"The Clode family began with Alfred Clode who emigrated from
Suffolk, England with several brothers to Australia and America. Alfred
eventually came to Riverton and engaged as a hotelkeeper. then a bullock
driver. His initiative brought him to Colac Bay where he maintained a
delivery service of goods by pack horse and bullock team to me Roundhill
and Orepuki settlements. He married Agnes McDonald and they had
eight daughters and eight sons.
One son, Alfred Jnr, married Sarah (Sally) Driver and they reared a
family of six girls, Florence, Villa, Agnes, Victoria. Sally and Iris, and
two boys, Len and Ernie, who all attended school at Colac Bay. Another
son of Alfred Snr was Christopher who married Lily Price. They moved to
Athol with their girls Vera, Neka, Helen and Ena Alice died in infancy)
and three boys, Morgan, Lennie and Ambrose, to take up farming as a
runholder in 1922 when Chris dissolved his partnership in the Svensson-
Clode sawmill.
The grandmother of the younger Clodes became affectionately
known in her later years as Granny Clode. Granny Agnes) Clode acted
as a mid-wife and when an accident happened, nearby people would run
to fetch Granny Clode who put a black cloak about her shoulders,
gathered a few things for her first aid bag. and set off to give what help
she could."

We are descended from Edward who married Mary King,
and the family that followed was William, James, Robert, Christopher,
Charles, Alfred, Charlotte, Lionel and Henry. There was 11 in Williams
family, and one son James is recorded as living with his Aunt Charlotte when
19. Of lionel's family, Jemima didn't marry. James married Lydia Ablett,
and had a son Alfred and he took the Clode name to NZ.

Alfred married Rosanna Earlyand then Agnes McDonald. The family had
arrived at Bluff in 1862 and settled at Riverton. Alfred and Agnes took
over the Royal Hotel. 15 years later this burnt down and they became
proprietors of the Great Western and later the Railway Hotel. He was an
enthusiastic volunteer in the Riverton Rifles. During their twenty or so
years in Riverton, the couple had a family of 16. James was the first born
in 1866.. in the mid 1880's a descition was made to break ties with
Riverton and the Clode family moved to Colac Bay and were among the earliest
settlers in this part of Western Southland. Alfred was now around 50 years
old. To follow on from George's anecdote: Agnes was well known for her
first aid skills and was in demand for this and also for mid-wife duties.
In 1899 she was the mid-wife at the birth of Myrtle Henry who was later to
become the Mother of Roma, Noeline and Brian of the James Clode branch.
Brian, who is mentioned in the above paragraph is my husband.

My sister-in-law has traced Edward Clod(e) back to 1769 and he was born in Knodishall - Coldfair Green area of Suffolk, England, where he was to grow up and work on the land. Edward married Mary King, and they had William, James, Robert, Christopher, Charles, Alfred, Charlotte, Lionel and Henry./ The area where the Clode children lived was within the coastal strip of Suffolk, known as the 'sandlings', About 1820 the family moved some twenty miles further south to Sutton. As the boys grew up, they too became agricultural labourers although at one stage Lionel was listed as a groom and gardener and Christopher as a woodcutter.
The information I have regarding Lionel is:  Lionel b 1816 married Mary Howe in 1840. They had Robert b 1841 who married in 1873 a Sarah Curtis Jemima b 1843. Jamima didn't marry and her children were brought up by her Grandparents.
We originally came from Invercargill, at the bottom of the South Island of New Zealand until 10 years ago, when we shifted to Blenheim, at the top of the South Island.
My father-in-law Alfred (descended from James 1866-1949 and Eliza Flowers 1872-1953) and his wife Myrtle Henry were both born in Colac Bay, Southland, but met and married in the city of Dunedin, Otago and later shifted to Balclutha, (South Otago), Tokanui, (Southland) and retired in Invercargill, where I met my husband.