I have published two stories covering a bit of my research, the first story is about my Quest to find out when my Great Grand father (According to the Paper trail) arrived in New Zealand.
The second is a story about putting a Family back in contact with relations who they had lost contact with (The Best Christmas Present ever).

The Irish Link
Family History magazine for Irish family links worldwide.
ISSN0814-5482 No.53 June 1997, Page7. All words in Italics have been added to this article as corrections to that originally published.
Grimshaw or Grimason?
In 1984 I obtained, from Alexander Turnball Library in Wellington, a copy of the intention to marry of my great grandfather Robert Henry Grimshaw. On Robert’s marriage certificate he gave his father name as John Grimshaw and his mother as Ann Grimshaw, nee Berry.
His Birth place was Armagh, Ireland.
Robert had given the following information:
Age: 29; Dwelling place Waimauku; Length of residence seven years. ( turned out to be a red hearing )
Since Robert had married in 1884, I thought that, if I subtracted the seven years residence, I would have the year he arrived in New Zealand. I wrote to the Auckland Public Library inquiring about Robert’s probable arrival in 1877. In due course a negative answer came back, so I wrote to National Archives of Wellington. Same answer “Not found“. Then I wrote to Verna Mossong of the New Zealand Genealogical Society, again without success, so I left Robert and his mysterious arrival. In October 1984 I wrote to the eleven Grimshaws listed in the Ulster telephone book. Dennis Grimshaw of Holywood, Co Down, was the only one to reply.
The Grimshaw surname being so rare in Ireland and his family having been in Ireland a long time he thought that it was probable that we were related. His family formerly lived in Co Armagh, in the townland of Kilmoriarty ( pronounced kil-more-errity) near Portadown. He asked, “One particular question which I would like to resolve is the link between the Grimshaw and Grimason surname in Ulster, as it has always been alleged that one name is a corruption of the other through local pronunciation and usage, but which is correct”. Late November 1984. I booked my flight tickets from Tauranga. 27 May 1985. I phoned Dennis to let him know that I was in Stranrar and would be on the first ferry the following day so that I could meet him at the Belfast Railway Station as arranged. 29 May. I started my research at the PRONI at 66 Balmoral Avenue. I requested the Portadown Microfilm, looking for any Grimshaw and Grimason entries, until I found a marriage entry for John Grimason and Ann Berry. This I decided had to be mine as there was to much of a coincidence concerning first names and the brides maiden name.
I rewound the microfilm and started recording all entries concerning either surname, while doing this I came across the baptism of Robert Henry Grimason. At the end of that week I left Dennis a copy of what I had transcribed. 10 June 1985, Four Courts, Dublin. While recording the probate will index I found: John Grimason ( see Grimshaw ). John Grimshaw otherwise Grimason, died 5th Feb 1903 at Kilmoriarty, CO Armagh.   On my return to New Zealand in early July 1985, I asked Dennis to get a copy of John Grimason/Grimshaw’s will as this would be proof of the connection between the two surnames.
As a result of having given Dennis a copy of what I had transcribed, he was able to inform me that we are indeed related.   After moving to Auckland late January 1995, I planned on researching the hospital records for my great grandmother Maria Grimshaw formaly Lynch. In the National Archives Auckland Regional office, having found what I wanted and having time up my sleeve I then started looking at other index’s, while looking through the Waikato Immigration Scheme index cards, just to see if any Grimshaws were listed, I found “Robert H Grimmason ( see Grimshaw ). I had found my Great grandfather!
Robert arrived at Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand, 14th February 1865 on the clipper ship “Ganges”, where the manifest shows him as Robert H Grimshaw.
His land grant show him as Robert H Grimmason.
The Southern Cross Daily passenger list of 15th February 1865 has him as Robert H Grierson.
Robert’s age on arrival in New Zealand was shown as nineteen years, agreeing with his baptism, however, when he married in January 1884 his age was twenty nine years, a loss of nine years!
When he died in August 1909, his age was shown as fifty eight, out by five years.
Just goes to show what a merry dance some of our ancestors lead us by giving incorrect information when it suits them.
His children spent most of their school life in the Helensville area before going to Auckland late 1901 and have disappeared, so here we go again!
I am now on the Internet and have found more interesting stories relating to the Grimason and Grimshaw names, which I hope to share with you later.* David Grimshaw E-mail:(( grimason@ihug.co.nz (1996-2006)grimason@slingshot.co.nz 2006-2008) – now grimason@one-name.net   Note 1: All words in Italics have been added to this article as corrections to that originally published.   Note 2: 2007 discovered that Robert Henry Grimason was still using the Grimason surname in 1876 see News Paper account that I found  see Smoking Pipe.

