By searching through the New Zealand Birth, Death and Marriage Historical Records, I managed to track down the marriage certificate of my step-grandfather’s (Pop) mother and father.

I have a photo of Pop and her mother together, and I knew that they owned a farm in the Wairarapa, but that’s about it. While away in England, Mum said that Pop’s family came from an area not far from Barrow-in-Furness where Mum’s family came from. So I ordered a copy of the certificate.

I was very excited when it came. It confirmed that both my step-great-grandfather and step-great-grandmother where born in Northern England, but also, a surprising discovery that my step-great-grandfather was a widower when he married.  There may be more family out there to discover!

What I do dislike about NZ genealogy though, is the inability (that I have discovered so far) to search relased census records online, like you can in the UK.  Makes it all a little bit more tricky to track down those allusive family members.  I need to work out how to do this… I do like online reserach better than traipsing down to the archives.

Current Mood: chipper

Tags: Family-Tree, Genealogy, New Zealand