Mary Elizabeth (King) Mankelow (1862 - abt. 1939)

I have now posted my own copy of that photo and from July 2014 Rodney King in an email was helping me out with information relating to that photo, as per this extract from that email ...

"At the web site you put below, a family group photo comes up. I too have a copy of that - Dad knew all those people and in his handwriting the folk ar listed as you also have them listed. However, you made a comment on the Geni site along the lines of John King (at the right back) not looking old enough to be father-in-law of Henry Mankelow. Remember this is John William King (usually referred to as 'John Willie') who was Mary Elizabeth's oldest brother, so therefore Henry Mankelow's slightly older brother-in-law.

I wondered if this photo was at the time of patriarch John King's funeral (1907) based on the ladies' dresses. The occasion of the gathering intrigues me. However, the child Gladys nee Hall was born also in 1907, so if she is aged 2 or 3 then .. .. .. we can date the photo closely, but I can't establish the occasion."

Rodney King is descended from Thomas King, (brother of M. Elizabeth Mankelow) → John McCurdy King his son → Rodney King his son

Hi Ray, thank you very much for the details; that's great to hear the information. It sounds like the dates match and that it is likely it is the Dora Harvey who I descend from in that photo; I don't know if anyone from my parents generation knew information about the family Dora lived with, so it is really nice to find out more information and hear from people who are related to the family she spent time with; I'll make sure to note down the details about the King & Mankelow family now that I know the family connection. The Dora Harvey I descend from was born in 1988 and married when she was around 22 in 1910, so the age would match about right with the photo. Even if the photo was taken slightly before she married and changed her surname to Harvey, it is likely that someone annotating the photo would still have remembered her as Harvey rather than her maiden name. I know that there was another Dora Harvey in Taranaki from a different family that was born in 1871; however, I think the year & ages fit more closely with Dora Harvey in my family (born 1888) and especially given the fact that my mother recollects Dora mentioning that she lived with a King family. This is what a family member sent me back in 2015 about their recollections of talking to Dora Harvey back around 1970: "...the stories I remember Dora, your great Grandma and Alison's mum, telling me about early days - that she grew up in Okato for some of the time, where her Mum was the midwife; Dora had several sisters, and went to live with another family called the Kings who had lots of sons, so she could help with the housework there; I think she lived with the King family until she married Ted/Edward Harvey." ... Dora passed away in an unexpected accident in 1972, so there were limited opportunities for anyone in the family to find out more about her childhood in later years. I know that Dora lived in Inglewood when she was first raising her family; there's a really nice news article published about one of Dora's daughters who I knew well who lived to 103 years old: https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/6769696/Golf-gets-credit-for-Phyllis-milestone

Hello Tyne, is your Dora the one on the far right of the photo as the woman next to Alice Hall, looks to me to be like Rebecca -

https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/King-23091 The group photo shows in the Alice Hall profile https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/King-23091

I also seemed to uploaded that group photo twice - I thought WikiTree would pop up a prompt, to say the photo is already in the system?

date: Jan 6, 2024, 11:50 AM

subject: RE: Lizzie Mankelow Rodney King has replied to my email ... Greetings Ray. Gosh is it 10 years since we corresponded? I frequently see your Geni posts, and would be keen to meet, but I never come to Auckland. Do you come to Wellington?

Anyway, I have heard of Dora Harvey and traced it to her being in a photo I had. And you’ll guess it – the photo is the same one Tyne provided from Puke Ariki.

So, to begin, apart from Dora being in this photo as a “family friend” I have absolutely no other knowledge of her, or record of her being with King family.

I did a bit of detective work for fun, and have set out the path I took in the attached document. It may give Tyne a lead.

Feel free to share my email with Tyne. Where does he live? I’d be happy to meet or chat.

Kind regards Rodney

Hi Ray, thanks for sharing that; that is some great information. I am not too sure myself about the woman in the photo definitely being Dora Harvey as I only got that from the Puke Ariki annotation; good to hear Rodney may have found some more information too. I am based in Papakura, Auckland, but I do get down Wellington way sometimes as I have family down around Palmerston North and Levin. I will message you my contact details to send through to Rodney.

Hi Ray, do you know much about the Mankelow/King family in Taranaki from around the late 1800s & early 1900s? I am a descendant of Dora Harvey and I believe she is pictured here with the Mankelow/King family in Taranaki: https://collection.pukeariki.com/objects/91211/the-king-family

I have heard that Dora spent a lot of her childhood living with a family that wasn't her birth family and I believe it was a family with the surname King. Dora Harvey was known as both Dora Jeans and Dora Marris before marriage which were the surnames of her father and mother, but I've also heard that she was sometimes referred to as Dora King due to living with a King family. I know it's a long shot, but I was wondering if anyone who descends from the King or Mankelow family who is into genealogy might have known of any family history relating to potentially having a girl named Dora who lived with one of the families in Taranaki. The story I was told was that Dora went to live with a family that wasn't her birth family and there were mainly boys in the family, so she helped around the house.