Alfred duncan Glass Biog, by Debora Low

Dear Mr Glass

I am on my Aunt Elaine's computer sending you this email. I leave for the first leg of my journey to USA tomorrow morning and have stayed with my aunt for a couple of days, I am now in my later 50's and haven't seen her since I was about 19 so we grilled one another over old family matters and generally caught up

It has been very interesting looking at your family trees, the facts and photographs were amazing. I have always been interested in who came before us in the families. My mother and father (Graeme Low) were both told a lot by my grandfather Evan but as he died in 1975 there it all ended. My mum Trudy asked a lot of questions. As Evan was the eldest of Euphemia (Tottie) and John Low's children, he did remember his mother quite clearly even though he was only about 10 when she died.

One of the best stories was about Euphemia's brother Alfred Duncan Glass. My aunt wrote to you about that. According to my grandfather's Aunt Effie, Evelyn Mann was holding the threat of informing the police about his sexuality if a marriage didn't take place. Alfred confessed all to Effie and her advice was to leave town quietly and quickly. He tried to make a run for it but was caught. In those times an illegitimate birth was not well thought of and I guess the poor girl was quite desperate being 6 months pregnant. There was a huge gap (according to Aunty Effie) between how the Glass family brought their children up and how poor Evelyn was brought up. Mr Glass was very intolerant even though he preached Christianity (which your father would have been fed-up to his back teeth with).

Margaret Glass did have quite a bit to do with John and Totties' children and John Glass did meet all of them. It was John Low who was really persona non gratia; and apparently John Glass did not have very much Christian forgiveness in him. John, Margaret and Effie were at Totties' funeral as were most of the Glass family.

When John Glass was getting senile in the last 12 months, or so, of his life, he started to talk as he had when he was a child. In a broad and barely understandable dialect which he had long left behind. He became irascible and quite demanding and more so when he wasn't understood. Margaret found and paid for a very elderly Scottish lady who could understand him perfectly - to help him with his wants and needs. No wonder he got the names in his Will a bit mixed up! Effie described the elderly Scottish lady as not very likeable, very demanding, and not so keen on soap and water.

My grandfather Evan went to get his birth certificate in 1959 and with great difficulty succeeded in getting one through Waihi Hospital where he was born. Other people doing family history have tried since but the method has changed and all old records were piled into one place. It seems very difficult to get records which, at the time, were not done properly. Elaine tried a couple of years ago to get the information from Waihi Hospital but was told that all that information was in some Archway site. She got nowhere.

Effie told my grandfather that she was with him soon after he was born and he was taken first to her home in the Waikato area and from there she went with them back to Devonport when as soon as Tottie had recovered. All her babies were born after only 8 months of pregnancy due to her being an invalid.

That's about all I can remember, I hope that it helps. All this is second-hand information from Effie to my grandfather Evan, but it is very interesting to me and seems to fit in with the general history. Kindest regards from Deborah Low.

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