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Hi there

I am trying to access 3 records for relatives who changed their name by deed poll approx 1945.  I am trying to access the info via NZ Archives - which is a trial on its own!  I keep getting "status code failures, and then getting locked out of Real me - however can someone tell me if the records actually shows the reason for the name change?

Thanks
Sue

John Skinner/John (Jack)Gray

Has anyone had experience/knowledge of obtaining historical Child Welfare Records in New Zealand.  I am trying to locate records for the period 1918 – 1932.  I have tried searching information through Archives NZ - which I don’t find user friendly and most records would appear to be from 1927.

My father was born illegitimate in Wellington in 1918 and was placed in an orphanage, I'm assuming from his birth through to 1932.  He was placed in the Willard Orphanage in Palmerston North possibly when it first opened in 1920, however I think he would have been in another one from 1918 to 1920. 

I seem to be going around in circles trying to find where to start.  I'm sure that because he was in an orphanage for approx.14 years with no parent contact and a change of birth name, with no obvious adoption that I can find, he would have to have been in child welfare records at least?

Thanks
Sue

Hi

I am trying to locate records or any information on Nurse Dander's private hospital, Marion Street, Wellington.  I have researched online records and papers past but can only find a few birth notices there. 

My father was born there in 1918  and I would like to find further info on it and perhaps records that may have been archived.

Has anyone heard of or know where I could start?
Thanks
Sue

Moderator's edit: subject title edited to reflect correct surname spelling.

Hello Tiffaney.  This post goes way back but can you tell me if you found the John Jack Skinner in your search as i beleive i have?
Kind regards

Hello all,  Wow it's amazing how postings can ignite so many years later.  Thank you so much for your replies regarding my father - John "Jack" Gray.

Yes, one of my brother's, my half-sister and myself did our DNA and we are now officially a Robertson from Scotland and McCallum and can trace my tree back to the 15th century. 

Beg was wonderful and found a rogue birth registration in the name of Skinner, nothing like I had imagined nor researched in the past, and bingo - it is almost certainly my dad with McCallum being his mother, this all tying up with our DNA. 

So DNA opened up a minefield of information and family. However I am now in the situation as to whether I inform relations of my generation that their grandfather almost certainly had an affair with my grandmother and Dad was the result.  I have read some interesting articles lately on the merits and downfalls of DNA discoveries and while it is wonderful for my family to finally discover our roots and family members, do I contact them and broach the subject - let alone ask if they are interested in doing a DNA sample?  I will have a think.

Just why my father who was registered as a Skinner being his mother's married name at the time with NR for father, then became a Gray when put into the orphanage.  There a three registrations for a Jack/John Gray later in the years which were failed adoptions so I wonder if that was my dad but unfortunately that information is not available to me.  Otherwise that aspect will perhaps always remain a mystery. 

I hope to contact the archives for social welfare records and see if there are any records for John Skinner now as opposed to John Gray (which they could not find anything for - hence Dad not existing).
So there you go.  I would definitely advise DNA testing but caution with the results.
Kind regards
Sue