April edition korero

Kia ora

Wow – thanks so much whanau for all the wonderful contributions to this newsletter. It’s been amazing getting all your emails and updates and hearing what you have all been up to. And now I get to share it around!

Coming up!

Saturday 26 June at 3pm – Clive’s 70^th birthday party, Ngaroma hall. RSVP to Hector or Chanelle on 07 872 3500.

Mankelow family commended for river clean-up

The Mankelow family of Cody, Kathy, Samara, Amber have recently been rewarded for their good deeds in looking after a corner of Aotearoa that is special to them.

They got a Commended Award in the ‘Beyond Recycling Community’ category of ARC’s (Auckland Regional Council) Sustainability 2010 Awards. The Beyond Recycling award is awarded to a community group or family for commitment, partnerships and practical action to reduce or reuse waste.

In their own words they describe the project;

“Every year for the past 16 or so years we have run a rubbish clean-up by kayak on the Puhoi River. We run this in conjunction with 'Clean up NZ week' and offer free kayaks to anyone who would like to come and help us keep this waterway clean.

The first couple of years we collected almost a full large skip of rubbish with lots of big items like washing machines, car tyres and engines. The last few years we are down to around half a trailer load which is fantastic. We have had help from other Mankelow family members; Anne Mankelow, Sherryl (nee Mankelow) and Merv Andrews all kindly donated time to come and help us one year. As we are always out and about on the river or at the Wenderholm Regional Park we are always collecting rubbish.”

I am sure every member of our whanau will offer their congratulations for an award so justly deserved. Great community spirit, in caring for your own backyard.

Photo shows from L to R; Cody Mankelow, Samara Mankelow, Amber Mankelow, Kathy Mankelow and Bill Burrell Auckland City Councilor.

Milestones

The fun thing about facebook…is being able to share family photos with those at a distance; such as the wonderful collection of wedding photos of Jamie and Megan Heffield (nee Watts) taken Rosenvale, Te Awamutu. You all look absolutely wonderful, congratulations on your big day.

Happy birthday to my mum Jocelyn Mankelow for turning 60 in March and to my neice Keziah who turned 13 yesterday! Those of you signed up to Geni will know who else has had a birthday recently – unless like Cody M (Ray’s Cody not Allen’s) you have got sick of the constant emails and tagged them as spam!

Kia Ora from Lu Pennell in Sydney

Just a quick note to you all out there that on Saturday 26 June at 3pm in the Ngaroma hall, We will be celebrating the birth of Clive Mankelow who turns 70.

I know that he will be sending invites out to all he can but for the ones that he misses or can’t find addresses for, please see this as your invite also.

On 16 July we are having a second 70^th birthday for Clive in Brisbane as some of the family can not make it home in June. If you would like to come to this event please contact me asap and I will give you further info. But all that I can tell you is that there’s going to be one big family holiday in the Gold Coast for a week or two before we celebrate in Brisbane.

Please if you have any questions please ring Clive, Hector or Chanelle on 07 872 3500. Or if you are game you can contact me on 0061295802164 or via email gordzgurl@bigpond.com or text +61419599014.

Mankelows overseas

Shannon and Des Cannons

Our second eldest daughter (Renee) has just had her first child, born on Valentines Day, February 14 2010 in Brisbane. Seth Carter Blair was 7lb 10 or for the young ones 3470gms. Des and I have spent five weeks over there to be present when he was born. (see the photos on facebook!)

We also went over there to find an opportunity to arrange our lifestyle to spend our winters in Oz and the summers in New Zealand cruising in our motorhome. Well we didn’t find that but we did find an opportunity of a lifetime really. We have got a full-time position in Melbourne, living on a very wealthy man’s playground; 330 acres on the Mornington Peninsula of which 51 acres is in vineyards. We are really there just for security for the place so when the owner and his wife come down to stay for a weekend, we just have to make sure the house is ready for them, with the beds made up etc. We have our own accommodation, looking down over the land down to the ocean and onto the one km of private beach. They have two full-time gardeners, one stockman to look after the Angus on the property, people to look after the vines, and a part-time caretaker. When we are not playing tennis on the tennis court or swimming in the pool we are driving around on the golf buggies just checking that everything is in order. This is what we call early retirement, with a lovely financial package to go along with it.

So our eldest daughter and her husband will be living in our house on our farm in Oropi, and we have just built a little self-contained flat at the end, so that when we come home for holidays we will have our own little place. We are now heading off around the East Coast for 10 days in our motorhome before we head off to America to do a 14-day cruise from San Diego to Alaska, and getting off in Vancouver with my brother Graeme and his wife Lisa. We will then fly back to Australia to begin our new position in May. We are just 50 years old and have really learned in life that as one door closes another one opens, and never be afraid to walk through it. Life is short, so do as much as you can with it. As Don (my dad) use to say, enjoy life because you are dead a lot longer than you are alive.

