Thomas COMMON:
Thomas Common was born in Clears, St Stephens, Cornwall on Oct 13th 1847, to parents John Common and Jane Parkin. He was the 3rd of 5 children, the others being Mary Jane, born 1841, Susan, born 1843, died 1844, Susan, born 1850, and John, born 1852. After arriving in Dunedin, New Zealand, Thomas set out for the goldfields at Hamiltons in the Manitoto with his friend Silas Hore, and stayed there until 1874 when he left for Teaneraki (now Enfield) to set up a store with his friend Thomas Roseveare. In 1878 his brother John, sister Susan and his sweetheart Elizabeth Martyn arrived aboard the Waitangi on Oct 13th. Thomas married Elizabeth on Nov 28th 1878 and the heart of  the Common family was set up in New Zealand. They had 5 children: John born 1880, William born 1882, Thomas Jnr born 1883, Frances Emily born 1885 and Elizabeth Jane. William was my mother's father and so the link between myself  David Brown is established. My thanks go to my niece Delwyn Blondell for her research into the Common family of Roche, Cornwall, as we now know the Common family history back to George Common, born 1687 who married Maudline Hore, born 1680-1685 on 26th Aug 1707. If you have a contact with this family or would like to know more please contact David Brown.