Newsletter 45 - June 2017
CLAN AYSON NATIONAL REUNION
Labour Weekend - Friday 19th to Sunday 21st October 2018
We look forward to welcoming you to a great occasion with fine food and warm Southern hospitality.
Planning is under way to provide an exciting and meaningful programme for the descendants of our pioneering families. We will be including a Saturday visit to the graves of Alexander and Joan Ayson in Wyndham and free time over the weekend to visit Warepa Early Pioneer Cemetery.
The Heartland Croydon Lodge in Gore will be our meeting place for registration and supper on Friday evening 19th October 2018.
After the AGM on Saturday morning we have a visit planned to the Mandeville Aircraft Museum http://www.experiencemandeville.com containing all operational vintage aeroplanes from Microlights to Jet Aircraft.
Saturday night is our banquet dinner at the Heartland Croydon Lodge, with the traditional piping of the Haggis and a guest speaker.
You will be free to explore the rest of the region at the conclusion of our programme on Sunday. Gore has many local attractions – Eastern Southland Art Gallery (renowned for the John Money collection and Ralph Hotere works), Moonshine Museum, Hokonui Pioneer Park.
Other recent developments in the South have afforded optional extra tours such as the newly completed Bill Richardson Transport World https://www.transportworld.co.nz and the most extensive collection of Motorbikes in the world.
To register your interest please click here: Clan Ayson Reunion 2018 Form
OR
Email : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Postal : The Secretary , Clan Ayson NZ Society, PO Box 836, Masterton. NZ 5840
Secretary Notes.
I would like to thank our South Island cousins who have dealt with the unexpected changes needed for our planned reunion in 2018. We are all very excited about the event and we look forward to meeting you there. Spread the word, gather the family together and register your interest as above.
As Secretary I get many interesting emails with family information. Recently I spent a lovely afternoon in Palmerston North hearing stories from the family of the late Llew Jones and it was an honour to be invited to visit his grave and others of his family located at Kelvin Grove Cemetery.
I am also gathering up a collection of photos people send to me and I intend to put these in a file to display at our reunion. We all have special memorabilia that relate to our forebears and it will be good to show copies of these and to know who has the originals.
We were saddened to hear that John Medley, our previous ‘keeper of the family tree’, had passed away. John was very supportive of all Ayson activities and under his expertise the Tree grew to hold 6800 names. Our Family Tree has been growing over the years and we now have 14 generations recorded commencing from the year 1575.
I do hope everyone has kept the annual subscription up to date as this extra mail out was not planned in the budget. It would be great to obtain a sponsor to cover the cost of postage which is around $500 per issue. We are slowly gathering up more email addresses which helps to reduce that cost.
Photos of some of our Australian cousins are also included in this newsletter and we hope we have many who make the trip across the Tasman and from elsewhere overseas next year.
Kind regards to you all and we look forward to hearing that you can come to our reunion next year.
Lindy
Thank you to Mick Cullen from Southern Colour Print who so willingly prints and distributes our newsletters to the regional Secretaries. Without Micks assistance it would be difficult to keep people informed of Clan news. Thank you Mick for being so willing, it is very much appreciated.
Ernest Llewellyn Sydney Jones.
06 February 1944 – 02.12.2015
His wife Pauline and daughter Maxine share their memories.
Everyone knew Llewellyn as Llew. He was descended from Margaret the second child of Peter and Douglas Ayson who married John McNeil. He was the 5th of 9 children born to Beverley McNeil who was married to Thomas Jones.
Pauline and Llew were looking after two little children when one of them said it would be good to have a boat to play on at the beach. Llew decided it would be a great winter job and he petitioned residents of Foxton beach with the proposition to construct a playground at the beach. He was able to present the Council with 641 signatures and reverse the Councils intention to sell the land which was across the road from their home. He managed to obtain some money from the Council and donated the rest themselves. He built the boat at home also donating his time of around 600 hours. Being a retired carpenter/joiner and a professional boat builder for five years he drew up the plans, obtained the timber needed and the project was his absolute pride and joy. The Council assisted with landscaping and the installation on site.
The 5 metre craft is a combination of viewing platform and children’s adventure play craft, for young and old, to let the imagination run wild and to have plenty of fun.
The Jones Playground is hugely popular and is located in the Flagstaff Reserve where local residents have fundraised to provide other play equipment and picnic tables etc.
He was a very talented man. One of his many achievements included making the moulds for the large concrete ball sculpture displayed in the foyer of Te Papa and the moulds for the surrounding wall area. He was meticulous with his craft and enjoyed furniture making and wood turning.
Before he died he wanted to go to Te Papa to see the Gallipoli Exhibition, to play a last game of bowls with his mates and to visit his best mate in Waihi. It was while he was in Waihi that he passed away.
Llew is buried at Kelvin Grove Cemetery together with his young son Russell who had passed away aged 7.
He is survived by his wife Pauline, son Bevan and daughter Maxine.
From our Australian Cousins.
Nicholas Proud (1.13.1) has sent this photo from 1955 which shows his grandmother Alma (holding the girl with the bow) with her eight brothers and sisters. Alma's father was William Ayson, son of Lake Falconer Ayson.
Cyril Proud (father of Nicholas) is seated 4th from right next to Dean Christie 3rd from the right sitting down.
Top left is Ivor Willoughby holding a young child. Ivor is now 92 and lives on the Gold Coast.
From Luke Anthony. (1.11.2)
I carve with native New Zealand woods like totara, rimu, matai, southern rata, kauri and native broadleaf. The wood is salvaged from building renovations, fenceposts and various other random sources.
Each species of bird I research as much as possible before I carve and my goal is to carve every New Zealand bird.
After the initial roughing out using a bandsaw, most of the work is then achieved using traditional carving hand tools, as I find them superior to machinery because they are less noisy, produce no irritating dust, and often work progresses faster. The fine feather detailing I burn in using a pyrography tool (hot poker pen) I then paint the birds as they appear in life using fine acrylics.
For more information visit: www.lukeanthonyart.com 27 Pery Street, Ranfurly
Central Otago, 9332 New Zealand