Mary's Family History pages

William [1] FEIST and Martha (nee HOLMAN)

 On 12 June 1832, William [1] married Martha, daughter of William and 
Martha [0] HOLMAN, at Chiddingly in Sussex. 

Their marriage certificate reads: 

 Marriage solemnised in the Parish of Chiddingly in the County of Sussex in the year 1832

 William Feist, of this Parish

Batchelor

and Martha Holman of this Parish,

 Spinster

were married in this Church by Banns this Twelfth day of June in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty Two

By me, Edwd. Langdale, Minister.

This Marriage was solemnized between us  { William Feist

                                         { Martha Holman

In the Presence of  { W. W. Holman

                    { M. Holman

 Peter Page, Clerk.

 

The Holman family has been in Sussex at least as long as the Feists, and is more widespread.  When researching local records it is quite common to come across a Holman as the clerk, or registrar, or a witnesses. 

William [1] was a butcher.  We have discovered very little else about him to date, beyond the fact of his death on 1 Dec 1849, in Sussex  so we must be content for the moment to trace his descendants.  In the seventeen and a half years of their marriage, William and Martha had nine children, of whom six survived beyond childhood.  Only five survived to make the journey out to New Zealand.

Of events in the nine years after William [1] died we know very little.  Edwin appears to have gone to Bletchingly, further north in Sussex, and Alfred married and started a family in London.  

Some time during these years, Martha and her family were advised to leave England, for health reasons, and by 1864 they had all decided to leave for New Zealand, where William [2] had gone six years earlier.  He had married, and his first children (twins) were born in the new colony as his family sailed to join him.

 The story of our branch of the Feist family in England was ending and the story of the Feist family in New Zealand was beginning.

 The surviving children were:

•  William [2]    born on  17 Oct 1833
• Alfred              born on  21 Feb 1835
• Lois                  born on 25 May 1841
• Edwin              born on 13 Dec 1842
• Egbert              born on 14 Feb 1845

  It is these five surviving children and their offspring whose stories are told in the following pages.