Hi Everyone;
I'm new to the forums here but not new to the family history research and have a broad general knowledge after 15 years at it. However, decided to get on the web now and put my interests 'out there' a bit more in the hope of finding other folk descended from the families in NZ and UK and maybe collaborate info on my research interests listed below.
I often find with family history research, that after many hours ploughing through untold records/documents etc, there is often 'facts' but no getting a feel for who the family was and how their relationships worked. It's good to find the truth is 'jollied up' by tales or wee mysteries about the individual family members and that's what makes it all worthwhile in the end however hard it must have been on the individual initially. I guess our descendants might scrutinise our lives one day...hopefully I've been telling the truth all my life!
This is one of my tales which I'd like to share:
My Gt Gt G/Father, let's call him Henry - on a 1938 (NZ) Death cert it was stated that his Spouse was deceased and that he had married her in London in 1881.
My Gt Gt G/Mother, let's call her Emily - had died 20 years earlier in 1918 and her Death cert status was written as WIDOW...and was registered under her 'married' name and she was A.K.A. blah blah (Also Known As - Henry's surname).
In NZ newspapers of earlier times; Henry went to court and was requested to pay for the upkeep of his 5 illegitimate children - 4 registered under his name and the last two little ones (yes later there was 1 more) were registered under Emily's original married name - took a while for me to find them in the BMD's as they went to school as Henry's name - but only one married with that name (another search problem for the other one). From the papers too, I've gleaned that there was often a difficulty with Emily and Henry being together harmoniously, as reflected in their later separate business interests in the town where they lived.
I did search for Henry's marriage in 1881 in London BMD's but no luck yet ; and I feel maybe with good reason as Emily was married very young to 'another' in 1881 in New Zealand - so the informant for Henry's death reg must have had 'muddled' knowledge or perhaps that had always been the 'story' the family had relied upon 'to keep up appearances'.
Recently, I've found a possibility that in 1881 Henry was in a London prison ....certainly maybe dreaming of a far away place and marriage and family....I've yet to learn how exactly he came to be in NZ ; and how he met his future 'wife', Emily around 1884 when their first child was born. I do know why Emily left her first husband; but I haven't found his death registration in NZ, and, because he variously changed his first and surname to the 'authorities' in later life - it may be the case that it will take some doing to locate this info - another 'mystery'.
