My
grandfather, Murdo MacDonald, emigrated from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland to
New Zealand, following his brother Niel. The genealogy of his parents, Donald
MacDonald and Henrietta Morrison, has been researched by Henrietta MacDonald
and by Bill Lawson (Co Leis Thu? genealogy research service).
The following obituary gives an account of Murdo's life.
There died recently in Wellington, New Zealand, a Lewisman who was more than usually successful in his adopted home. Murdo MacDonald, brother of Neil and Margaret MacDonald of 6A Port of Ness, emigrated in the year 1912 at the age of nineteen. (He claimed to be the only islander of those days to pay his fare, and it is certainly true that most had worked their passage.) During his first few years in New Zealand he worked in flax swamps, at harvesting and contracting, but eventually found his way into the meat-export industry - where his ability was soon recognised. In 1929 he was appointed Manager of the Wellington Municipal Abattoir, a position he held until his death. In 1925 he married Hilda Voss, a Newzealand-born daughter of a Danish sheepfarmer, and is survived by his wife and son Donald, who graduated in the universities of New Zealand and Queensland and is now a secondary school teacher in Wellington, and by a granddaughter. He was a widely-known and highly-respected figure in the capital city. In 1949 he was Grand Director of Ceremonies in the Grand Lodge of New Zealand. He was also a member of the National Municipal Association and did valuable work during the war in connection with civil defence and food rationing. He was the acknowledged leader of the local Gaelic community and for many years president of the Wellington Gaelic Society. He took a keen interest in the preservation of the Gaelic language, had a large library of Gaelic books and was a life member of An Comunn Gaidhealach. He had intended to re-visit his homeland on retiring, but only eight months before this event, died suddenly of a heart attack.
Clipping of obituary in Stornoway Gazette (date not on the clipping and part of the newspaper's title cut off)