John Thomas MacNaughtan 1892-1962

Subject: John T MacNaughtan
Date: March 1913
Photographer: Bunting, Palmerston North & Napier
Found: Paeroa, New Zealand

As you can see it’s hard to make out if John’s name is McNaughtan or MacNaughtan but in the end it didn’t really matter because in the research process I’ve found it spelled at least four different ways.

John’s birth was registered as just John:-

1892/5018  Macnaughtan John    Mary    Alexander

Not being sure I had the right person I turned to ancestry for a few clues and this popped up:-

John Thomas McNaughton in the New Zealand Army WWI Nominal Rolls, 1914-1918 - 7/1110 Corporal, 5th Reinforcements, Canterbury Mounted Rifles, mother Mrs A McNaughton, Parakai Post Office, Helensville.

Then I turned to the NZ Army Records that are available on the NZ Archives Archway and found this:-

McNAUGHTON, John Thomas - WW1 7/1110 – Army

Bingo! Twenty-nine pages of wonderful information on his time during WWI in NZ & Overseas from when he enlisted on the 14 Feb 1915:-

 

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I had even more luck with the NZ Cemetery Records and Papers Past:-

    From the above I was able to piece together two more generations of the MacNaughtan Family. John Thomas was the son of Alexander and Alexander was the son of John MacNaughtan who arrived from Scotland in October 1862 at the age of about 21. When I saw the unusual name of their residence in Helensville ‘Coilantogle Ford Farm’ I thought surely it’s a place in Scotland and most probably where the first John was born. Google always has the answer doesn’t it:-

I found this postcard & better still this excerpt from an e-book written in 1877:-

1877 Rough Notes of a Traveller: Being an Account of a Trip Around the World.

'The waters of Leny, with fine scenery, were next crossed; and about a mile further on we came to the celebrated Coilantogle Ford.... (some deleted for brevity) ....Another two miles brought us to Loch Vennachar (meaning the Lake of the Fair Valley); it is five miles long, and nearly one and a half in breadth. Midway on the opposite shore is Invertrossachs, the seat of Stewart MacNaughton, Esq. It was at this fine Highland home that our Queen and several members of the Royal Family spent a few weeks in the autumn of 1869.'

References: ancestry.com.au; NZBDM Online; Papers Past; Archives NZ Archway; Forgotten Books.

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the MacNaughtan family please do contact me, I would love to pass the photo onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz