What happened to my convict?

[judb]

Do you know if he was a widower or was married when he came to NZ?  Any children?

Judith

[enzfan]

No I don't know anything. There is no Mary Eveleigh death although not compulsory to register before the 1880s and only he is acknowledged on his brother's monument inscription along with his brother's wife and two of his children.

[majm]

Hi there,

May I please ask for some further info re NZ BDM registrations, particularly for deaths and your mention that it was not compulsory to register until 1880.   

I am happy to be corrected, as I have understood that in NZ, from 1847 it was not permitted to bury a body without a certificate from the Deputy Registrar.   To me, that meant that the various Deputy Registrars would have kept registers of certificates issued and those records would be held by NZBDM even now. 

I have skimmed through Papers Past and I can find the following cutting which excludes Natives from the regulations but everyone else seems to be required to abide by, but I see there's penalties for destroying the Register book etc :

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18470901.2.8?query=registrar general
New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 131, 1 September 1847 (the heading is : Abstract of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Registration Bill)

JM
   

[enzfan]

Well that's interesting. I didn't know that.

Certainly doesn't look as if Mary died in Tasmania although there is a death for a Mary Eversleigh, pauper, in 1877 aged 57 years - unless he deserted her.

I've determined that she was born in 1816 from finding a reference to her age on board ship when she was sick. Doesn't appear that they had any children either.

[majm]

Perhaps that 1847 Bill was not proclaimed - I am not familiar with NZ parliamentary systems, and very shaky on 19th Century NZ parliamentary matters.

JM

[enzfan]

Have just discovered that he lived with a woman who appeared in court charged with attempting to murder him. She was found not guilty but they apparently lived together for 13 -14 years making that from about 1856-57

[majm]

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DSC18741001.2.16?query=john Eveleigh

Daily Southern Cross 1 October 1874   "A Tasmanian Outcast" ... a sad situation.

JM

[majm]

Re the attempted murder .... there's a clue in the newspaper report ... John Eveleigh 'and his brother James' did you already have  'your' chap's details of a brother James alive and in NZ in July 1870 

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18700715.2.9?query=john Eveleigh
2 Feb 1874 Southland Times 15 July 1870

JM

[enzfan]

Yes I did. It was through my research into James and his family, the direct line I'm interested in, that I discovered that John had made it to NZ