Hi Listers, 23rd December 2006 Just had to share with all of you a situation that I found myself in and the recent developments.

I am one of those One Name researchers (GOONS).

Due to my research about six years ago I contacted Frank in Australia who happened to be interested in a little way about the family, at the time we traded a little information and I did not pursue his line of the family as I was researching some Canadian lines at the time plus getting the odd bit for the England & Wales lines.

Sadly Frank died in 2004, luckily I was able to supply to his son some family information that he needed for official records in Australia.

With his passing on I thought it was high time to concentrate a bit more of my English research and  on his (Franks) English – Irish branch.

From this research there appeared to be a mystery concerning Frank’s parents and mostly his mother.

Going by the birth records it appeared that the mother of  Frank was not the same women that the Father had married in the first place even though they had the same forename, however their Maiden names were completely different, at this stage I was given the name of Sherlock Holmes as I had discovered some things that Christopher was unaware of.

I started researching the whereabouts of Frank’s sisters in the hope that one of them may be able to shed light on the subject.

I managed to find one sister ( Florence ) back in June this year (2006) and put Christopher in touch, due to the delicate nature of things concerning this sister Christopher had not been able to bring up the question concerning the mystery, in between times I was still trying to trace the other sister forward to present day or at least a descendant.

I managed to find the birth index reference for a son and a daughter and since the surname in question is fairly common I decided to try to trace the daughter Diana, I searched through the General Records Office (GRO) marriage index’s and found two with the correct first name and middle initial, I checked the birth index’s for both surnames of the married name with the right maiden name and found that only one appeared to have had any children.

I ordered the Birth certificate of the Daughter and took a punt on the Marriage certificate for the one that had had the children.

At the end of November I duly received both certificates along with others I had ordered at the time.

The marriage certificate proved to be the correct one, I then went to 192.com and checked for both the Husband of the Daughter and any possible children that I had recorded from the GRO index’s.

I found one in the correct area that seemed to be a perfect match. On the 9th of December 2006 I wrote to Diana explaining that her mother Dorothy may or may not be able to clear up a family mystery concerning their branch of the family and ensured that I gave an out line of what the mystery was about along with some family information to show that I knew what I was talking about plus giving my contact details.

At 00:02 on the 23rd of December (2006) I was woken by a telephone call from Dorothy who was trilled that I was in contact with her nephew (Christopher) who was in turn in contact with Florence. I asked Dorothy if she was would like contact with Christopher, as it transpired she had also lost contact with Florence as well so I was able to put Dorothy in contact with both of them as she wanted to re establish contact, she was also unaware of the passing of her brother Frank.
At about 18:00 NZT on the 24th of December I telephoned Christopher son of Frank in Australia and said “Hi it is Sherlock Holmes here I have done it again”, you have e-mail and the contents has changed your family tree due to information that your Auntie Dorothy has given me.

Christopher told me that he and his Auntie Florence had been trying to find Dorothy to no avail.

He was overjoyed that not only had I found his Auntie Dorothy that he and his Auntie Florence had been trying to find but I had also found his cousin as well.

I gave him the address of both, as both parties wanted contact.

He said to me that “This is the Best Christmas present that I have ever received”.

I asked him to share it around the rest of the family in Australia as they too would be trilled to re establish contact.

The moral of this story is with persistence and solid research we to can make a difference when it counts by reuniting family.

One mystery solved but one still persists and hopefully another happy reunion of lost relations.

Sherlock Holmes