Wakefield family of Nelson

[Lucy2]

Anyone know where/what the Top House was?

A google search >>  "The Top House near Manuka Island" << brings up some helpful info (also mentions MORSE).
[Scroll through the Linz article headed "Crown Pastoral Land Tenure Review" ].

[taonga1]

Thank you Lucy  :-)

I found a brilliant article about it here:  http://www.theprow.org.nz/tophouse

I think I'm just going to have to plonk down the $$$ and get the certificate - grrrrr.  Don't like having to do that unless I'm more certain I have the right person!

Someone mentioned checking the Intention to Marry notices to see if his wife was a widow the second time she married.  I've seen them indexed in Archway - is that the only way to get that information? 

[Lucy2]

Hi taonga

Yes, I mentioned the Intention to Marry (ITM) notice earlier.
You can post a separate look-up request for it, here on the board.

I wonder if the Nelson Evening Mail also carried a report of the inquest into the death of John WAKEFIELD ?    These were usually held within a day or so of death, though in this case we learn from the article (21 December 1870) that the constable was being despatched to make enquiries, so given time for his travelling and return to Nelson, the inquest may have been delayed.

The inquest reports published in newspapers, often gave additional information about the deceased. 

Lu

[taonga1]

Thank you for the idea about an inquest - I would expect there to have been one, but I've now gone through both the Nelson Evening Mail and the Nelson Examiner for a month after the event, and not found one.  There are some crucial dates missing in Papers Past - about 4 days in the first week of January, and I'll bet my bottom dollar it's in one of the missing issues.

I'm getting the idea that there were certain classes of the population who just didn't make it into the papers unless they committed a crime.  I've gone back to William and Christina's marriage year - 1858 - and I've started reading through every issue of the papers intending to read all the years covering the birth dates of possible children.  They just never get a mention.

I'm also realising how patchy the search feature on Papers Past still is.  When you look at the OCR text, it's so scrambled, it's hard to recognise.    'cognpetiense' for 'correspondence' !!  I was going to read the NEM first, since it's not searchable, but since the NEX search is so unreliable, and since it's twice-weekly rather than daily, I've started there. 

[taonga1]

Update on this thread:

Having seen the ITM transcription now for Christina Lankow and her second husband, Joseph Busch, I now know that John/William Wakefield had died, and I'm going to assume the 1870 Wairau River drowning was him, and order that certificate.

My other questions remain:

Where is he buried?
Where did he come from?
What ship did he arrive on?
Who were his other children with Christina?
Why can't I find their daughter, Clara Elizabeth, in any birth records?

Althea - if you ever remember who it was who was also searching for John Wakefield, I would dance a jig  :-)

[Thamesite2017]

Have tried searching the lists archives but can't find it, must have been PM, certainly spent weeeks trying to help the person find the burial

Have you looked a the NZSG fiche to see if it has any more info
Source   NZSG Cemetery Fiche
Surname   WAKEFIELD
Given Names   John
Year of Death   1870
Record Number   N/R
Record Type   Misc
Age   N/R
Location   Wairau Marlborough U 20
There usually is something more
BYe
Althea
   
Did you look at the NZSG first families list and see if you can see common / possible names that may be family
http://www.genealogy.org.nz/Search_31.aspx
   

[taonga1]

Thank you Althea - the First Families database is interesting.  I didn't know about that one!  The only connected Wakefield I can find so far is Dorothea Christina.  I think I can tie all the others to two other Wakefield families.  Will go through with a fine tooth comb again.

I did email the Marlborough DC about cemeteries, as their burials aren't searchable online.  The lovely lady there told me that the most probable historic cemetery he'd be at in their area had all its records lost in a fire in 1890.  She's also given me a list of non-council graveyard contact people to try. 

I'm trying to remember - would a death certificate for 1870 show the burial site too?

[Thamesite2017]

Use the map to search by Wairau
http://fhr.kiwicelts.com/Cemeteries/NZ_Cemetery_Map.html and uyou can see possibilities

Bye
althea

[newbe_nz]

Death certificates pre 1876 do not show where a person is buried

Newbe