Sarah Vernon CAMPBELL

[Fresh Fields]

Hello again ShonaE

Have you had a scroll through these to see if any involve family ?  If not it could pay to have a play around with the family names [playing with different options including only initials and or alternate spellings] to see what might be waiting for you in Government records.

http://archway.archives.govt.nz/SimpleSearchResults.do

http://archway.archives.govt.nz/SimpleSearchResults.do

- Alan.

[ShonaE]

Hi Alan, I have no idea if im replying correctly as yet .. but hear goes, ok so I don't have an actual birth certificate for Sarah Vernon CAMPBELL, but I do have her marriage , death and a birth certificate for 1 of her children. She married Joseph EDWARDS in Auckland, NZ, Oct 10 1862. Her Death certificate, dated 28/09/1918, states she was born "At Sea" about 75 years. Th e birth certificate for her daughter Ethel Edwards states her as Mother, Sarah Vernon Edwards, nee Campbell. place of birth, " On The High Seas", I have searched the B.D.M and no record of birth for her.

[spades]

Hi Shona,

Yes, you're replying correctly.

'On the High Seas' and the lack of a NZ birth certificate certainly implies that Sarah was one of those seven children born during the voyage.

You could look for a passenger diary for the voyage to see if there's a more specific mention.

This is a book called Log of Logs which lists published passenger diaries from early emigration to NZ. I can have a look for the ship on my next visit to National Library in February if you like.

Spades

[Fresh Fields]

Welcome ShonaE

Thanks for your reply.

You are doing just fine. And as you have found the RC forum members, will soon advise with suggestions if they feel you can be better served.

Your lack of official NZ D B & M certification for your earliest arrivals, mirrors my experience as previously explained. If one religious faith was prominent within your early family, it could pay to check out that religions national archives, and a check of the early names on the Auckland Library site, may also find items of interest. The Auckland Free Presbyterian records I mentioned are there. There were all sorts of one off local police and produce census, or jury lists, and of course various forms of voting enrolment and land tenure records.

Happy hunting,

- Alan.

[ShonaE]

Thankyou everyone for your help so far  A look up in the National Library would be very much appreciated  I am wondering how Sarah Campbell/Edwards got on in her life without a birth certificate, or were they not necessary back then?

[Fresh Fields]

Hello yet again Shona.

You may have heard it said that you can not be fluent in a second language, until you start thinking in that language, and I look upon research into our NZ pioneers in a similar light. Once you immerse yourself in knowledge of the period you are researching, things start to take shape, and help with your lateral thinking in the search for answers.

You say Sarah Vernon CAMPBELL was b. 1842; m. 1862; d. 1918 so she was in her 50’s before NZ started making progress to women's suffrage. If a woman of that period in NZ was married, she most likely was treated as a chattel, of her husband and very little by the way of assets / property would have been in her name to need, or be mentioned, in legal transactions, deeds. Leases etc. Those that were, were in the main wealthy spinsters or widowed.

When travelling, she and the pre-adult children would have been named on the husbands travelling papers, and they were modest affairs by today’s standards. While there were University degree courses that some women did; the guilds, Masons, etc, certifications in seafaring and steam power plants and steam powered transportation, the internal combustion engine was only just getting a footing [no drivers licence], so licensing was for more mundane things like around hotels / alcohol sales, food handling, and mining claims etc.

In the main women were in the home, nursing, and teaching, Communities were smaller and people had connections, so there was more chances of being known when it came to the likes of seeking jobs in the professions etc.

At the very top of this NZ board you will see advisory threads to assist you, and explain some of the best places to be looking for information in the locality of your search.

The reason for your specific reference to the National Library is not obvious to me, but feel free to ask. Try “Archway” and the on line pages of the leading regional libraries. Also the various Museums have a diverse selection of things old, even down to donated scrap books that happen to contain clippings from long defunct newspapers and periodicals.

All the best.

- Alan.

[spades]

Hi Shona E,

I have images of the Duchess of Argyle entry from the book Log of Logs.

Please send me a PM with your email address.

Spades

[spades]

Images sent.

Spades

[SignalHill]

Hi Shona,

I am wondering how Sarah Campbell/Edwards got on in her life without a birth certificate, or were they not necessary back then?

As Alan says you need to think yourself into the life and times of your ancestors.

Birth Certificates in the last 50 years have become pervasive in officialdom.   But remember they are mostly made up of information supplied usually by a parent (or sometimes friend of a parent) with (today) some augmentation from a medical authority.   Later the requirement came for a registrar to record whether or not the child was "present " when birth registration was entered.

In the past legal authorities would give less credence to such registration information than to information supplied "under Oath" or by formal "Statutory Declaration". 

Each interaction with bureaucracy in the past would collect all the information required for the transaction at hand.   

Even your name could and still can be changed by your own whim under common law.   Your name is what you call yourself.   In the recent past Banks, Employers, Lawyers and Government Departments would record your name and details without reference to past name records.   The rot set in when the Old Age Pension came in 1 November 1898.   At first proof of age and residence / nationality was provided by appearing at the Magistrates Court.   Birth Certificates were often not available (eg born Overseas) and other records such as  Baptismal Certificates were often produced.   Maori records were not of course like settler records so Maori often missed out.
Other early uses which required proof of Date of Birth were school entry and driver licences.

Many people have come to wrongly regard Birth Certificates as proof of identity but of course there is no necessary link between a person who has a Certificate and the Event and Person described in a Certificate.

Signal