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As kids we spent a lot of time with our grandparents. I knew Grandpa Baugh was a coal miner. He and Nana and my Dad came from Lancashire, and they called Lancashire Home.
Until I was seven we lived next door to Nana and Grandpa McCarroll. I knew they came from Ireland, and called Ireland Home.
But then I realised that Nana McCarroll didn’t come from Ireland. She was born in New Zealand. Her family were the Lamonts. We saw them every now and then. Uncle Cam, Doreen, Olive…
And there was an old lady called “Gran” who came to visit Nana McCarroll now and then — apparently.
I don’t remember her, but there are photos with her, like this one, to confirm the fact.
There’s also an oblique mention of her in one of Dad’s wartime letters. Gran had come to stay at Taipuha and wasn’t the best of company. “Cheer up,” Cliff told Dorothy, “We’ll probably be just as irritable when we are so old.”
And the sudden thought comes — we are so old now, and so we are!
But where did Gran call Home?
Contents
Read the stories in order by clicking NEXT at the bottom of each page, or use these links.
Lamont Origins
1862-1890 — The Sisams and the Knights
1890-1894 — Maria’s diary
Jack and Olivia Lamont
1917 — Bellevue Spur
Ian. Well done !
Ross always said Gran,(Tottie) lived with Hugh and Vi
her room being the end one off the billiard room, where she died 1950 or 51.
Ross remembered her as a grand, loving and warm old lady, always knitting for her great grandchildren and having a supply of boiled lollies for them on a shelf in her wardrobe.
She had a great spinster friend in Auckland whose name I can’t remember.
They visited and stayed with each other, travelling by train.