The Lynn's of Tennessee Ave

By Mike Lynn

The time had arrived to document the history of our family before the opportunity was lost and this book has been written to provide our grandchildren with an understanding of their family heritage and to let them know that Nana and Grandad were not always old and had a life long before they even existed. While it includes a history of our families from their arrival in New Zealand, I was determined that it be filled with memoirs from across the generations to the current day to provide an insight into life in New Zealand over the past 150 years. I believe that you will really enjoy this format and can only encourage you to use this book to formulate a history of your very own family, I am sure you will find this a truly rewarding experience just as I have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Lynn
• Release date: Sep 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311973573

Mike Lynn

Married for 49 years, we had both worked in a variety of industries through our careers in New Zealand. Mike has worked in the Concrete Industry, Rag Trade, and Real Estate, in the areas of Sales and Marketing, General Management and more recently in Information Technology.Vicki has worked in Education and Legal in a range of Administration roles, Recruitment and Human Resources Management, and most recently in Australian Real Estate.Our son, daughter in law and seven grandchildren moved to the Sunshine Coast of Australia in May 2007 seeking new opportunities. A few months later we made the decision that we wanted to be a part of our grandchildren growing up and consequently made the move across the ditch as well.The desire to share some of our experiences in life as we both continue to work has led to our first book, Over the Hill and Across the Ditch which has now been followed by the release of The Lynn's of Tennessee Ave in 2014 and our third book The Bellini's of Gifford Road in 2015 with several other projects lined up as we develop our plans to travel around Australia in our retirement.

Book preview

The Lynn’s of Tennessee Ave

By Mike Lynn

Copyright 2014 Mike & Vicki Lynn

Smashwords Edition

With the recent loss of one of our Outlaws it was felt the time had come to document the arrival of the Lynn's and the Roses in New Zealand and how they came to settle in the King Country, and what lead Mum and Dad to settle in Mangere the thoughts and recollections of my Brothers and Sisters as we were growing up, how our families developed, and the recollections of our children as they have grown up of their families and their Grandparents.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this eBook. This eBook remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy at Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/mikevickilynn where they can also discover other works by this author.

Thank you for your support.

Contents

Preface - How it all Began

Chapter 1 – The Lynn Family

Chapter 2 – The Rose Family

Chapter 3 – Memories of Ohakune Junction

Chapter 4 – John (Jack) and Eileen Lynn

Chapter 5 – Memories of Tennessee Ave

Chapter 6 – The Grandkids Remember

Chapter 7 – Kevin and Jill Lynn

Chapter 8 – Colleen and Eric Scoble

Chapter 9 – Margaret and Ralph Smithyman

Chapter 10 – Noel and Sue Lynn

Chapter 11 – Michael and Vicki Lynn

About the Author

Preface

How it all began...

While on a short visit home earlier this year to catch up with my Brothers and Sisters a plan was hatched to write a book about our family. I did not want it to be your typical family tree about a whole lot of dead relatives, but a journey that briefly chronicles our family since its arrival in New Zealand and how my immediate family came to live in Tennessee Ave.

The book recalls our times growing up in Mangere, and my Brothers and Sisters recollections of our Mum and Dad, along with the recollections of their Grandchildren of their Grandparents. As the youngest child in my family, I know very little about my Grandparents which is a shame and I hope that this along with some other books I intend to write will address this balance for future generations of our family.

Then it looks at the families of each of my Brothers and Sisters and recounts their journey and where possible includes comments from their children of their memories.

I trust that you enjoy your read and if this book inspires just some of you to use this as a template for a book about your family then I will have achieved something worthwhile.

Back to Contents

The Lynn’s of Tennessee Avenue

The Lynn Family

Earliest research suggests that our GGG-Grandfather James Lynn resided at 1 Poppin Court, Fleet Street when our GG-Grandfather John was born on the 25th November, 1806. James was a fishmonger and the owner of a refreshment and oyster shop at 70 Fleet Street, it is recorded he sunk a well at this property in 1826. James Lynn passed away circa 1837 and left 70 Fleet Street and 108 & 113 Lower Thames Street to his sons. James Snr is also recorded as the owner of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese at 145 Fleet Street which lays claim to being the oldest pub in London, rebuilt in 1667 after the great fire of London. The Lower Thames Street properties were warehouse’s as well as dwellings where fish catches were landed and sorted before being distributed to the nearby Billingsgate fish markets and regular clients.

In 1837 John and James Lynn Jnr (his brother) were involved in a court case in an endeavour to recover money involved in the sale of their two thirds share of a ship named The Friends valued at 750 pounds. The 1841 census shows the occupants of 70 Fleet Street to be John Lynn, his first wife Susan his brother James Jrn born circa 1809 and his wife Sarah along with their two firstborn Harriett (1 year) and James (4 months) along with two other brothers William born 14/3/1813 a nurseryman and Daniel born 19/3/1820 a cabinetmaker along with 4 female and 1 male servant.

John married for a second time in 1854, Mary Ann Starkey the daughter of William Richard Starkey who was a fish factor, who would act as a go between purchasing fish from the local fishing fleet and the Billingsgate fish market. From the 1881 census we know that James Jnr was listed as a poor brother who was living in a charterhouse, presumably a forerunner of today’s retirement village. Living in the house at 70 Fleet Street in London was John Lynn who was listed as the head of the house, his second wife Mary Ann was either not in residence or deceased by this time. Six of the eight children present were listed as sons and daughters, the ages shown were at the time of the census, Elizabeth (21), Susanna (20), John who had died at 4 years, and Mary who had never married were not present. Rachael (17) went to India as a missionary in 1885; where she died of Typhoid in Coonoor, India on the 17th June 1900 at 5pm. Ruth (16) departed Birkenhead in the steamer Clan with her older brother Ebenezer (18) on September 22nd 1888 and spent many years as a missionary also in India. Joseph (15) who never married left Ireland in 1891 went to Madeira to learn Portuguese then to a mission in Africa. Despite immediate treatment provided by Dr Walter Fisher he died of rabies in 1893 after being bitten by a mad dog (he put himself between the dog and others) he is buried in a wheat field somewhere in Africa, this reference is thought to be a euphemism as no wheat fields existed in Africa in the 1890’s.

We are lead to believe that the Lynn sibling’s inspiration to take to the mission fields was the brief visit to London by Fredrick Stanley Arnot in July 1881 on his way to walk across Africa via Angola, Katanga & Zambia. He had been inspired to undertake missionary work after being read one of Dr Livingstone's letters by Annie Mary Livingstone (Dr's daughter) who just happened to be his next door neighbour. When Arnot returned to London in Sept 1888 he was surprised to find that he was famous for discovering the source of the Zambesi River. He appeared at the Royal Geographic Society where he presented a paper to the society. Arnot then married Harriet Fisher (a Lynn relative) and on returning to Garenganze Mission station was accompanied by among others Dr Walter Fisher. I am lead to believe that to