Hello miss howie,
My name is guy bruce.my mother was loise adelaide harvey, her mother was evelyn colyton howie. My mother never knew she had aunties or cousins.when i was a boy i lived in hamilton in a suberb called fairfield.amongst other places.now i live on an island called (prince of wales) between australia and png.
I am amazed to find you.
Please make contact.
Cheers,
Guy

Hi Guy,

This post is over 5 years old and a lot more information is known now. Nevertheless - good to hear from you. I know who you are, at least "in name". I've also seen your sister's tree on Geni,
(Priscilla 'Zair' BRUCE). The name 'Zair' stood out for me, aside of course from the fact that she was the Grand-daughter of Bache Wright HARVEY and Evelyn Colyton HARVEY (nee HOWIE).

I assume your Mother knew something, to have named her daughter 'Zair', its a well-used name in the UNWIN lines. Elizabeth Annie UNWIN married William HOWIE and were the parents of your grandmother, Evelyn Colyton HOWIE.

The name 'Zair' came from Mary ZAIR, wife of Thomas UNWIN, both were from Warwickshire, BIRMINGHAM, ENG. See Table below.
(Gen) means generation
= means married

(Gen 1) Thomas UNWIN Sr = Mary ZAIR
(Gen 2) Thomas "Zair" UNWIN = Annie READ
(Gen 3) Elizabeth Annie UNWIN = William HOWIE
(Gen 4) Evelyn Colyton HOWIE = Bache Wright HARVEY
(Gen 5) Lois Adelaide HARVEY

Its quite a common naming practice in England to give the Mother's maiden name as one of the christian names of a child. No surpise, their son was Thomas "Zair" UNWIN. It was Thomas "Zair" UNWIN that emigrated to New Zealand in the 1870s.

In (Gen 3) there was another Thomas "Zair" UNWIN but he died as a baby.

In (Gen 4) there were a number of babies named "Zair".
Hubert "Zair" HOWIE (Evelyn's younger brother)
"Zair" WILLIAMS (son of Ceda Marie UNWIN)
Eda "Zair UNWIN (daughter of Frederick UNWIN)

The name has continued in successive generations to the point of tradition. It would be truly remarkable if Priscilla's name "Zair" was a mere coincidence.

I've done a fair amount of research on the UNWIN family, its been online for a few years, and I've noticed it is now in trees all over the net it wont be hard to find.

My cousin (or should I say OUR cousin), Ian HOWIE (desc. of Francis-James HOWIE, Evelyn's elder brother) has taken the HOWIE line back some 6 generations past William HOWIE in the table above.

Another cousin, Dot McMINN (from Olive HOWIE, Evelyn's younger sister)has done a lot of work on the ZAIR side. She tells me that the ZAIR Family were master whip makers.

Let me know how I can help.

Regards
Pare (who lives in Fairfield, HAMILTON)

http://thomasunwin.blogspot.com/2013/02/thomas-fair-or-thomas-zair.html

I have written about the Zair naming tradition at the above web page.