YOUNG, Tem or Tim and YOUNG, Sue
Tem (or Tim) born c1886; died 2 December 1918; buried 3 December 1918; age 32
Sue born c1880; died 23 November 1918; buried 25 November 1918; age 38
Today we can only speculate on the relationship between these two men who possibly shared a surname and died in the influenza epidemic a week apart. Another relative or clan member, Jim YOUNG, ensured both had handsome graves and headstones erected in 1919, with Chinese characters readable to this day (i).
The two Youngs were married men living at different addresses in Te Aro (ii). Both worked as greengrocers, presumably in the city and close to home. Sue resided in Taranaki Street while Tem lived in Frederick Street. Close to both of them at 144 Tory Street, right by the intersection with Haining Street, lived Jim Young.
Tem (or Tim) born c1886; died 2 December 1918; buried 3 December 1918; age 32
Sue born c1880; died 23 November 1918; buried 25 November 1918; age 38
Today we can only speculate on the relationship between these two men who possibly shared a surname and died in the influenza epidemic a week apart. Another relative or clan member, Jim YOUNG, ensured both had handsome graves and headstones erected in 1919, with Chinese characters readable to this day (i).
The two Youngs were married men living at different addresses in Te Aro (ii). Both worked as greengrocers, presumably in the city and close to home. Sue resided in Taranaki Street while Tem lived in Frederick Street. Close to both of them at 144 Tory Street, right by the intersection with Haining Street, lived Jim Young.
Corner of Tory and Haining streets, the possible home of Jim Young who purchased grave plots for Sue and Tem Young.
With thanks to National Library PAColl-4871-02-01
With thanks to National Library PAColl-4871-02-01
Without more definite information it is only possible to suggest the two Youngs may have been what was known as ‘village cousins’. Their grave markers and translators yield the fuller information that both men had ancestors from Poon Yu, now part of northern Guangzhou city in Baak Waan district. Both were born in Pong Wu town in Canton. Sue Young’s full name was Yeung (Young) So Bor, while Tem (or Tim) Young was Yeung (Young) Mok Tim (iii). Neither headstone included information on the families they left behind.
Poon Yue county in Canton (with thanks to Ruth Lam et al, vol 2, page 877) (iv)
Alexander Don’s ‘Roll of Chinese’ published as Volume 4 of James Ng’s ‘Windows on a Chinese Past’ (v) contains no entry for a Sue Young but does list a ‘Tem Young’ as ‘working in Aramoho Gardens, ’12 returned from China. Naturalised at Reefton; 21.7.13 to Otaki’ and as a wage worker ‘from Aramoho; 9:13 Shang garden II’. However, little definitely connects this listing with the flu death victim of the same name some 5 years later. Neither are there naturalisation papers in Archives New Zealand that would fit the birth years of the Youngs; all the Tem Youngs with records there postdate the flu death of the subject of this account.
When influenza struck, Sue Young was taken from Taranaki Street (perhaps straight from home) to be nursed at one of the 48 beds at the temporary hospital at St Patrick’s College, then in Buckle Street. He died on 23 November 1918 and was buried 2 days later in plot 324 I in Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery. His age was recorded as 38 in the cemetery record but as 39 on the list of flu victims drawn up by Professor Geoffrey Rice from death records in compiling his 1988 book ‘Black November – The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand’.
In the case of Tem (or Tim) Young, he was also taken to St Patrick’s temporary hospital but from Lambton Quay where he may have worked. He died on 2 December 1918, a week after Sue Young, and was buried the very next day in plot 294 J in Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery. Sue’s death record shows his father as Young Hing, that he had been in New Zealand for 18 years, and that he had had pneumonia for 5 days and jaundice for 3 days. No information was available on his wife or his mother.
Although both plot records give ‘Wilson’ as the funeral director in 1918, that company’s records no longer contain any mention of either Tem or Sue Young. Research has not so far uncovered more about their families, whether they remained in New Zealand, or what happened to them.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson with thanks to Nigel Murphy and Lynette Shum for their review
Grave Information:
Section: PUBLIC2
Plot: 295 J
(i) Wellington City Council plot records show that Jim Young paid for both graves in January 1919.
(ii) Professor Geoffrey Rice ‘Black November – The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand’, published Canterbury University Press,1988. Professor Rice’s research material on Wellington deaths was the source of information on both Tem (or Tim) Young and Sue Young being married.
(iii) Thanks to Lynette Shum of the National Library for the headstone translations.
(iv) Ruth Lam, Beverly Lowe, Helen Wong, Michael Wong and Carolyn King ‘The fruits of our labours’, vol I, published by the Chinese Heritage Poll Tax Trust, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington 2018, page 877.
(v) Ng, James, ‘Windows on a Chinese Past, vol 4, ‘Don’s Roll of Chinese, Otago Heritage Books, 1993, pp 218-9, 228-9
When influenza struck, Sue Young was taken from Taranaki Street (perhaps straight from home) to be nursed at one of the 48 beds at the temporary hospital at St Patrick’s College, then in Buckle Street. He died on 23 November 1918 and was buried 2 days later in plot 324 I in Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery. His age was recorded as 38 in the cemetery record but as 39 on the list of flu victims drawn up by Professor Geoffrey Rice from death records in compiling his 1988 book ‘Black November – The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand’.
In the case of Tem (or Tim) Young, he was also taken to St Patrick’s temporary hospital but from Lambton Quay where he may have worked. He died on 2 December 1918, a week after Sue Young, and was buried the very next day in plot 294 J in Public 2 section of Karori Cemetery. Sue’s death record shows his father as Young Hing, that he had been in New Zealand for 18 years, and that he had had pneumonia for 5 days and jaundice for 3 days. No information was available on his wife or his mother.
Although both plot records give ‘Wilson’ as the funeral director in 1918, that company’s records no longer contain any mention of either Tem or Sue Young. Research has not so far uncovered more about their families, whether they remained in New Zealand, or what happened to them.
Researched and written by Jenny Robertson with thanks to Nigel Murphy and Lynette Shum for their review
Grave Information:
Section: PUBLIC2
Plot: 295 J
(i) Wellington City Council plot records show that Jim Young paid for both graves in January 1919.
(ii) Professor Geoffrey Rice ‘Black November – The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand’, published Canterbury University Press,1988. Professor Rice’s research material on Wellington deaths was the source of information on both Tem (or Tim) Young and Sue Young being married.
(iii) Thanks to Lynette Shum of the National Library for the headstone translations.
(iv) Ruth Lam, Beverly Lowe, Helen Wong, Michael Wong and Carolyn King ‘The fruits of our labours’, vol I, published by the Chinese Heritage Poll Tax Trust, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington 2018, page 877.
(v) Ng, James, ‘Windows on a Chinese Past, vol 4, ‘Don’s Roll of Chinese, Otago Heritage Books, 1993, pp 218-9, 228-9