Family matters
THEY may not have won seats in the elections, but at least they found each other.
Sharon Blaikie, who missed out on a Wellington City Council seat in the Onslow-Western Ward and Dianne Buchan, who missed out on a Greater Wellington Regional Council seat, found out during the elections that they were related.
“We were at a meeting and Sharon came up to me and said, ‘I’m interested in your name because my mum was a Buchan’.
“I thought ‘there’s heaps of Buchans in the South Island’, but then she said her family was from Dunedin and that they came over from Peterhead in 1800s. As it turns out my great, great grandfather is also hers,” says Buchan.
Charles Buchan – who the family all knew as Daid (Gaelic for dad) - brought his family of 14 to New Zealand in 1893 and they settled in Carey’s Bay near Port Chalmers.
Buchan’s Uncle Roy wrote a book about the family and through it she was able to show Blaikie a picture of her great grandfather for the first time.
“It was just lovely. She’s since bought seven copies of the book for her family.”
The two are now Facebook friends and Buchan hopes to catch up with her new-found relative soon.
“We have a clan reunion in Dunedin every year and I’m hoping Sharon will come next year.”
Sharon Blaikie, who missed out on a Wellington City Council seat in the Onslow-Western Ward and Dianne Buchan, who missed out on a Greater Wellington Regional Council seat, found out during the elections that they were related.
“We were at a meeting and Sharon came up to me and said, ‘I’m interested in your name because my mum was a Buchan’.
“I thought ‘there’s heaps of Buchans in the South Island’, but then she said her family was from Dunedin and that they came over from Peterhead in 1800s. As it turns out my great, great grandfather is also hers,” says Buchan.
Charles Buchan – who the family all knew as Daid (Gaelic for dad) - brought his family of 14 to New Zealand in 1893 and they settled in Carey’s Bay near Port Chalmers.
Buchan’s Uncle Roy wrote a book about the family and through it she was able to show Blaikie a picture of her great grandfather for the first time.
“It was just lovely. She’s since bought seven copies of the book for her family.”
The two are now Facebook friends and Buchan hopes to catch up with her new-found relative soon.
“We have a clan reunion in Dunedin every year and I’m hoping Sharon will come next year.”
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