Nearly a century ago, a barometer was presented to a Murchison mining engineer about to sail for World War 1.
It survived three years with Charles Beilby on the Western Front before he returned to settle on the West Coast.
Sometime before or after he died of a heart attack at Denniston in 1932, man and barometer parted company, and it found its way to the scheelite fields of Glenorchy.
Last week in Queenstown, after some detective work, Pat Paulin placed the barometer in the hands of Charles Beilby's great-nephew, Hugh Beilby, of Auckland.
''What stories that could tell,'' Mr Paulin said.
''My goodness,'' came the reply.
Mr Paulin, a retired teacher, told the Otago Daily Times his search for a descendant of Charles Beilby became ''personal''.
''It's only a tiny little thing, but it's got a man's life wrapped up in it. I thought it would be marvellous if we could find some descendant of the family.''
His quest began three months ago after he was shown the barometer by a nephew visiting from Canterbury.
It had belonged to his late brother, Andy, and on the back was the inscription: ''CS Beilby, presented by residents, Murchison County, March 30th 1916.''
A search of the Papers Past website uncovered a Nelson Evening Mail article, dated April 1, 1916, describing a function two days earlier for departing soldiers - including a CS Beilby.
More investigation revealed that Charles Beilby married but never had children.
After returning from the war, he resumed work as a mining engineer - even standing for Parliament in 1925 in the Buller electorate.
Relieved to find only 13 telephone listings for Beilbys in the country, Mr Paulin rang a number in Clyde, and was told to call the ''family historians'', Hugh and Viv Beilby, in Auckland.
A meeting in Queenstown was arranged after the couple told him they were visiting family in Alexandra over the holidays.
Mr Beilby told the Otago Daily Times he and his wife were intrigued by Mr Paulin's call.
''We didn't know such a thing existed, and it's nice to find something that's part of the family's history.''
They had decided to give the barometer to the Murchison Museum.
''I think it would be nice for it to be preserved somewhere appropriate, where it would be remembered and cared for properly.''
Mr Paulin said the barometer might have been given to his brother by their father; both men were miners in the Glenorchy scheelite fields, where many West Coast miners were sent to work during the world wars.
He hoped the story would ''ring a bell'' with a reader, someone who might know how the barometer travelled from the West Coast to Glenorchy.
