Anton & Helen Maria Hansen & Family

 

After much searching & getting mixed up with more than one Anton Hansen I think I've finally pinned down the family in today's photograph. Interestingly, I found part of this exact same photo on this webpage here, it says the father is 'Anton Hansen of Granity, Buller'.

From what was written on the back of the photo I determined that Anton married Helen/Ellen Maria Hart.

Marriage - 1898/1683 Helen Maria  Hart  Antony  Hansen

You are able to include the mother's given name when searching the NZ births and these are the children I found with a mother named Helen/Ellen & a father Anton(y):-

Births
1898/11742 Hansen  William John  Helen Maria Antoney
1900/19132 Hansen  Percy Edward  Ellen Maria Antony
1903/16156 Hansen  Mabel Annie  Ellen Maria Antony
1904/20999 Hansen  Fredrick Ernest  Helen Maria Anton 
1907/564     Hansen  Allan Alfred  Ellen Maria Anton

Helen Maria Hart was born in 1878, daughter of John & Annie Hart, she died in 1954 aged 75.

Birth - 1878/17043 Hart  Helen Maria  Annie John
Death - 1954/22735 Hansen  Helen Maria  75Y

Anton(y) doesn't seem to have been born in NZ, he died in 1960 aged 89.

Death - 1960/22682 Hansen  Anton  89Y

Their eldest son, William John, died in 1914, aged 15, so it's hard to say if he is in the photo or not.

Grey River Argus , 14 March 1914, Page 3
WESTPORT. March 13. A lad named W. Hansen died at Birchfield to-day as the result of injuries caused hy a fall from a trolley used in connection with the flaxmill. Deceased was the son of the manager of the mill. (Birchfield is 13 miles from Westport.)

If he is then his brother, Percy, must be the one sitting on the chair, but to me he doesn't look older than Mabel although girls that age usually start growing earlier than boys so perhaps he is. But if that is the case the youngest boy would have been only 3 or 4 at the most (because I didn't find a birth for him he must have been born after the 1909 cutoff date for births) and he certainly looks older than that.

If the photo was taken after 1914 then Percy is the elder boy at the back with Frederick sitting down & Allan the next oldest with the other two born after 1909 making the photo taken about 1918 or so - but does Mabel look to be 15???

Mabel Annie married Richard Joseph Collins in 1922; Percy Edward marred Hannah Anderson in 1923; Frederick Ernest married Marion McCombie Meredith in 1923.

1922/4813 Mabel Annie  Hansen  Richard Joseph  Collins 
1923/9303 Hannah  Anderson  Percy Edward  Hansen 
1923/7766 Marion McCombie  Meredith  Ernest Frederick  Hansen

These are the various deaths of some of the above people, a few not found:-

Deaths
1914/1632   Hansen  William John  15Y
1967/42939 Collins  Richard Joseph  72Y
1970/48466 Hansen  Percy Edward  69Y
1971/30549 Hansen  Marion McCombie  67Y 
1984/39859 Hansen  Allan Alfred  18 December 1906
1996/48841 Hansen  Frederick Ernest  19 November 1904

So it seems the Hansen family lived at Granity and their father worked a few miles away at Birchfield for the flaxmill. I found this photo in the NZ Cyclopedia.

I did find a marriage for Helen's sister, it was the only Hart/McCallum marriage:-

1897/3387 Emily Rose  Hart  Archibald George  McCallum

There was only the one birth which could be her because the year fits with the age at death of Emily Rose McCallum:-

Birth - 1873/5095 Hart  Rose Emelia
Death - 1959/34994 McCallum  Emily Rose  85Y

Finally, one last note - in 1964 there is a death for an Archie Anton Hansen aged 54. He could be one of the younger boys in the photo named after his father and his mother's sister's husband - purely conjecture on my part!

References:
Cyclopedia of NZ
NZ BDM Records
New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
Papers Past

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This is such a lovely family photo, I would love to find it a good home again, please contact me if you are a descendant or know of this Hansen family.

Dawn Scotting
pandora@kc.net.nz