Rolling jaffas? Heavens! Too good to roll
As you said, Janette, Ivan married widowed Rosa Gilders (born Berwick) in Campbell Town, Tasmania, on 25th December 1889. He gave his age as 26, his occupation as stonemason, and his condition as a bachelor. The witnesses were locals and Rosa was born and bred in Tasmania, so there doesn't appear to be any extra information to be gleaned there beyond the fact that Ivan was presumably born around 1863. Old Tasmanian certificates give the bare minimum.
They had three surviving children in Tasmania then moved to Melbourne between 1902 and 1906. Rosa died there in 1906. Ivan died in July 1928 in Melbourne. He was a successful painter and decorator - supposedly worked on the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. His death certificate gives his age as 65, agreeing with his marriage certificate. Under parent details we have father John Carlton, occupation unknown, and mother Elizabeth Carlton, formerly Burchall. Under Where born and how long in the Australian states, it states, (born in) New Zealand, New Zealand for 35 years, Tasmania for 10 years, and Victoria for 20 years.
Those figures add up to his age but they can't be correct. Assuming he was born in 1863 he couldn't have been in NZ for more than 26 years (1863-1889), and then he was in Tasmania for at least 13 years (1889-1902 when the last child was born in Tasmania) and then he would have been in Victoria for more than 20 years since his wife died there in 1906, 22 years before Ivan. The informant was the undertaker and I'm guessing there was a bit of guesswork involved. Also, the death certificate gives his age at marriage as 30 years (I think - the certificate is rather indistinct). Goodness knows where that came from.
It's a long while since I hunted through the Tasmanian records to see if he was actually born there, but I found nothing. I've checked Queensland and New South Wales records and come up empty-handed. In Victoria, a John Watson Carlton married an Eliza Ball in 1854 and had a son James Creighton the following year, then nothing else recorded. John Watson C. disappears off the electoral rolls the following year so it's possible they went to NZ (working on the possibility that Eliza Ball = Elizabeth Burchall). * See next post.
I wonder if any of this sets those jaffas rolling at all. It's lovely to "speak" to people with an interest in NZ since that's where I grew up. This tiny and vague toehold in my husband's tree is the only other NZ connection apart from my parents and me.
Cheers
Mini