Lineage from 1740 to 1912

At the Reunion, Olga and Pat Jacobson, spoke about the Family Prior to Zuline and William and also produced charts showing Family relationships, these have now been reproduced as images and are below.
The original family and their partners were mainly centred in and around Somerset in England, so the Map is to help you see the close proximity for Births, Deaths and Marriages.
(You can track our lineage through the coloured names E&OE-Len)

Reunion photos in Family Groups

Descendants with partners of Kathleen Taylor-Daughter of Zuline Kate

Descendants with partners of Marion Taylor-Daughter of Zuline Kate

Howard Taylor with partner son of John Taylor-Son of Zuline Kate

Descendants with partners of Patricia Taylor-Daughter of Zuline Kate

Taylor Reunion 14th February 2015

On Valentine's Day 2015, a group of Zuline Kate Taylor's descendents met at he Petone Working Men's Club to reminisce about the happenings of the descendents since the passing of the first generation.
Olga Jacobson started the ball rolling with an exposition about the Ancestors of Zuline and the others share what they could you remember. 
Time was also taken to hear what was happening with Great Grandchildren and Great Great Grandchildren.
Lots of laughs, great catching up with cousins and others who we may have not seen for many a year.

Corrections were made to a printed Timeline, produced by Len Cooper, from research done by Francis Cooper and Olga and Pat Jacobson, so that mistakes could be corrected and other facts updated.
Thanks to Sue Alcock(granddaughter) for all the work in arranging the reunion.

Attendees at Zuline Kate Taylor's Reunion 14 February 2015

Memories by Olga and Pat

Grandma
Zuline Kate Taylor

Grandma was the youngest living of six girls. She was born on the 14th January 1871, at Weston-Super-Mare, and baptized (when she was twelve), Zuline Kate but was generally called Kit. Like most families the girls got into their fair share of trouble and when very young about three years old she learnt to turn her lovely eyes on her mother as she had gone from the oldest to the youngest disciplining them with a good whack and say to her mother “They shouldn't have let me do it, should they!” this generally got her off until Mum got a little wiser.
It appeared to be quite a happy period of her life with not too many restrictions above the confines of the day. Grandma was a goer and a bit of a tomboy.
Gran learnt her dressmaking trade and became a cutter and fitter for Madam Clapham's and became in charge of the workroom. One of her highlights was a lovely grey chiffon gown, full-skirted with an extra pleated frill underneath the hem which made it stand out nicely. It was voted gown of the year at Court. They were considered Court dressmakers and helped make gowns for guests invited to the coronation of Edward VII.




She was not always complimentary about the nouveau rich. She complimented one of the girls on what a lovely job she had made of this particular frock. It came back a few days later, there was one stitch required in one of the darts. Grandma was disgusted. Lady Reckitt went down in her estimation. She was always a good dressmaker and enjoyed helping the next generation to be well clothed. Her own children were dressed from the bits and pieces left over from the workroom, and her grandchildren from samples from the lady next door.
Marriage was not a high priority for Grandma but she married her first cousin William Joseph Quarman Taylor, on March 29th 1902, at St John’s Church Newland Hull, and actually lied about her age on the marriage certificate so that she appeared the same age as her husband. They had three daughters and two sons Joseph only living for 18 months. Mum was Kathleen Jennie, (always known as Biddy or 'Bid') Marion (called Molly), Patricia (called Tup, from tuppence ha'penny as father thought she was so tiny) and William John, called Bert, (Bertie Willie shut eye.) and Joseph.
Most evenings Grandma and her husband would have a bottle of Guiness milk stout with their meal. Often the children would be sent down the street to purchase it if they ran out. During the war the dressmaking workrooms were closed and people were expected to help with the war effort,
so Grandma worked in a munitions factory and finally had 40 girls to supervise.



Grandad was 6 foot tall with dark brown hair, evidently a very strict person who said little but who expected absolute obedience. Mum was happy to oblige, my aunty Moll was not and had many stand up disagreements. Often my mother protected her when she did not come straight home from school as expected and was out on the streets after dark. Mother, though, was also concerned at what she was getting up to!
Grandad had been a cabinet salesman, and had lowered his age to get into the army during the 1914-1918 war, but was refused as he only had tunnel vision in one eye and therefore was unfit for overseas service.
He joined the Home Guard, and was drafted to be a conductor on the trams during the war. One story is that he fell down the steps of the double-decker trams and not long afterwards died on 1st May 1916; the other family story is that he was on sentry duty on the West coast of England, and had a fit or a blackout, and fell down the cliff. He was sent home to Hull and died three weeks later.

