Re: Thomas Spain in NZ
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In reply to:
Re: Thomas Spain in NZ
Rodney Thompson 5/19/03
Rod, I am your cousin Ngaire (Forward)Spain's daughter.
My grandfather was Thomas Raymond, son of Thomas George.
Dawn, your Thomas is not our Thomas. Grandad used to tell the story that at one stage, his father Thomas George was a travelling salesman, calling on rural homesteads, selling door to door in Central Otago. He had been told that there was another Thomas Spain who looked a lot like him. One day he knocked on a homestead door and it was opened by a gentleman. The two looked at each other and one said "hello Tom" to which the other replied "hello Tom". They excanged pleasantries and then our Tom went on his way.
Grandad assumed that the two Tom's had common relatives as both origiated from the Kent area, but how they were related is unclear.
There used to be a Central Otago Spain portrait in the Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin, I saw it about 30 years ago.