A Tale of Tom and Flora

On a cold grey autumn day in the Scottish town of Paisley, on the 5th of September 1890 a third son was born to Edward and Jane (nee Ritchie) McGorum (1858-1898). In keeping with the Celtic tradition of giving sons their Mother’s Maiden names as a second name, the bairn was named, Thomas Ritchie McGoram. At the time of time of Thomas’ birth, the family were living at 3 Cart Street,[1] and Edward worked as a Carter. Thomas was the youngest of three boys, Peter, Andrew and David [2] and he also had a sister, Jessie who was one year when he was born.

Jane and Edward had three more children after Tom, Edward Ritchie McGorum (1893-1982) Catherine (c1895-1897 – TBV) and Charles (1889-1899).

The happiness surrounding the birth of a new bairn for the McGorum family was short lived, At the time of Charles’ birth, Jane was ill with Tuberculosis, and died a few months later. The family was still grieving for Jane, when Charles was to follow her to the grave in a matter of months.

With young children in the family, Edward married Elizabeth Milliken on (DTBC).

Edward, (Tom’s father), and three of his children, Peter Ritchie McGorum, Andrew Ritchie McGorum  and Jessie McGorum, all migrated to New Zealand to the city of Auckland in the early 1900s. Edward McGorum, the youngest of the McGorum family arrived in New Zealand, along with his Step-mother, Elizabeth Milliken around 1904.

Thomas and his brother David Ritchie McGorum, departed London, England on 16 September 1910 bound for Wellington, New Zealand; on the Ship, ‘ARAWA’ . The two brothers had listed their occupation as Farm Labourers and travelled as 3rd Class passengers. Tom’s Passenger No was listed as: A012587, and David’s was: A012586[3]

During the First World War, Tom was in the NZ Army Reserve; and due to having flat feet he was not able to go to war overseas. Thomas played Football (Soccer) almost from the time he stepped off the ship, and while living in Petone, Wellington he played for the Thistle Club, and even represented Wellington in an Inter-Island match. Moving around the North Island, Tom was able to find work in various area, and at one stage he was working in Mt Maunganui, for the Railway and was called as a witness to a deliberate setting of a fire, at the Mt Maunganui Railway Station.[4]

At some time around c1920, Tom his father and brothers, except for David, change their surname from the spelling of McGorUm to McGorAm.

Jessie Flora Roberta Rose was born in Takaka, Golden Bay near Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand, on 3rd of August 1902. Joseph and Elizabeth (nee Scott) Rose. Flora (as she preferred to be called), was the second child in a small family of 3 children, which included Gordon Stuart Rose and later her younger sister Beatrice (Bea) Rose.

Tom married Flora in 1935 in the Registry Office in Auckland, with Jessie (nee McGoram) Smith and Guy Smith as their witnesses. Jessie was Tom’s only living sister, she would often come around to visit us at Robert St; she was large solidly built lady and was comfortable driving her car all around Auckland; I am off the belief she was the only McGoram who kept in touch with the various members of the family. A few days after Tom and Flora were married, they drove down to Levin, (near Wellington) to visit Flora’s father, Joseph Rose while there they had a photograph taken of the three of them.

Less than a year after being married, Tom and Flora married, their lives changed when they adopted a baby boy, whom they named John Edward McGoram.

In time the McGoram family expanded and Tom and Flora became parents to many children. Dorothy McGoram and Robin McGoram were adopted when they were respectively, 12 and 10 years. Six children, were fostered from babies until leaving home to be married - Jim, Selma-Janet, Margaret (Mags), Michael (Mackel), Rosemary (Rose) and Ian. The six foster children were not available for adoption; however Jim changed his name to James Thomas Ritchie McGoram, and myself, Selma Janet Fox (now known as Selma Janet McGoram), changed our names via deed poll in honour and respect for our parents. 

McGoram House in Elerslie

The years between 1936 and 1969 saw MANY foster children pass through the small, three bedroom, weatherboard house in Robert Street, Ellerslie; most of the children were of mixed race and I can recall Mum saying those “wee ones will have a tough road to hoe in life, so I want to give them a good start.”  At times there could be up to four babies in our home; all waiting to be adopted or returned to their mothers once they (the mothers), were ”back on their feet”.

Flora was a strict parent and the girls all had to help around the house, prepare school lunches, make our beds, vacuum the house, etc. The boys didn’t have to any chores, and often my sister, Mags and I used to feel very annoyed about this!  However, Flora had a soft heart, and sadly she just didn’t know how to show it; I suppose due to growing up in the early 1900s, when people were not demonstrative as they are these days (2020). I recall coming home from school one day, crying as I had been teased because I didn’t live with my ‘real’ parents. Mum told me, “you are luckier than those children, because you have two mothers and three fathers”. When I asked what she meant, I was told, “you have Mummy and Daddy, your real mother and father and your Father in Heaven”; I felt SO much better once I heard that explanation.

Tom worked for the New Zealand Railways for most of his working life, as a Metal Worker; the skill of working and creating objects out of metal came in very particularly useful with a growing family. I often used to sit on the step leading into Dad's garage and workshop, to watch him make and repair many varied items of metal, tin and wood. We had a fuel burning stove for cooking, and to heat the water for the many baths required. Dad made the best-looking coal and coke container; made of steel, it was divided inside into two sections, one for coal and the other for coke; a door on the outside, set across the two divisions allowed the two fuels to be dragged very easily into the one bucket.  When the huge container was empty my brothers, sisters and myself would climb in and play amongst the black dust, we had fun.  Mum was not happy to see five children with skin and clothes covered in the coal and coke dust!

