Just to finish the story, I decided to look at the connections between the NZ Burrow family and the Politician Baldwins in the UK.
What is striking to me is that Henry Burrow *KNEW that he was related to the MP Stanley Baldwin.
He could not have worked this out for himself. He must have known this via his parents that Stanley was a relative and that requires an exchange of letters between the UK and NZ that spans the 40-odd years between 1860 (when the Burrows came to NZ) and Stanley's rise into politics.
As I see it, the essential link must have been Henry's mother, Sarah Lea (Baldwin) who died in 1901. Alfred Baldwin entered politics in 1892. That means Sarah must have received a letter from a sibling in the UK in or after 1892, something to the effect "Guess what cousin Alfred is doing these days...". Sarah would have been 67 years old at the time. Cousin Alfred was younger than her by 15 years.
But here things get more curious. Alfred died in 1908, well after the death of Sarah Lea and therefore after the end of the letter exchange. Did Henry continue the correspondence into a new generation or was he observant enough to work out that Stanley was the son of Alfred and therefore a second cousin? Did he look up his other Baldwin cousins, from the addresses on the letters sent to his mother? These are things we will never know. But I am impressed that an emigrant to NZ in 1860 should still be writing to her brothers and sisters on the other side of the world in 1892.
I'm out of questions to ask, so I will finish with a wide thank you to all that participated in this topic. We drifted a long way from the original premise but the outcome was very interesting.
Cheers
David C