Firstly, a bit about who I am and why I care. Growing up on the Chesswas family farm in Tututawa, Stratford, I knew little of our family history. I knew that my grandfather had been born in an isolated valley (Waitotara) in the middle of nowhere (between Taranaki & Wanganui) at the end of the Earth (New Zealand), and that his ancestors were probably the cheesemakers of Was, and were obviously German, as the town of Was must have been German (it just sounds like it is!). Six years ago, though, I began a journey of discovery, and I now know that the Chesswas family were not German but English, that "Chess" probably has more to do with their probable Cheshire origins than with Cheese, and that there are no towns in Germany called "Was".
The journey began sitting at a computer at Massey University. My parents had just purchased a new computer and opened their first email account, and I had written them an email. As I sat and scrolled through my inbox I discovered a reply, but not from my parents.
"Sorry, I can't help you with your financial situation", the email read, "but I do know that your father is John Chesswas, your grandfather is Walter and that you are my sixth cousin, twice removed and we share the same ancestor John Chesswas who was born in 1697."
The email I had received was from Graham Chesswas of England, and I realised I had emailed hotmail.com instead of xtra.co.nz. Graham's uncle Donald Chesswas had begun compiling a book on the family history, and had known about our branch in New Zealand since the 1970s. While he had been in touch with some members of the New Zealand clan, my mother and father apparently did not know and were still stuck on the "Cheesemakers of Was" story.
My father seldom spoke of, or cared for, family history, and it seems many Kiwi blokes are the same. After all, our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were so busy doing the work of settlers and pioneers that they just didn't have the time, energy or sentimentality to spend on such leisurely pursuits. Furthermore, as the story goes, they had often left family backgrounds riddled with poverty and oppressed by the English class system, where family defined everything about you. Rather than reproducing the past they were focused on creating the future - a vision of a New Zealand where men were free and all were equal, and where one would be defined by their own character and achievements rather than that of their families.
My generation, though, has been barraged through our TVs and radios with American culture and continental ideas, and advertising tells us every day that life is all about the individual getting what he or she wants. Liberal governments and schooling have emphasised the rights of the individual, and have produced policies and laws that have had devastating effects on families. The social fabric of our nation has changed to the point that the family is almost becoming an endangered species. At the same time there has been a revival of whanau (family) and whakapapa (genealogy) among the Maori of our nation (New Zealand), which I began to learn about in my studies at Massey University, and which made me start to wonder about my own culture and heritage. So when I began emailing Graham and his uncle Donald all those years ago it sparked an enthusiasm in me to learn all I could about my ancestors, my cultural heritage, my connection with those dusty old history books on the shelf.
I have been in contact with many different members of the Chesswas family - here in New Zealand, across the ditch in Australia, in the States and, of course, in the mother country England. Donald published the Chesswas Family History in Easter 2003, which happened to coincide with the first NZ Chesswas family reunion for about 25 years. I have a lot of information at hand to share for the benefit of family members, genealogists, historians and friends, and will endeavour to update this site regularly and do my best to give it a user-friendly format. I also imagine I will be able to set it up so other family members have the ability to make their own posts and add more information, so the site can act as a place for exchanging information and getting a better picture of just what it means to be....
