Dale Family History

The Story of the first two Generations

Dale Family History

Welcome to the Dale Family History website. I am glad you have found us.

This website has been created by Dale Hartle, great-great-granddaughter of Charles Hawkins Dale and Eliza Mary Bolton Stow[e].

The information on this page has been compiled for the family to share the story of the Dale family, including the wider family of Eliza Stow[e].

This website is for the family of Charles Hawkins Dale and Eliza Mary Bolton Stow[e], pictured below in their early years.

Eliza Mary Bolton Stow and Charles Hawkins Dale.

Contents of this webpage

Acknowledgements

I must acknowledge the contribution and cooperation of Murray Ballantine who had previously spent years researching and compiling parts of the Dale family tree, along with other members of the wider family.

Also Angela Cole, who supplied the original printout of the family tree that she had compiled many years ago which was used as a starting point.

Dale Family Facebook page

If you're interested in providing more information, or just keeping in touch with members of the Dale family, we have created a Charles and Eliza Dale's family group page. Send a Friend Request to the Charles and Eliza Dale Family Facebook page and state which family you belong to, and we'll accept you onto the page.

Family stories

The individual family stories have been published as separate files in PDF format so you can download and print just what you need. They are also available on the family Facebook page.

The actual family tree files are only available by request to known family members (see below for details).

I have arranged the family stories as follows:

Eliza gave birth to 13 children, but only 11 survived. This is their family story. All files in PDF format which you can download from the links below.

  1. William Charles Dale 1854-1914
  2. Eliza Mary Dale 1865-1922 (Box-Sinclair family)
  3. Lydia Annie Dale 1859-1941 (Bridgman family)
  4. Rose Dale 1861-1891 (Muir family)
  5. Edward Dale 1864-19??
  6. George Dale 1866-1948
  7. Frank Beaumont Dale 1868-1868
  8. Henry Dale 1869-1909
  9. Frank Dale 1870-1954
  10. Twin 1870 (lived 1 day)
  11. Emily Dale 1893-1950
  12. Mary Constance Dale 1875-1914 (Batchelar family)
  13. Clara Dale 1877-1949 (Litchfield family)

Other family stories (all in PDF format):

When compiling these family stories, I have tried to make it as interesting as possible, giving sufficient information about the people, places and events of their times so you can get a picture of who they were, where they came from, and what they did. Some families may also have produced their own family histories.

You'll find the obituaries are good sources of information as they summarised a person's life with such eloquence that described who they were and what they did.

In some cases, the online newspapers provided a wealth of information about what people were doing at the time, especially the Marriott family in Victoria (Eliza's sister Jane and her husband John Marriott). I have copied the text of the newspaper articles to show how prosperous they were, how their lives evolved, and the challenges they faced in their everyday life.

Family trees

The family trees are only available by request for privacy and security reasons. You need to email me to request the family tree or trees, and state which family you belong to. This information is not being published publicly except on the closed Facebook page. The tree numbering system is taken as meaning Charles Hawkins Dale and Eliza Mary Bolton Stow[e] are Generation 1, so each next generation gets the next number in the sequence. This helps you track back through the generations to find your lineage.

If you find any errors, or are able to provide any missing information such as name, dates of birth, marriage or death, or burial details, please contact me and I will update the files.

Sources of information

Information for this family website has been compiled from a large number of sources including:

  • NZ Department of Internal Affairs - Birth, death and marriage records online
  • Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates and listings
  • Cremation and Burial records held by local Councils including headstone images
  • Shipping records online
  • Commonwealth War Graves website
  • Auckland War Memorial Museum - Online Cenotaph project
  • National Archives of Australia - Australian Army records online
  • New Zealand Archives - Archway - Probate and War records
  • Online Family Histories and information on genealogy websites: Ancestry.com, findagrave.com, wikitree.com, familysearch.org
  • Newspaper clippings, articles and announcements: National Library of New Zealand - PapersPast online newspapers; National Library of Australia - Trove - Australian digital newspapers online
  • Images and maps sourced from Google
  • Family sources in New Zealand and Australia
  • Personal stories and memoirs, obituaries
  • Photographs including war, school, and family
  • YouTube videos
  • Local websites which have information about places, events or people

In most cases, the source of the information has been referenced so you can check it for yourself if you wish. In some instances, the information is not available online, but has been sourced by the family over the years and provided for the story or family tree. I am very grateful for the work these people have put in over the years to keep the information current which has helped make my task of compiling the stories into a readable format.

Errors and Omissions

The accuracy of the information compiled is always subject to verification. While every effort has been made to ensure the data is correct, there have been many cases where conflicting information was found, or the lack of information has forced some assumptions to be made.

An example is where Charles Alexander Sinclair clearly wrote on his World War I Army Attestation papers that he was born on 7 December 1890, whereas other evidence shows he was actually born on 11 December 1892. We wondered why he would do that, when he was clearly of age to sign up for service. Maybe he didn't know his actual date of birth!

