Contribute to Project Rountree – Coleman (crowd funding).
In 2020 we continued the work started by our ancestor, Rev Walter Rountree MA. He created “The Rountree Tree Scroll” in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Rev Walter travelled around Ireland visiting the homes of his Rountree relations. His mission was to copy information out of their family bibles. This included the family names, dates of births, deaths and marriages. He recorded where they lived or emigrated to. He then created a rather large family tree scroll, dating back to 1710. After this, he printed off several copies and distributed them to cousins in Ireland, the Americas, Australia and New Zealand.
About the New Zealand Rountree – Coleman Families
The New Zealand Rountree – Coleman families began emigrating from County Cavan, Ireland, in 1862. They were pioneers in New Zealand, and settled mostly in the Canterbury region. 160 years later the world began entering the Covid-19 Pandemic. At the same time, some of the New Zealand Rountree – Coleman descendants had a crazy idea! They’d create a legacy publication for future generations. This was a follow up project to a book published in 1994 by Dallas Rountree and his sister. The first volume included many contributions by Rountree – Coleman cousins.
A Mammoth Project – Please Contribute to Rountree Coleman Family History
So, what started out as a rough concept proposed by Jo Noble turned into a mammoth project (learn more about this here). This was headed by four cousins: Deb Donnell, Christina Carroll, Bev Cameron and Jo Noble. We received hundreds of submissions including stories, family tree updates and photos.
The amount of work that went to it is hard to estimate. However, Deb knows she has invested over 1100 hours so far into the project. This time doesn’t count the work done by the rest of the editorial team or the people who sent in memories, photos, family tree updates, etc. Deb’s work included managing, researching, fact checking, and collating the 100 plus contributions to the book. Also, updating the family tree details. Furthermore, she did all the book production work. This includes designing, editing, and laying out into book format.
Deb has also sorted through thousands of photos and reduced that number down to 907 photos for the book. All of those photos needed editing and reformatting to be suitable for printing. While other people were doing jigsaws during Lockdown, or travelling locally during their holidays, Deb was working solidly on the biggest jigsaw ever and time travelling to Ireland and back on a daily basis!
Incredibly, against all odds and commonsense a 528 page book was published in just nine months. From a writing/publishing perspective this is impossible. Books of this size usually take several years to go from concept to final publication! However, the impossible was achieved in January 2021. The resulting book was released on 14 February 2021.
Crowdfunding the Ongoing Project Costs
There are ongoing costs and resource releases for this project, including:
- A revised edition of Volume I.
- An updated version of the original Rountree Tree Scroll.
- An online resource centre (private and secure archive).
- Updated / additional information available by downloadable pdfs.
We Invite You to Contribute to Project Rountree Coleman
The production and release of this additional work is dependent on Deb and other family members’ available and disposable income.
Therefore, we invite you to contribute towards costs to not only preserve, but also make available the Rountree -Coleman history for our cousins and descendants. You can do this as a one off contribution (you choose the amount), or contact us to set up a monthly or annual subscription via PayPal or Stripe, your credit card, or through a New Zealand bank automatic payment. The choice is yours. All contributions will be gratefully received and will help to continue this valuable work.
If you wish to contribute information to go in the digitised archive, we aren’t able to accept any more submissions at this point. However, please contact us to be added to our database. We can advise you when we are ready to accept more submissions.
THIS IS FOR ROUNTREE – COLEMAN FAMILY MEMBERS ONLY. However, if you are interested in doing a family history project for your family, please contact Deb to discuss the different options available for her to mentor you through the process.