Mum had been absent from school many days during her Std 6 year. The Doctor suggested Mum was anaemic and thus prone to colds. The teacher did not like to see these absences on her class roll as it gave the school a poor inspectors report. When the Dr. suggested that she leave school and run wild for a year Grandma was delighted as Mum was a good reliable
housekeeper, and able to look after the younger children, even though she was only twelve. This meant Grandma could go back to work.
Unfortunately Joseph was unable to keep down solids ( with today’s understanding I think he would be classed as a coeliac,). One day Mum let the pram run away on her and he fell out which made her think that she was the cause of his death
a few weeks later, but Grandma had to explain it was nothing to do with this.


Grandma, though working and earning good money, had four children to bring up and was aware that her two daughters needed good apprenticeships if they were to get good jobs, so the family moved from Hull to 72 Knightsbridge Rd., London, and Mum was apprenticed to “Rays” Bond street, as a hairdresser and Aunty Moll to the same establishment as a wig maker.
Both had very good trades and were good at their work. When Mum came to N.Z. as an eighteen year old (1920-21) she understood she was the only Eugene trained hairdresser in Wellington, therefore highly sought after.
Grandma had always made sure her children were correctly 'brought up' They had attended Madam's dancing classes when they were at school so that they knew how to dance and conduct themselves in public.
They left England on the Steamship Remuera March 1921. (see story)

New Zealand gave my grandmother many cultural shocks. She had never seen a drunk person in England and was horrified at the number of drunk people on the New Zealand streets. Though she had been in the habit of a daily glass of stout in England once in New Zealand she never drank again.(except for the ‘medicinal brandy’ that was always in the cupboard). She was also horrified when tradesmen used the front door. Their proper
place was the back door, the front door was only for invited guests.

The neighbour invited her over for a friendly cup of morning tea and Grandma was happy to go, but quite horrified to find she was given her tea in a chipped enamel mug and that the food was on a tin plate.
The New Zealand lifestyle, with its lack of tradition, provided challenges for my grandmother, and I realise that in her lifetime she experienced vast changes and adapted amazingly well.
Both girls had good jobs and there was board money coming in, and they also at times had boarders. Grandma always spoke of England as “home” but was a happy and contented person in her new found land.
Aunty Moll and Mum continued to attend the Anglican Church in Petone for 8am communion, but after a year in which time no one spoke to them the family was more than happy to accept the Baptist church offer to collect and deliver Bert and Tup and take them to Sunday School. Thus began the long association of the family with the Baptist Church, Petone. Gradually the family was drawn into the warmth and liveliness of Baptist worship forsaking the Anglican tradition. Aunty Pat continued to worship there for many years, and Uncle John finally became President of the Baptist Union. Mum was married from this church six years later.. Grandma had heart problems and when Aunty Moll was married the wedding was held at their home in Heretaunga St. on December 28th 1927. Even so Grandma sat up in bed and made all the wedding frocks and the trousseau for her. As Uncle Peter was a widower, this was a quiet wedding.

On 24th April 1928 my Mother and Father were married in the Baptist Church in Petone assisted by the Methodist Minister as Dad was so very involved with the Methodist Church. Mum sewed her trousseau by hand, travelling in and

out on the train to work. Grandma altered Aunty Moll's wedding frock so that Mum wore it too.
Grandma was dependent on the income of those working so soon after Mum and Aunty Moll had left there was a need to shift again, to a smaller place. In about 1935 we know that Grandma, Pat and John were living in rooms behind Mr Cumming's bookshop in Jackson Street and when my parents shifted to Waterloo Road in the beginning of 1936, they all came to live with us.

In 1935 Grandmother had a very bad heart attack which required her to be in bed for at least six months. Mum had four children under five at that stage, as well as looking after her mother, so she had her hands full. Somehow though, Grandma and the family managed to make the wedding frock for Aunty Pat and 6 flower girls' frocks, as well as clothes for other family members. The flower girl’s frocks were all hand embroidered by Aunty Pat. She was married on October 19th 1935 and in the wedding photo Grandma looks a wizened little old lady.

