Stories from the graves

A new exhibition at Tūranga aims to shed light on lost stories from Christchurch’s oldest cemeteries.

Grave Insights: Plotting Lives in Christchurch Cemeteries is part of the regular series Tuakiri Investigates, and runs at Tuakiri | Identity, Level 2 from 14 July – 14 September.

It’s been developed to complement the Christchurch Family History Expo which is being held on the weekend of 2-3 August.

“This exhibition will appeal to anyone who might have spent time meandering in some of the city’s older cemeteries and wondered at the people buried there – who they were and the lives they might have led,” Acting Head of Libraries and Information Rosie Levi says. 

Using the cemetery plans, and other resources, the Tuakiri team have uncovered some of those lost stories - a grandmother and grandson buried side by side, a soldier buried at sea, and one of the first bell-ringers of ChristChurch Cathedral amongst them. 

John Gunthrip was buried in plot 89C at the Barbadoes Street Cemetery, alongside his second wife Sarah. John was head sexton at the cemetery for many years, having won the position in 1875 from 38 other candidates.

Originally a gardener from Middlesex, John arrived in the city on the Huntress in 1863 and promptly set about proving his horticultural skills, displaying fruit, vegetables and flowers in Christchurch Horticultural Society shows.

He was also among the first bellringers of the newly built ChristChurch Cathedral in 1881. John Gunthrip died in 1916. 

Another story concerns Mary Ann Harvey, who was buried in Rutherford Street (Woolston) Cemetery following her death on 29 February 1917.

Her granddaughter Lillian May Arnold, had died on 22 December 1916 and is buried at the foot of the plot, alongside a memorial to Mary's son Josiah, who died at sea of influenza somewhere between Sierra Leone and Plymouth on his way to World War II.

Barbadoes Street Cemetery opened in 1851 and closed in 1885. It is the city’s oldest cemetery and final resting place of many of Christchurch's early citizens, followed by Woolston Cemetery which dates from 1866. 

Visit the Grave Insights exhibition at Tūranga between Monday 14 July and Sunday 14 September to learn more about the lives and deaths of our ancestors. The Family History Expo takes place at Tūranga on the weekend of 2-3 August where there will be further opportunities to learn how to uncover details of the past.