A:
INTRODUCTION
This is the story of the FEIST family in New Zealand.
I began to write it down in November 1982 from information gathered
from memories passed down through various branches of the family from old
letters and records (although few of these were available to me) and from
books which I came across in various fortuitous ways.
The Cyclopaedia of New Zealand in the Wellington Central Public Library
was a good source of information, as were historical publications about
Masterton.
There are three families in New Zealand with names spelt or spoken similarly.
There are the FEISSTs, established mainly about Cambridge and Matamata.
The name is pronounced with the emphasis on the "i".
This family originated in Germany and came to New Zealand via America ( El Paso, Texas ) in 1901. In Germany the name was spelt FAISST.
The story of this family is recorded by Elizabeth A BARLOW in a booklet, The FEISST Story available from the library of the
NZ Society of Genealogists' Wellington Group.
Then there is the FEAST family, well known in the Wairarapa and Wellington as farmers and contractors in earth moving and development.
One Wilfred Feast is a well-known rifle shooter and has represented
New Zealand at the Commonwealth [Empire?] Games.
As far as I know, neither of these families is related to our FEIST family - at least, not in the last two or three hundred years.
It should be remembered, however, that non- family members eg newspaper reporters may often use the spellings incorrectly.
-Elsie Feist
Code Numbers
There are several instances in the family where children have obviously been named after older members of the family, and this can sometimes lead to confusion.
We have attempted to minimise this by giving similarly named members
of the family a "code number" to differentiate them.
Thus you will see
William [1] (b. 1803), son of William [0] (b. c 1780);
and
William [2] (b. 1833), son of William [1] ...etc.
