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Hi

I often see NZ Birth, Death and Marriage registration numbers used as a rough indication of a date. For example, a marriage registration 1952/01927 is likely to be early in 1952, and death 1952/34893 likely to be late in 1952.

But there were, according to Statistics NZ, only 18897 deaths in NZ in 1952. So why the much higher registration number?

Does anyone know how these numbers work?

Slainte
Gordon

My wife's family hail mainly from the Monkland coal-fields and adjacent areas, and before 1840-ish from Ireland.

We've become interested in how the smaller settlements such as Rutherglen, Blantyre, Ballieston and so on were absorbed into the city. So I've been looking for local government changes in the area, with little success so far.

Any ideas on finding, for example, maps of the city of Glasgow boundary changes over the last 150 - 200 years?

Many thanks

I'm trying to find details of the husband of an aunt.

Jane or Jean Findlay was born in Scotland, 1908 and emigrated to Wellington in 1924. She was not good at paperwork!

She and her husband (that is how he was refered to anyway) Edward James Jones ("Ted") had a child (same name as his father) in cal. 1935. He died 5 Sep 1945, buried 7 Sep 1945 aged 61. (Some transcriptions have 7th as death date but that is wrong.}

A death notice appeared in the Evening Post newspaper, 6 Sep 1945. He was described as the "beloved husband of Jean Jones and father of Edward".

His death certificate is a thin document. There is no indication of a marriage, just the note "Not known whether a widow". There is a note of one male child, age unknown. Nor are his parents names recorded. The informant was the undertaker.

His age was given as 61, birthplace Hales or Wales. (There is a small village named  Hales in Norfolk.) So born cal. 1884. He had been in NZ 15 years.

The 1935 Supplementary Electoral Roll for Wellington South lists Jane as a spinster. In the 1938 roll she is married, surname Jones, same address as Edward Jones.

Jane (or Jean - either used at random) married William Joseph Burns in Melbourne, 1954. She called herself a spinster, with her birth surname of Findlay. That marriage registration does not mention her son, or previous marriage (if that is what it was).

She divorced Burns in 1963, but continued to use the surname Burns.

Her death certificate records her as married, and two husbands are listed: Edward James Jones married in Wellington, date omitted, and Burns as above. The "Number of children" is left blank.

I knew her, and she was regarded as the salt of the earth and a real family person, albeit a bit unlucky when her second husband turned out to be a crook.

From this mess I would like to locate the marriage between Jean and Edward. If, of course, it exists. I cannot locate such in the BMD records held by the Dept of Internal Affairs.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Slainte
Gordon

My Mother arrived in NZ on a Yugoslav government boat in January 1949. She joined the boat in Trieste, Italy. i have shipping documentation for that part of her trip, Trieste to Auckland.

[The boat was sent to Australia and NZ to repatriate Yugoslavs after the war and carried a small number of passengers to avoid travelling empty.]

She was from Arbroath, Angus. Apparently there was such a huge demand for passages from the UK that it was common for people to get themselves to the continent and join a ship there.

Is there anywhere I can look for her leaving Scotland, and/or arriving in Italy? [She does not appear in the departures lists on Find My Past.]

I've found records of a relative's estate.

He died on 7 Jan 1933; three executors were a lawyer, an accountant and a brother. He was reasonably well off: the 1933 value of the estate was Quid 66990, which is the equivalent of half a million pounds in 2020.

The first record shows the usual confirmation at Aberdeen, recorded in the Calendar of Confirmations and Inventories.

But that will is also recorded as 'sealed' in the Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England.

Any idea why this Scottish will would be dealt with twice, in two different legal systems?

[I haven't seen the will - is there anywhere I might be able to, given that I am in NZ - a wee way from Aberdeen.]