Grandma had an Imperial Pension from England but was completely dependent on her children for accommodation so when we moved to Auckland in January 1939, Grandma spent time with the Eyres and the Coopers

During the war when Uncle Len was overseas she lived mostly with Aunty Pat but would periodically go the Eyres’ place in Island Bay to sew for the girls. Olga and Winsome remember the little white frocks Gran made for them, with a corded waist and embroidery around the hem of the circular skirts.

She would work all day but never at night as she enjoyed cards and would play with anyone willing to play with her.
When we came back from Auckland in 1942 and were finally settled in 1 William Street Petone, Grandma came and lived with us for a time. She had what was known as the study, a room downstairs by the front door.

I remember she always got up at 6am and listened to the B.B.C. News often 'titching' at the sad and dismal destruction that was reported. She always had an early morning cup of tea and would invariably get up saying “I can't even spit sixpence” Or “I am as dry as a little wooden god” Grandma always made our clothes and re-made clothes from my older sisters or cousins so that I rarely felt I was getting “hand me downs”. Grandma made the little boys their trousers and during the war years always lined them with the calico from the flour bags. After the war my aunt decided as a special to would buy plain calico to line the boys pants. My cousin wanted to know where his pretty patterned lining was!
Grandma loved shopping, dressed in hat and gloves and would often come home with lots of ‘bargains’. When asked she often didn’t know what she was going to do with what she had bought, “but it was such a bargain!”She always had stickjawettes in her bag for her grandchildren.
Generally Mum and Grandma got on well but there were tensions especially between Gran and my father. He never called her anything but Mrs Taylor.

Grandma lived with us at Koro Koro briefly after Dad died in 1949. She bought a relocatable room and the boys erected it in the yard.

When we moved to Martinborough in 1954, Grandma came with us and had the back bedroom opposite the toilet and closest to the back door.
The boys loved teasing her and one day they dared her to ride a bicycle as she had been boasting that it was a skill you never lost. Finally she did and proved herself capable of riding at least a short way. She must had been in her late seventies then.
John was the main force behind the family moving to Martinborough and was a powerful influence. We would often sit and talk after the evening meal if there was no work to do. John considered Grandma's Victorian approach to life was not helpful so he pulled no punches when the talk got around to sex, or sexual matters or behaviour and Grandma would leave the table in disgust.
She would always peel the potatoes or help prepare the vegetables and was often a helper on drying the dishes. We all remember Gran being very prompt to meals – and if they were a bit late she would sit at her place and wait and she always needed a little dessert “to take the taste of the dinner out of my mouth!”
On the other hand, Gran was an inveterate gambler and there was nothing she liked better than to sit down in the evening and play cards. We played gin rummy, five hundred and what we called “Up and down the river” which was a combination of poker and several other ‘hands’ played on a plastic cloth which had various combinations of cards painted on it. Mostly we only played with matches or counters, but occasionally money came into it.

Climatically Martinborough was far more dramatic than the Hutt Valley had been. We both remember dear Grandma wandering around in her beautiful navy silk petticoat trying to cope with the 80ºF temperatures that we got in the summer. For many years Grandma had not perspired and consequently found life very trying until the body finally responded by breaking out into an unladylike 'sweat'.
We were always hard up in Martinborough and for some time we survived on Mum and Gran’s pensions to put food on the table. Gran continued to sew and make her own clothes and she and
Mum tackled the large old settee that was left in the house, repadding and recovering it so it gave us years of comfortable service.

At some stage Gran decided she had had enough of us and she went to live with Aunty Moll in Island Bay. John and Olga were working hard in the garden and only had the Commer truck as transport so they didn’t get down to Wellington often. However, one time they took the tomatoes to Market themselves and went on out to Island Bay to visit Grandma.
Olga reports: When we got there Gran said, “I am so glad to see you. I didn’t think you were talking to me any more.” And what had given her that impression I have no idea.

But finally she had another heart attack and she died at Island Bay in her 89th year, on 28th March 1960. After a funeral service at E Morris Jnr. Kent Terrace Wellington, she was cremated at Karori cemetery.

Edited 12 Dec. 2011 (Pat and Olga)