Book binds O'Reilly history

After more than 30 years of research, a Hamilton woman has published a book on the history of her family.

The first family member arrived in New Zealand 133 years ago.

Teresa O'Reilly, an amateur genealogist now in her late 70s, has always been fascinated by the stories of hardship and pioneering of her grandfather, Philip 'Pop' O'Reilly, told to her by her parents, aunts and uncles.

"Pop O'Reilly came out from Ireland as a young man, desperate to get away from the terrible poverty in his home country," says Miss O'Reilly.

"The story is that his father gave him a horse to sell at the local fair, so he sold it and used the money to buy his fare to New Zealand. But I think there's a bit more to it than that," she says.

"Five years after he arrived, he helped his nine siblings and parents to migrate here.

"He married and took up a 100-acre block of virgin bush-country at Apiti. He broke in the land and turned it into a good dairy farm, had a family of 13, and eventually moved to Te Kawa, near Te Awamutu."

Miss O'Reilly says some members of the family still live around the Waikato.

"There are now nearly 1000 descendants from Philip and his wife Rose, here in New Zealand and around the world.

She says 300 copies of the book, written by Hamilton writer and author Kingsley Field, have been published by Print House in Hamilton. Many have been sold, with orders from as far away as the US, Canada, Ireland and Australia. The book, which sells for $80, has 200 pages, with more than 170 photographs.

"There are lots of books about Irish people who migrated to North America, but very few have been written about the Irish migrants who went to the other side of the world - Australia and New Zealand," says Miss O'Reilly.

"For many people in Ireland, those migrants are seen as a lost people."

Copies of the book are available from oreillybookorders@gmail.com.