Greetings...

To read more detailed information about the various branches of the family please click on other family lines.

My research initially started with finding out more about my husbands grandfather Edward John Paton who was thought to be an only child. So it was a great surprise to find that he was indeed the second eldest child from a family of 6.

We discovered Mark's great grandfather Henry Paton had come to New Zealand from Scotland and from there on in we have been hooked on tracing the family line.

Now Mark, can quite proudly say that he is descended from a long line of Scottish ancestors, given his Dunbar family history which has been recorded back to the early 1600's.

His great grand father, Henry Paton arrived at Lyttelton Harbour in 1874 on board the ship 'Canterbury'. Henry Paton married Mary McKinlay also from Scotland who arrived with her mother and siblings on board the ship 'Soukar' in 1874 to Wellington harbour.

Henry & Mary married in 1880 in Christchurch and had a family of 6 children all born Dunedin. We have made contact with all of the descendants of this family here in New Zealand & Australia.

Mary McKinlay was the eldest of 9 children and her mother, Mary McConnell was the third wife of James McKinlay. I have been able to research quite a bit about this McKinlay family and have shared information with descendants of Mary's siblings here in New Zealand and Australia.

Unfortunately, I have hit a 'brick wall' with finding out more about Henry Paton other than he was born about 1850 in the parish of Dollar Clackmannanshire County Scotland. His father was John Paton occupation carpenter and his mother was Jane Gibson.

I assume that Henry was not an only child and look forward to making contact with someone with links or connections to descendants of Henry's siblings.

In 1954 Eris Paton (grand daughter of Henry Paton) was touring England with the New Zealand Women's Cricket Team and while there met some Paton relatives who came down from Scotland to meet her. Sadly, we didn't get to meet Eris as she passed away the very day that I discovered where she was living in Invercargill as she had moved from her home into a rest-home and then hospital where she died. Eris was the last Paton of that generation.....

We live Northland District North Island New Zealand and welcome contact from anyone with links or connections to any of the above related families.

We are planning to do the ancestral trek to Scotland to see where Mark's ancestors came from and hopefully meet some Paton, McKinlay, Dunbar & Munro relations.

All the best, Mark & Glynnis Paton