A large household meant washing day was every day for Mum, so a larger clothesline was required, Dad came to the rescue. The best and highest clothesline in all of Ellerslie was the result.  The line was so high, Dad made Mum steps out of old railway carriage doors, which were good strong red, baked enamelled steel, which was still going strong in the 1970s!

Well, thanks to Dad we had two other pieces of play equipment in the back yard!

The clothesline became a swing, climbing to the top step, we would grab one of the wooden struts and jump off with a forward motion; to create the swing and around we would go.  Mum used to growl at us to not “swing on the clothesline", to no avail, we were having so much fun.

The clothesline steps would be turned on to the side, a piece of canvas would be thrown over and we would have a hut; many hours of fun were had with the clothesline and the steps.

References

[1] Ancestry.com. 1891 Scotland Census. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007

[2] Ancestry.com. 1891 Scotland Census. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007

[3] Ancestry.com. UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012

[4] Bay of Plenty Times, Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 6173, 28 August 1915

(to be continued....Selma Janet McGoram. June 2020).

Two Sisters, Two Friends

Mum (Jessie Flora Roberta Rose); and Aunty Bea, (Beatrice Rose), grew up in Takaka, near Nelson, in the north of the South Island of New Zealand, in the early 1900s. Flora and Bea had one brother, Gordon Stuart Rose, their parents were Joseph Thorpe Rose and Elizabeth Scott, both of whom had a Scottish background. Of particular interest, there were three Rose bothers, who married three Scott sisters!!! Talk about keeping it all in the family!

The two sisters were so very close to each other, and not a day would go by without them chatting for hours on the phone. The two woman were such great friends. If we rang Mum, and the phone was engaged, we would try Aunty Bea’s number; if that was busy, we gave up trying to call!

Whatever Mum did, Aunty Bea would copy, and vice versa. Mum wanted a fish pond in our front yard, so she and Aunty Bea made one, filled it with goldfish and pretty water lilies; with chicken wire discretely hidden amongst the leaves - aah, that stopped our cats, Blackie and Joey from getting at the fish! Aunty Bea, had a smaller fishpond in her front yard.

Aunty Bea had a vegetable garden in her backyard, we had one as well, all dug, planted out and looked after by the two sisters. At harvest time, Aunty Bea would come over to our place in Ellerslie, from her home in Balmoral, and the two of them would get “stuck into” to picking the crops. We had corn, beans, peas, potatoes, carrots, onions, plenty of food for the two families. Often I would join Mum & Aunty Bea in shelling the peas; we would in in the sun and chat away, while I would snuck a few  empty pea pods into my mouth!

My cousin, Yvonne and I often talk about how strong and ‘let’s just get on with it’, these two ladies were. My niece, Catherine and I also feel, it must have been the robust Scottish upbringing, because the strong, ‘we can do this’ traits have been passed down to many of the women in our family.

The house I grew up in was tiny compared to the mansions built now, no separate bedrooms for everyone, we shared rooms. The house was built with a short flight of stairs to the front door. One  day, Mum and Aunty Bea decided they would build a HUGE concrete deck across the front of the house. Dad was still working at that time, so the construction was all done by Mum & Aunty Bea. WOW, what a feat, and we had a great place to play on, and under; we used to crawl under the deck, and use it as a hiding place. An old iron bed was used as part of the steel re-enforcing, whatever steel the ladies could find, they used.

Our house was on a quarter acre block, so there was plenty of room for the vegetable garden, and the piece de resistance of construction, built by Mum and Aunty Bea….a tiny house! The house was built as a hut for all of us kids, there was a small covered porch, three lots of windows, all which opened, we thought we were in heaven. Over the years the hut was used as a bedroom by my sister, Mags and I as well as my brother Robin and his wife, Joan.

When I think back on the friendship Flora and Bea had, it was such a wonderful thing, and imagine how sad we all were when one day, something, and NONE of us know what happened, the two sisters fell out! I can’t even begin to understand how awfully sad it must have been for both of them to not have the daily contact they once had; it must have been heartbreaking. Aunty Bea remarried after Uncle Arthur died, and she moved away from Auckland. I don’t even know if the two sisters met up again, before they passed away.

Flora (Rose) McGoram and Bea (Rose) Cox, with L-R: Lyn and Yvonne Cox.
Photo taken at 'Farmers' Department Store in Hobson St, Auckland, NZ

The photo is of Mum, Aunty Bea and two of our cousins, Yvonne and Lyn, on a trip to the city. In the 1950s, when people went to town to shop, they always ‘dressed up’; out came the ‘Sunday Best’ clothes, gloves, hats, shoes and socks. My cousin, Yvonne tells me this photo was taken in the old ‘Farmers’ department store. Photos like this, were very popular in that era, and I just ADORE it.

Looking closely at the broach on Mum’s dress, I recognise it as one of hers that is now in my treasure chest, it is made of deep, blood red stones. One of my hobbies, is Scrapbooking, and I have ‘scrapped’ this photo twice, once for an album of mine and the other time for an album I made for my sister, Mags.

This is just a snippet of my Mum and Aunty Bea’s life, I hope you have enjoyed it. Family, if you have more tales to share, please let me know, or add it in the comments section. Thanks.