RootsChat.Com

thanks so much, perhaps this is the case,  I'll delete all the information we have and just leave it blank since it seems we will never know for sure who are the correct parents for Martha.

William and Hannah seem possible contenders though on both her marriage certs and death she stated her mother's name as Ann  - it could be a shortened form of Hannah which occasionally did happen but for now I will leave her mother's name down as Ann since we don't know for sure if Hannah and Ann are the same person.

Maybe one day some more information will turn up.

Martha certainly lived an interesting life and worked as a servant in Governer Grey's household here in New Zealand

Okay I'll do my best to explain the links...

Martha's marriage certificates say that her father was William Rose, labourer and that she was born in Kent in 1824.  This same information is on her death certificate.

Searching through records on Family Search, FindMyPast, Ancestry and FreeReg there are only  a couple of contenders for Martha that match or a very close to this information.

1. Martha Rose bapt 1821 in West Wickham daughter of George Rose - but this can't be my Martha as father is wrong and she also stayed in Kent and appears in census records in the UK for 1851, 1861 etc.

The only other contender was a Mary Rose bapt in 1824 who is a daughter of William.  This William also appears in the census for Maidstone which matches up with Martha who married there.  He is also a labourer and his birthplace is Tenterton, Kent c1787 (going by his age on the various census)

This William Rose then matched up with a Wm Rose born 1787 in Tenterton who is a labourer and who did some military service in the 57th.

Hope that helps.  I've condensed everything as explaining all the different avenues of research etc would take several pages.  We just basically checked hundreds of records and went through a process of elimination and joining the dots.

Possibly this is all wrong but as we can only go on the information supplied on the certificates etc it was the best we could do.

If you can find a Martha Elizabeth Rose whose father was William and mother Ann who was from Kent and born c1824 then that's great and would be greatly appreciated.

I'll have to try and hunt them out - they are all packed away at the moment in storage.  From memory there is not a lot on them.

Just father's name: William.  occupation is hard to read but could be labourer?

Her birthplace on her NZ marriage says Maidstone, Kent (this is from memory but I'm pretty sure that what is said)

She is on the 1841 census for Kent - aged 15 a servant.

She married James Stacey the following year  23 Aug 1842 in Maidstone, Kent.  Her and James then left no long after as he was transferred overseas.  They went 1st to Australia and then to NZ.  James died in 1852 in New Zealand and Martha remarried in 1853 to Samuel CAMPTON who was also a soldier.

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C8830407

Thanks for that.  The consensus is that Martha and Mary are the same person.

According to Martha's marriage certificate her father's name was William and she was born in Kent in 1824.

Going through all the records the only M Rose born to a William Rose in Kent in either 1823/1824/1825 is Mary Rose.

The only Martha Rose is bapt in 1821 West Wickham, Kent - father is George Rose but this Martha stayed in Kent and appears in other census from 1841 etc.

My Martha ROSE married a James Stacey and then immigrated to Australia and New Zealand.  Bother her 1st husband and 2nd husband were in the army.

Mary ROSE born to William ROSE IN 1824 seems to be the strongest contender for Martha.

thanks and sorry for the confusion