Staying over at Granny’s (Mabel Mankelow 18 / 4 / 1919 )

A grandchild’s memories
When we stayed at Granny’s we always got up early because the kitchen would be warm as Granny would have the coal range going. She would open the oven door and we’d put on a pair of knitted slippers, warm our feet in the oven and sip our cup of tea that she'd make for us and sit on the corner of the coal range. When it was really cold, we’d bring our clothes out and put them in the oven to warm them up before we put them on.

Our days were always very busy, whether we were working in the woolshed, yards, chipping noddy thistles, moving stock or doing any number of jobs on the farm, we were never bored. We didn’t look at it as work because it's just what we did, and when we did it we talked, laughed and listened to Granny or another adult tell stories about the old days as we walked for miles around the old farm at Ngaroma - what wonderful companionship we had. At smoko time we would share a cup of tea and some homemade goodies that Granny always found time to bake (We always stopped for smoko).

There was always time to play at Granny’s, and always some other kids staying at Granny’s or Aunty Ivy’s. We made mud and sawdust pies in the wood pile, bringing water up from the little creek by the clothes line - the same little creek we spent hours in looking for fresh water crayfish to take home and cook. Sometimes we'd head off to Aunty Ivy’s to go eeling.

Granny also had a treadle machine which we spent hours on, using scraps of material she gave us to make dolls clothes - this is most probably where I learnt my sewing skills.

Granny also took us visiting whether it was just a walk down the road to Aunty Ivy’s, to other family or to one of her friends. We were always on our best behaviour for Granny; she never had to growl at any of us. In fact, I don’t think I ever heard Granny get cross about anything or at anyone.

At the end of the day after we’d had a wash, eaten a good dinner and helped with the dishes, we’d settle in the lounge where Granny would sit and knit, and we’d play cards, knit or watch 14” black and white TV. At bedtime Granny would fill up our hotties in their brightly-coloured knitted covers and off to bed we’d go. Sometimes we got to sleep in her bed. She’d have a couple of us in bed with her and how she ever slept I don’t know. We’d go to sleep thinking of all the exciting things we’d do the next day.

I have lots of memories of growing up in Ngaroma but this note isn’t just about the memories, it's about the best Granny in the world and the best stay-overs possible.

From our family historian Ray…

I'm kind of stuck on resolving 'which William' is the correct ancestor line for Thomas Mank(t)elow. Jean Shortland's research suggests it should be William Mabb Manktelow and Glenda of Prince George (second-cousin once removed) has a different William based on research by Arthur Mankelow in Tonbridge, Kent. Glenda reports that Arthur, in getting on in years, does not wish to revisit his efforts from years ago.

I have asked Susan Young of the Mankies Yahoo group if she can suggest someone that could shed some light on the options. So far, I have not heard back.

Interesting that, whichever William you choose, you end up connected to the same William and Martha.

Geni photo demo

Ray Mankelow

I would like to demonstrate how to use the Geni identify frame, with a photo of Bert and Doreen with Don and Nola.
Discovering this cropping technique has saved me having to separately crop people out of photos and then saving the individual photos to upload. Instead, using this tool means you only have to upload one photo, and then select individuals within it.

(1) The first picture shows the default size of the identifying frame. You ignore entering the identifying name until after you have re-sized the frame,illustrated in the next pic.

2) shows the altered frame - I've dragged it out to better frame the person and then name them.

(3) shows the frame and name, after you've 'done identifying' and are hovering the mouse/cursor over the person.

(4) shows the dialogue box that opens when searching for the correct name.

In summary, drag the frame to suit rather than just accept the default frame - and use this on group shots to save uploading multiple cropped portions of a photo.

This is your life – Bob Mankelow

Robert John (Bob) named after my mother’s father.

(Photo left is Bob with grand-daughter #8)

Branch of family tree where do you fit in?
I’m Herbert's (bert) eldest son; younger siblings are Ray, Des and Tim.

Current employment / study
Contract work for the Regional Council, Environment Bay of Plenty, monitoring the protection areas on privately-owned land that received grant money from the council.

What keeps you busy? Interests…
I'm heavily involved in the community, Mountain Safety Council, Land Search and Rescue, Youth Search and Rescue, Ngatuhoa lodge, Hauraki Assn, and still serving in the Territorials at 63.

Most memorable life moment
Outward Bound in November 66, one of the problems with getting older is that there is lots of memorable life moments, how do you rate them?

My favourite part of NZ and why...
I've seen many and they all have special memories, a recent one was eating whitebait fritters at Karamea, after walking the Heaphy and before the Whangapeka.

Who/what would you be for a day?
I'm happy with who I am

Currently in my CD player...
The wife’s music

Where will you find me at 10pm on Saturday night?
More often than not camping out in the bush somewhere.

Favourite quote?
Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement

I am inspired by..
By my children and grandchildren.

If I could give you just one tip, it would be...
Smile - it disarms those who would do you harm