Category: Wilson – Frances 1877-1960

Five Minutes with the Wilson Sisters

by Donald Lang Whether you are looking at photos, family trees, or other documents, every now and then you find it difficult to find a probable narrative that covers the reported facts. Somewhere there is, or was, a letter in which Dan Wilson informed Hector McKenzie that he, Hector, working as a tanner, did not meet [Dan’s] approval as his son in law. The existence of the letter was not in doubt, up to something […]

Letter 1950-08-20 Fanny Foote- Donald Lang

Cheltenham Aug 20th 1950 Dear Donald, We have just spent four days in Oxford, & could have done with four more. However we hope to go back later in the year. Our Cousin Gilbert Wiblin a lad about my age (Aunt Fanny is 73), took us over many of the colleges, beautiful buildings many of them are, & they all have large quadrangles of perfect lawns & gardens. The finest one is Magdalen, where your […]

Letter 1957-12-23 Fanny Foote – Donald Lang

664A Mt Eden Rd 23.12.57 Dear Donald, Thank you for your Christmas message. We enjoyed it & Elizabeth says it is the best card we received. More to it, if you know what I mean. Hope you enjoyed your flight(Week in Sydney, tramping in Snowy, on to start PhD at ANU) & didn’t have any bumps. Reports of the heat in Sydney are not nice reading. I hope you haven’t melted to a grease spot. […]

Letter 1958-03-03 Fanny Foote – Donald Lang

664A Mt Eden Rd Monday Mar 3rd (1958) Dear Donald, First of all we all send our love & very best wishes for today. A bit late, but they are coming to you by the air as well. We thoroughly enjoyed your newsy letter with the description of your holiday doings. You certainly made the most of your time & managed to see some interesting spots. Now you will be settling down to some grind. […]

Letter 1960-08-28 Fanny Foote – Donald Lang

664A Mt Eden Rd 28.8.60 Dear Donald, Thank you for your interesting letter, which we all enjoyed. Your time at Canberra is drawing to an end. We are looking forward to seeing you before you take off for your next venture. We hear U.S.A., Israel, U.K. all mentioned. We hope it will be U.K. you go to. We like to think N.Z s best brains go to our own Kingdom for one thing, for another […]

Wilson – Frances 1877-1960

Fanny, as she was always known, was the daughter of Daniel Wilson from Ireland, Whangarei County Engineer and surveyor, and Emily Beuzeville Hewlett, whose father Theophilus(from Oxford and born in the reign of George III) was a son of Esther Beuzeville. Esther’s first husband died about 1820, and she married William Copley. She wrote books to support her family after she became widowed, and continued thereafter. [1] Fanny met her husband Robert Foote in Whangarei, where […]