LESTERS - 1875 - 2025.

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DescriptionIn 100 years, we will all be dead.Strangers will live in our homes and everything we owned will probably have been dumped. After we die, we will be remembered for a few more years, then we are just a portrait on someone’s bookshelf,a name in a family tree and a few years later our history, photographs and stories will have disappeared into oblivion. We won’t even be memories.Often the only thing left is the little dash on a headstone, between the dates of birth and death.Is this all that matters?Everyone has a story.Learning about the lives of our ancestors,what they saw,what they did,where they lived enriches our own lives I am just sharing some of our family memories,that were gathering dust.
My forebears couldn't read or write.Tales were passed down from generation to generation,told around the kitchen table or in front of an open fire.Little details were constantly changed in the retelling,because our memories are not perfectly reliable.Both my parents died early,breaking that cord that bound me to the earlier generations.
We do have access to many Official records-Census,Births,Marriage and Deaths.Missing from these records are all the colour,the very breath of life,the sight,sound and smells of forgotten times.Family stories had to be brought back to life using these dry old dusty records.
The first part of any family tree is easy. Start with yourself,add your parents,then your grandparents,then the great grand parents.Quickly,my tree was back to the arrival of the ship "Hannibal" in Nelson 1875.
We know this story, it has been repeated so many times. It is a story handed down from our parents, about our family emigrating from England. Mum's version tells the tale about two family members who went to America. Two more got off the boat in South Africa. Two got off in South Australia and four Lester's, disembarked at Greymouth.
This had to be true. Would your parents lie to you? Or were they just passing on a mishmash of misheard, barely remembered stories?
These oral histories contain kernels of fact. Unraveling and untangling a web of conflicting 'facts' is the challenge.
ARRIVAL OF THE HANNIBAL
Sailed London Thursday 11 March 1875 - arrived Nelson 9 June 1875
The Hannibal sailed non-stop! They did not stop at South Africa, South Australia or Greymouth.
This means the family story about people getting off the boat was misleading.
Not every story told by families is 100% true. Some stories are "Too good" to be bothered with facts."Why spoil a good story?" None of us have a perfect memory and some secrets are kept well hidden. Your relative may truly believe they are correct, but shock horror, other family members may have given them a false story.
I had one elderly Aunt who was determined that a family scandal would be buried with her. That was before DNA testing opened up the closet full of skeletons. Scandals intrigue me -What's the big deal? The thing is, lots of kids are born out of wedlock. Some of the biggest bastards I ever met, allegedly, had married parents - so nothing surprises me.
These oral histories do contain kernels of fact.Unravelling them is the challenge.
This is my version of the Lester family story. All mistakes are mine. It has mistakes, assumptions and at times, the best guesses I can make with the information available.
Excerpts from Official Log of Hannibal
9th March 1875-Left Gravesend and towed to the "Downs"
13th March-Passed through the "Downs"
16th March-Discharged the Pilot,off the Lizard
4th April-Crossed Equator in 29 degrees West longitude
She experienced good NE trades, but instead of falling in with the SE trades,was becalmed for 10 days.
This was followed by light variable winds, which lasted to the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope
4th May-Past Cape of Good Hope,in the latitude 39 degs South,
9th May-James Brewer, who was washed overboard and drowned
She ran her easting between the degrees of 40 and 48, with strong winds
30th May-Rounded Tasmania
5th June-Cape Farewell -Adverse winds,then becalmed.
8th June-Sighted from Pilot Station
9th June-Towed to Anchorage
10th June-Passengers discharged in Nelson,New ZealandDate of Photo1875 - 2025.Map^[1]ContributorJohn Lester

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Date Created29th March 2026

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LESTERS - 1875 - 2025.

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