Queenstown man Henry Barker's great-grandparents, John and Elsie Ironside, have for decades been among the 99 people buried at the Wanaka Cemetery in unmarked graves, after a fire destroyed plot plans dating from before 1940 for the older part of what was then Pembroke Cemetery.
Until now, the only official record of those people was tucked away in local historic archives. However, last month's completion of a memorial wall displaying their names on bronze plaques has given dozens of descendants a more meaningful place to remember their relatives. The project was the work of the Unmarked Graves Committee, formed in 2008 and led by Wanaka resident Loris King.
On a concrete berm next to the memorial wall, families were given the opportunity to pay for individual plaques giving a more detailed account of their ancestors' history.
The Ironsides migrated to New Zealand from Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1873, and rode a horse from Oamaru to Morven Hills Station, where John worked as a shepherd, before going into partnership in Wanaka's first butchery. Mr Barker felt it was "very important" their lives were formally observed at the cemetery.
Ken Humphrey and Glenis McLennan, of Alexandra, Bruce King, of Wanaka, and other family members, also funded an individual plaque with a more detailed inscription about their great-grandparents Caleb Pipson, of Sussex, England, who arrived in New Zealand in 1858-59, and Anne Jane Hendry, who arrived from Applecross, Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, in 1860. The couple married and had 12 children in Makarora, where Mrs Hendry was the first white woman.
Mrs King said she was "thrilled" with the outcome of the $12,000 project, funded by local organisations.
"There is something there now forever where their families can come and see their names and know that they're here somewhere," Mrs King said.
