BMD Registration numbers

[GordonFindlay]

Hi

I often see NZ Birth, Death and Marriage registration numbers used as a rough indication of a date. For example, a marriage registration 1952/01927 is likely to be early in 1952, and death 1952/34893 likely to be late in 1952.

But there were, according to Statistics NZ, only 18897 deaths in NZ in 1952. So why the much higher registration number?

Does anyone know how these numbers work?

Slainte
Gordon

[Dundee]

I think that the reg. numbrs are by area, not the whole country.  I find the easiest thing to do is look for a newspaper death notice for people who died in the same area in that year.  From that you can get some dates and roughly work out where your reg. number sits amongst them.  If you use the online indexes they don't give an area, but Ancestry does if you have a sub, or you can use the microfiche indexes.

Debra 

[GordonFindlay]

Thanks - I'll look into that.

Slainte
Gordon

[Fresh Fields]

Hello Gordon.

I have had no need to delve into the NZ registration recording systems, but many have reported on the NZ forum, of their experience and knowledge. To call the posts up, take the following steps:-

#1 Click on, SEARCH, on the black/brown bar above.
#2 In search for box write - registration numbers.
#3 Click on, Choose a board, on the blue bar.
#4 Click on, Check All box, bottom left of page [all black box  ticks disappear]
#5 Scroll up to Mid right column and click on the 3 NZ board boxes under, Research other countries.
     The three boxes should turn black and contain a tick. [NZ, Resourses & Completed]
#6 Click the brown search box at the bottom of the page.

PS EDIT research to REGISTRATION. Search click BLUE to brown.

PPS. Above instructions are for an advanced search, not a simple search, using the search box at the top of the page.

Alan.

[wivenhoe]

Thank you for the guidance Gordon.

I am having trouble at this point -

"PS EDIT research to REGISTRATION. Search click BLUE to brown."

Can you expand on this please.

[Lucy2]

I often see NZ Birth, Death and Marriage registration numbers used as a rough indication of a date. For example, a marriage registration 1952/01927 is likely to be early in 1952, and death 1952/34893 likely to be late in 1952.

Hi Gordon

I'm not sure where you've seen this happen (of late) ... but can tell you that, yes, family historians of old, (or old family historians - which ever you prefer  ), once used the "rough" method you describe in relation to New Zealand BDM registrations.

At the time though, when New Zealand committed all of these BDM records to an online-viewable format, the old registration numbers were done away with -- replaced by the numbers you see today when you use the search facilities at  >

https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/Search/Search?Path=%2FbirthSelect.m%3Fpage%3D2#matches

And by this online system, you can (now) use a method - spelled out in detail in the link below - to establish a precise date on which an event occurred.   

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=745785.0

[Note:   The New Zealand Birth and Death Indexes given at the ancestry.com website, and at the FamilySearch site,  still show the old "folio numbers" (- i.e. those which have been replaced by the numbers allocated to the online records) ... and this is the case also with the microfiche records of NZ BDM Indexes held at libraries and other repositories. ]

Hope this helps ?   

      ~  Lu

[Fresh Fields]

Thank you for the guidance Gordon.

I am having trouble at this point -

"PS EDIT research to REGISTRATION. Search click BLUE to brown."

Can you expand on this please.

Sorry for any confusion. Just a note that I had edited [corrected] the wording of my original post.
Upon reading my post, I realized I used the wrong word for my research suggestion, and the wrong colour to be looking for, at the bottom of the page, to find the SEARCH  [Enter] command.
Also if one was to use the simple search option at the top of the page, results would not be limited to only the New Zealand forum.

Lu has now posted and she is far more experienced than I in these matters, so I hope you find her comments helpful.

Alan.

[GordonFindlay]

Lucy  - many thanks. The renumbering you describe must be what I'm seeing.

Yes, I know of the method you reference to get the actual date of an event. In fact when I was teaching programming I used it as an example of the application of a binary search!

Slainte
Gordon

[Rakiura John]

"... death 1952/34893 likely to be late in 1952. But there were, according to Statistics NZ, only 18897 deaths in NZ in 1952. So why the much higher registration number?"

My understanding is that numbers are allocated numerically against births, marriages, and deaths - e.g. 1952/1 might be a marriage, 1952/2 and 1952/3 might be births, 1952/4 might be a death, etc. So your above 1952/34893 doesn't mean it was the 34,893th death that year - it was the 34,893th registration of (combined) births, marriages and deaths in that year.