Frenchman’s letters share tales from Otago goldfields

A Frenchman’s letters from Otago’s goldfields to family in France, and how they have come to be gifted to Uare Taoka o Hākena Hocken Collections in Dunedin reveal a fascinating story of immigration, family and New Zealand history.

Claude Félix Faisandier (1843-1916) was born in France and came to Aotearoa New Zealand via Switzerland and Australia in 1862.  He married Ann Galvin, of Ireland, in Dunedin in 1867.

Claude spent some time at Campbell’s Gully, supporting gold mining there, before raising his family of five children in Earnscleugh, Central Otago where his house still stands – a solid French design.

Claude’s descendants have maintained the threads of their family history. Great-grandson Chris Faisandier of Sydney is a driving force in this. He has written about his French family and origins back to 1712 and is now writing a biography of Claude.

Chris recently had Claude’s letters translated into English by Associate Professor Jean Anderson, from Victoria University, who has also provided transcriptions for further context.

These original letters, translations and transcriptions were this month donated to Hocken Collections.

Chris was unable to attend the event held at the Hocken to mark the donation, but he was represented by sisters Beth Darroch and Margaret Garvie, first cousin Pat Deady and his wife Lesley Deady.

Hocken Head Curator Archives Anna Blackman says they are very interested in the letters and the biographical work that Chris is undertaking because there were not a lot of French immigrants to New Zealand during the gold rush era.  Also striking is that most letters of this kind were sent out of New Zealand, never to return.

“That makes this collection doubly precious, very much a taoka to this and subsequent generations,” Anna says.

Margaret spoke at the event, providing some further history around how the collection arrived at Hocken Collections.

“The letters are beautifully scripted. He was a terrible speller by all accounts and his French was very traditional. Jean the translator is fabulous, recording what was happening at the time for each place he was at and the language and speech at the time,” Margaret says.

Despite some gaps, contact with France was maintained. When Claude stopped writing, daughter Eugenie wrote on the family’s behalf.  Claude’s son, also named Claude, wrote one letter, and then his grandson Vin wrote when he was a young teenager.

Vin visited France with his family in the late 1950’s. Their French relations were now living in Bellenaves and this became the ‘mecca’ to the New Zealand descendants. There have been many visits since.

Jacqueline, a third cousin, was the main French contact. A year after her death in 2020, the gift of a collection of letters kept by Jacqueline arrived in Margaret’s letter box.

They contained a long-held secret. Claude had fled France to avoid conscription for the Austro-French war of Napoleon III.

“His mother would have been devastated. Many of the letters say ‘Mum please write, I love you dearly, you’re always in my heart. I will make you proud.’ It’s a sad story in many ways and this true story is something we’ve all embraced,” Margaret says.

It seems Claude’s complaints of no one writing to him was due to logistics. His mother tried frequently to locate him via French diplomatic avenues, and it seems many of Claude’s letters did not arrive, nor did much of the gold and money he sent back. However, contact was maintained and artefacts Claude successfully sent back hung on the walls of the house in Bellenaves for decades.

There are more than 50 descendants of Claude and Ann now living in Australia and New Zealand. The French provincial style building Claude constructed with the traditional pise or rammed earth method, similar to Pompallier House, still stands in Earnscleugh (next door to actor Sam Neil’s vineyard, no less). The family believe Claude also built a cottage using this method for Paddy Galvin in Cardrona. These brothers-in-law were musicians, very community minded, and their children had many happy memories.

“We feel delighted Hocken Collections have accepted these letters, we are hopeful to share these with another passionate family historian further down the line,” Margaret says.

Hocken Collection staff will be working to process the letters, learn more about their contents and how to best present them –possibly as part of the digitisation project underway.

Anyone interested in viewing the letters can register their interest with Hocken Collections – email archives.hocken@otago.ac.nz, sign up for the Hocken newsletter, or follow them on social media. Details are on the Hocken Collection webpages.

– Nā Antonia Wallace, Kaiarataki Pārokoroko – Communications Adviser