A few years ago Bill's brother Nigel discovered that there was another Bill Heritage. This one lives in America and owns a winery. Bill did send an email to the winery, but got no reply. The William Heritage Winery is in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. It is not far away from Longwood Gardens so we tried just turning up.
It was initially disappointing. The NJ Bill (actually a William) was not on the premises. However, his wife was, and we had a most agreeable chat with Penni Heritage.
The big question was, of course, “Are we related?” The New Zealand Heritages are a branch of the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire Heritages in England. There is one known link to America. NZ Bill's great great grandfather, Caleb Heritage, had a brother Joshua who emigrated to the United States. We even have a copy of a photograph he sent back to England. Penni had no knowledge of an ancestral Joshua Heritage, and produced a beautifully drawn family tree that traced William's family back to an Eli Heritage.
Eli was born well before Caleb; probably one or maybe two generations further back. We photographed the tree and sent it to the genealogists in the Oxon/Warwicks tribe, but no connection has yet been established.
Penni generously gave us a complimentary tasting of some New Jersey Heritage wines, and we bought a couple of bottles that merited more than just a taste.
No comments:
Post a Comment