Hello,
my paternal great grandma is turning out to have had a colourful past.
She had a baby girl in 1910 at the age of 15 (and this girl disappeared from trace - I haven't found her, but the rumour is that she went to Australia). Then (or so I had thought) she had a boy, my grandfather in 1916. Both children were born out of wedlock, and the NZ birth printouts give the ever helpful 'NR' in the "Father" details. Both were given her surname (Southee).
I then find yet another birth for my great grandma, which was registered in 1912.
So, off I go, and order the birth printout for this baby. I was very disappointed today, when I was emailed the printout, full of 'NR's and not much else. I worked out the date of birth myself (10 Feb 1912), and the only new information that this printout gave me was that the baby was a male, born in Upper Hutt, and that the informant was the baby's maternal grandmother.
After some to-ing and fro-ing with a woman at the ISBDM Issuance Team, and asking why some printouts were photocopies of handwritten records, whereas others (like the one I got today) were computer printouts with little information... she said this:
We are unable to issue this printout in the handwritten format. Legislation has been passed since the event was registered that deleted certain information collected at the time of the registration. This means the record must be updated into the typed format with the deleted information removed.
It is understandable that you may like to know what was deleted, however it is not possible for us to advise you of this. The effect of the legislation is that certain information must be treated as though it was never registered, so it would be contrary to that intention to distribute the information.
The typed printout contains all of the information from the original record other than that deleted by legislation.
I hope this explains the situation clearly.
Okay, okay.... it's frustrating, even with this explanation. This male born in 1912 has probably passed away like his brother, my grandfather, has... and the mother is long-gone - no people are left to offend or distress with the truth. Why the secrecy? All I am doing is researching my family tree.
Where to from here? How do I go about trying to find out the first name of the baby? The baby would have been adopted out, or perhaps died, because my grandfather had no idea about his mother giving birth to a boy four years earlier. Is it possible to find out if the baby was adopted, and trace them?
Many thanks
Rachel
