I need someone with local Christchurch(NZ) knowledge!

[carol8353]

I am helping a pal with his family history.His aunt died in Christchurch public hospital on the 27/6/1956.The death cert says from 15 Jubilee Street. Would that have been their home address? Are searchable electoral rolls available from the mid 1950s onwards?

Also is the current Christchurch hospital still the same one as it was then?
Would anyone know what the rule is regarding patient records.
Is my pal likely to be able to get more details on why she died.
The death cert purely says cancer......family info has it that she was pregnant at the time.His mum is in her 80's and would love to know if this was true of her sister.

Would really appreciate any info anyone can give me.
I'm new to searching any of the NZ records

Carol

[spades]

Hi Carol,

I'm not a Cantabrian, but I'll give you the best answer I can.

The Jubilee Street address is very likely to be the family home and I'll check this for you via Electoral Rolls next week if I get time. These aren't on-line, but are easily accessible at the library. Can you provide a full name?

I don't know if the hospital is the same one as in 1956, but in any case I believe deceased patients' records from that time will have been destroyed.

I think the best bet is to try to make contact with any surviving NZ relatives, as they are likely to have personal knowledge. And if she was pregnant, does your mate know who the father was?

Tor
 

[carol8353]

Hello Tor

Thanks for your reply,someone else has contacted me off message board,but the more the merrier

The lady in question was 29 and had been married for 7 years when she died,having lived for 4 of them in NZ.

I will PM you with the details.

Thanks

Carol

[mrs templeton]

Hi Carol

The hospital was the same one.

Did the death cert. say what sort of cancer?

My dad was Head of cardio-thoracic unit  from
1950-1980 I still have contact with some of
the specialists so may be able to help find out more from specialist of that sort of cancer.
15 Jubilee Street Christchurch would be all you need to search electoral rolls

[carol8353]

Many thanks to those who contacted me privately regarding this.
With lots of wonderful help from Bev(Kiwi) I now have most of the info I need.

However I would very much ike to find out more about the circumstances of Lilian Bennetts death and to that end I will PM Mrs Templeton in the hope that she can shed some light on where the records for 1956 might be held.

Once again thanks to all you very helpful NZ'ers.

Carol 

[Kiwi-pom]

Carol,

If you write to the Births Deaths and Marriages Department in Lower Hutt, New Zealand with the name of the deceased and the approx date of death- knowing the location of the death, there will be paper work for the death - it will supply parents name and similar information.

[carol8353]

Hello there

Thanks for your reply. I will PM you in a minute.
Yes we do have some info......but would like more 

Thanks

Carol

[spades]

Hi all, Just a correction re Kiwi-poms post. The Lower Hutt office of NZ Dept of Internal Affairs' BD&M is long closed, and enquiries best made through their website http://www.bdm.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/Services-Births-Deaths-and-Marriages-Index?OpenDocument

Cheers,

riley

[corinne]

I would very much doubt whether you will get any sort of full record from the hospital now.  If records are kept it is likely to be just a microfilm of the "admission summary" sheet which would have dates of adm and discharge and the diagnosis.  You might be lucky and find that pregnancy was listed on this sheet, but it isn't that likely if the primary cause for admission was cancer and she was terminally ill anyway.  You might also be lucky and find that there was a postmortem, in which case if it was a full postmortem again you might get confirmation of pregnancy.  However, if the death was expected, and she had been under medical care for cancer treatment, then either there wouldn't have been a need for a postmortem, or it may have been a limited postmortem (to just find out how far the cancer had spread, so not extended to other organs of the body).