May Elizabeth Smith

May Elizabeth Beaton was born in Auckland on 4 May 1891 (birth not registered, date traced through hospital records). 'May was nine years old when taken into care. She was raised by the nuns at St Mary‘s in Ponsonby until she was 18 and recalled that she was not well treated. In spite of this she maintained a strong Catholic faith all her life. In 1912, when pregnant with her first son, Alfred George, she went north. On 26 March 1913 (reg. 1913/1245) she married Charles John Smith (1881-1952) from Lincolnshire, England. Together they had 11 children. May is remembered as a loving mother and grandmother. She spent her years after the death of Charles living with her brother Tom and her children' (Alan McCaulay, personal correspondence, 2 November 2011). St Mary‘s records were destroyed by a fire in 1913. May died, aged 76, on 28 November 1967 (reg.1967/38597) at Kurunui Road, Morrinsville at the home of her twelfth child Noeline Turner (nee Smith). She is buried in Glenfield Cemetery, Auckland. Source: The McCauley Family of Katikati, New Zealand 1876-2012 by Debbie McCauley (p. 144).