Three of Joseph and Lizzie Pickett's sons emigrated to New Zealand. The first of these to go was William Henry Pickett, b.1886. He had been in the Merchant Navy and so had seen a bit of the world already. He came back to England where he met and married Florence Maria Maslem. There was little work in England, so eleven days after the wedding, William left for Melbourne, Australia. He worked for a while on a sheep farm, but didn't like the life there. While in the Merchant Navy, he'd heard that New Zealand was nice so he went on there and settled in Gisborne. His wife joined him in April, 1914, 18 months after their wedding. They had three children. William became an auctioneer. William would have liked to come back to England for a visit but was put off when told there were too many changes and his family had moved on. In 1970 after his wife died, he said he would like to go again but was advised by his doctors not to - he'd had an ear removed due to cancer. He died in 1976 of brain cancer.

After World War I, two other brother also moved to Gisborne. Jack (John) Pickett emigrated in about 1920 with his wife Emma (nee Males) and their four children, Evelyn, Norman, Grace and Jack. Their descendants are still living in the Gisborne area.

The other brother to emigrate was Thomas, who went with his wife Bessie, again we think in the 1920s. They didn't live long in Gisborne, moving to Tauranga, where he worked for the post and telegraph. They eventually retired back to England. We understand they didn't have any children.

My Grandfather, Horie Pickett, always believed that there was one other Pickett from the family who moved to New Zealand, but this one from at least one generation earlier. My Grandfather always believed this man's name was Thomas. None of our family in New Zealand had ever heard of this. However, I did mention this to some other family historians in New Zealand and one of them very kindly sent me a will for a Thomas Pickett. This is what it says in part:

"This is the last Will and Testament of me Thomas Pickett, at present residing in the Borough of Masterton in the County of West Wairarapa, gardener:- After payment of all my just debts, funeral and testamentary expenses, I give devise and bequeath all my property of every sort, kind and description, both real and personal, unto my grandson, John Pickett of Masterton, labourer. ……..As witness my hand this twenty second day of November 1881, Thomas Pickett, his mark."

Thomas died on 23rd April, 1883, aged 83 years. On his death certificate, it gives his place of birth, River Green, Buntingford, Hertfordshire [England]. He had resided in New Zealand for 40 years.

Of course, we have no idea if this Thomas is part of our family except that my Grandfather had always maintained that our family came from Buntingford in Hertfordshire. As we have not been able to find our family on any 19th century English census returns, I've not known where to look for them in parish records etc. This information might well give us somewhere to start looking.

There had long been a rumour here in England that one of our ancestors married a Maori woman and brought her back to England. So far, I have managed to follow the family back to 1853 and Joseph Pickett's birth. His parents were John Pickett and Eliza Mary Ann Horn. We've not been able to find out anything more about this woman, except that she was previously married to a Mr. Faringdon. Her maiden name doesn't sound very Maori to us. It's just possible that John Pickett's mother was a Maori, but exceedingly unlikely that his grandmother was, because by then we would be well back into the 18th century and close to the time of the discovery of New Zealand by Europeans.

In the summer of 2002 when I at last made contact with our New Zealand cousins, I told them of this rumour, interested to know if any of them had heard it. They hadn't. (Surely, if it was true, the families who returned to New Zealand would know something about it?) However, they had heard that Joseph Pickett's wife, Lizzie Thompson, was Spanish, or had Spanish ancestry. This was news to me, but would tie in with what Lizzie's grandson, and my Grandfather, Horie Pickett, told me, that she had slightly darkened skin and flared nostrils.