenn Johnston Alice Stielow I am satisfied that Dam Town on the birth notice refers to Big Dam in the Goldsborough area on the Waimea goldfield. Dam Town seems to have been used as the informal name for the township of Big Dam. I note on PP that one correspondent who wrote about Dam Town gave his address as Big Dam Hill. The Big Dam township is on the western slopes of Big Dam Hill in the headwaters of one of the branches of Waimea Creek. Various other geographic references to "Dam Town" indicate it is the same place as Big Dam.

Trevor Keith Scott Goldsborough, Stafford & Seddonville, I use to go gold panning down that area in the 60's with an 85 year old ex miner, he was teaching me to Pan. The stories he told me about the area was fantastic, just in that area alone years ago there used to be 10,000 miners & families. One story he told me was that they knew there was Gold in the road, but could not touch it as it was council property. If you can prove that there is Gold in the Road then the Council will let you work the road!! They set to salt the road by putting gold into the road side, took the Council Engineer to the site and panned a bit to show him the Gold.They were aloud to work the Road, but had to build another one beside it, which they did.

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Damtown. - Map of Damtown and article. -2 PHOTOS-

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