The handwriting on other Army documents was quite hard to read, so a summary was prepared from the information that could be deciphered, and other information left out because it was too sensitive, unreadable or not understandable as it was in Army-speak.

Sometimes you will find that the headstone inscription names and dates do not match the death or burial records or newspaper reports. Spelling of names, especially surnames was also challenging, and many internet searches involved trying all different potential spellings. In some cases, the burial records for the Bridgman family in Invercargill had two different spellings - Bridgman and Bridgeman - this means you have to search twice. I have requested that these be updated with the Invercargill City Council, but in some cases they require evidence even though it is clear it's just a typo! And even then, it takes weeks for the online data to be updated.

Family photos

Most of the photographs in the family stories were provided by family members. The quality of some of the photos is not high, so if you have a better quality master photo, please send it to me for updating. Some photographs were sourced from the internet and references used.

As this is a private publication, it is not always possible to track and get permission for information or photographs as it may have been handed down through the generations to various family members, and in fact, no-one actually owns it any more, or copyright would have expired. Some items were shared on Facebook and it is assumed that permission is given for reuse in any format.

However, I apologise in advance if copyright has been breached or permission not sought to use any of the photographs or information. I am happy to follow up on this if necessary, if you can point out the photograph or information in question, and provide details about its status.

Frank Dale Family Reunion - March 2020

In mid-January 2020, we decided to hold a get together of Frank Dale's descendants at Clare Hitchcock's place in Matamata in early March 2020. It seemed a central place to gather for people travelling from the top of the North Island, and she had plenty of space. I travelled up from Levin and stayed the weekend as well.

We contacted as many members of the family as we could get hold of via Facebook, email and messages. In the end, over 30 descendants and spouses arrived!

The day consisted of a "roll call" of who was there, and a brief word about each of Frank Dale's family present, and then a pot-luck lunch. This was followed by a group video and photograph, and then lots of catching up. Click the image below for a larger version.

Frank Dale Family Reunion 2020

Thanks Clare and Alan for hosting us all. It was great catching up with long-lost cousins, viewing photographs and chatting about family stories. Luckily, we got this event in just before the Covid-19 lockdown was announced!

From this event, the preparation of the Dale family history stories and family tree developed into a project for me to document the family. This became my Covid-19 "lockdown project" for 2020.

One of the key learnings for me has been that two sets of great-great-grandparents (Rush and Dale) are buried in Terrace End Cemetery in Palmerston North, almost within touching distance of each other. I have walked past the Dale grave (pictured below) a few times on my way to the Rush graves, and wondered who they were, but never knew until January of 2020 when I started this project. I am sure they must have all known each other in the early days of settlement in Palmerston North in the 1880s.

Headstone - Charles Hawkins Dale and Eliza Mary Bolton Stow, Terrace End, Palmerston North.

I also didn't know anything about the wider Dale family. I only knew a few of my cousins and aunties from the Frank Dale line. I have now discovered that the Dale family is huge, interesting and varied, with over 1500 direct descendants from Charles and Eliza. Many of the Dale men and spouses served for Australia and New Zealand in World Wars I and II and later conflicts. Several family members died in tragic circumstances. They survived floods, snowstorms, searing heat and shipwrecks.

The Dale men were miners, farmers, railwaymen, surveyors, builders, engineers, bushmen, businessmen, gardeners, shopkeepers, union reps, and travellers.

Some of the Dale women had very large families and they survived many hardships in the early days, managing to bring up their children, and see them off to war, two never to return. They supported their husbands and wider family, and made a life for themselves in sometimes very trying circumstances including the loss of young children in horrific circumstances. They survived the world's first real global pandemic in 1918-1919. Many of the women were teachers, or very musical, and often gave recitals and concerts for their local community. They also supported their community in many ways including fundraising for soldiers at war and returned servicemen, organising and running events, working at the local school, and the men were members of local farming associations, councils and benevolent societies.

There is a massive amount of information publicly available, and private sources have also contributed. I hope you find the information I have compiled helpful and interesting when discovering who you are and your Dale ancestry. It's not exhaustive nor complete by any means, but is a good starting point for anyone who wants to continue looking into their heritage.

I have discovered that the Dale family were pioneering people, resourceful, resilient and respectable and well thought of by their community.

I am very proud and grateful for their contribution to this country, for without Charles Hawkins Dale and Eliza Mary Bolton Stow, none of us reading this webpage today would exist. Their direct descendants are spread all over New Zealand and the world. I am sure they would be very proud of us too!

We salute you Charles and Eliza - Kia kaha!

Contact details

If you have any information or photos to add to the site, or any corrections, please contact Dale Hartle in Levin, New Zealand, by phone +64 21 45 34 24 or email me at mjhartle at xtra.co.nz (please adjust email address).