was that her maiden or surname GMM?

emily - first name
Veale - maiden name
Mitchell - surname married to Alfred Mitchell

found out quite a bit of info, mainly on her children etc. It would help if you know her parents names please

I have finally found the shipping record when Emily came to NZ on the "Charlotte Gladstone"aged 7 with sister Catherine 19 and brother Richard 11 Her parents, William and Elizabeth were 40. They came from Cornwall. Emily's children were William,1881 Ruben,1887 (I thought a Frank but can't verify this ) Edith Dorcas Emily (Eddie)1891, and Gladys Annie Alice (Annie)1897. Emily died at 36 in 1901 and Alfred at 65 in 1902. I now dont know how to get more info on alfred.

I'm presuming Emily & Alfred are both buried at the Halkett Presbyterian Church in West Melton, or even St Matthew's an area of Courtenay near West Melton, but there doesn't seem to be any info online. You will see at the links a number of headstones & info have been uploaded by lovely volunteers and perhaps if you wrote to them and asked?? - never know :)

They had a large farm of 143 acres at Halkett with a large (for its day) house of 9 rooms, stables etc. I think from memory it was named Rally Farm

The children (some at least) were born at Marshland and educated at Papanui & Halkett school (there was no Frank)

Their son, William Ward Mitchell,'s inlaws (Arthur Ephraim Davis) and some of his family of 16 children are buried at that one

When Reuben (Trooper 7/580) went to war his NOK was his brother William Ward Mitchell who was then living at Hawkins (bit west of Halkett) and the girls were near Timaru. Reuben was badly wounded at the Dardanelles in Aug 1915. The Marshland Patriotic Society welcomed Reuben and a number of other soldiers home in July 1919

Have you tried searching through Papers Past which is where I get a huge amount of info during all my researching

I will carry on looking for bits more if you would like the help

I appreciate your help very much, such a slow process at times then one get such helpful advice.Makes all the differnce. We have pretty much all of Reubens particuars, my father in law, but as his parents died young and he when my husband was 19 the history gets lost quickly.Rally Farm is of interest, seems most of it dissappeared in probate! I'm inerested to find out more about it. I guess there are some places one can search for school records too. I'm new to this. Well for now,I will follow up your leads, many thanks.GMM

Also look for alternate spelling Veal & Veale. William and his children went under Veal quite often.
William died aged 84 in 1902, a birth year of 1818 and a real age of 54 when he emigrated on the Charlotte Gladstone. Many immigrants altered their ages up or down to fit into the criteria.
This is William's Obituary which is very interesting because flags were hoisted at half-mast in several places in Lyttelton in his respect!
His wife Elizabeth's maiden name was Ward. She died 9 March 1892 aged 62, a birth year of about 1829, making her 42 when emigrating

Emily had another sister, Elizabeth Mary Veale (1850-1926) who was on the Charlotte Gladstone with them as a married woman. She married Matthew 'Mark' Thomas (1850-1908) who was a well-known Lyttelton shipmaster
They didn't have children

So that's who William stayed with when he retired, I couldn't see how he had another son in law from the information I had. Thanks for that GMM

I think I will write all the info into a journal so it can be read and understood more easily. It can also then be edited as we find more

Good idea, I dont think I have found out so much in such a short time. I was beginning to think that that line was never going to be found. Still can't find Alfred and Emily's burial or Catherine's She married a Dean