Changing family names

Over the years while researching my family tree, I have come across some variants in names especially when people had you things with names written down. I have found on some web searches where the exact spelling of a name might bring you closer to a record or you may bypass it all together without realising it. Sometimes surname searches can bring you a treasure trove of information. I think the internet has made searching easier for many people as some websites do give you variants of the names.

One of the best resources I have found in helping to provide accuracy with names happens to be the New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriage records on both microfilm and online. I have actually corrected a few names as time went on though just simple searches like for example I was given the name Allan Gerwyn and it was actually the other way round. It was meant to be Gerwyn Allan or in the national archives looking for a record about Maude Milverton, I could have called her Maud and found an extra record that was a coroner’s report. Other family members like Gabolinscy have had several different spellings that have kept me on my toes including how the name would sound when you are talking to a person from Germany.

Recently I was asked to look for some family members by a grandparent and I was happy to do so. It was until I tried searching through the New Zealand Births Deaths and Marriage website that I came across small brickwalls that I became stuck for at least an hour. The name I came across in the marriages section was Lamborth. No other searches anywhere else could find people with that name. Turns out there were other spelling variants that helped me including Archways on the New Zealand National Archives website. I ended up with three different names at different times of their lives. I know they are correct through official records and the NZSG Kiwi search CD. I ended up with Lamborth, Lambert, Lambarth, Lambarth. This made recording what I had found to be interesting indeed. I surprised my grandparent with what I had found so far.

I am going to guess family historians are the ones who will bear the brunt of changing family names and have to become adept at trying to figure out especially when you have a name that still gets misspelled on regular occasions. I have been called Beadel, Beadle and even Beatle so if names are being badly spelt today, you could imagine what they would be spelled like well over 100 years ago.

Links / further sources

Anne Bromwell, Tracing Family history in New Zealand, Godwit, Auckland, 1996.

Paul Blake & Maggie Loughran, Discover your roots, Infinite Ideas, Oxford, 2006.

Name Change variations – Tips and Tricks

http://www.findmypast.com/content/name-variations

New Zealand death duties, wills and inheritance

 While writing an assignment for university about family inheritance I ended up with a list of notes that I had not used and wanted to use them for a blog so here is a little bit of the left overs, which will hopefully provide a little bit of information about death in New Zealand. I thought the information might be helpful and just as interesting.

In life and death the best sources of documentation for government officials about peoples wealth is when they become bankrupt or on death. Depending on the family structure and culture the distribution of property is different. The size of the actual property and the monetary value plays a part too. New Zealand was governed by the Imperial Wills act that had been used since colonisation in 1840. The legislation changed in 2007 when the Wills Act 2007 was adopted. The main changes were that the existing law could now be stated in plain English for people on the street to understand. The Testator’s Family Maintenance Act of 1900 written in New Zealand was copied by other nations such as Australia and Canada. This was replaced in 1906 under the Act of the same name in New Zealand. The same act was changed yet again to the Family Protection Act of 1908.

Wills are written documents that provide instructions top others about what people want their property and other goods they owned to be distributed after their death.  The will is viewed as a form of communication between the living and the dead. The will is a personal document that provides information about how someones possessions are disposed of and to whom. Through time the laws have changed since the beginning of colonisation in New Zealand. Once the will has been written and trustees nominated who are willing to perform their duties. They need to be granted official recognition through the Supreme Court, which is done through a document called a grant of probate. Once this has been passed by the registrar who makes all the checks to make sure the will is valid then the will is called a probate. The valuation of people’s estates was usually completed within three months of death, but there were occasions where the estate valuation was finalised in two years and sometimes within 30 years from death.

When the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 in New Zealand this meant that the country would inherit the statutes and common law already part of England. The Wills Act of 1837 was one of these statutes, which was not changed until the twenty first Century with the Wills Act of 2007. At the time until the Testator’s Family Maintenance Act in 1900 meant that the husband could leave the wife and children disinherited and destitute. Woman’s suffrage movement in New Zealand did seem to have an impact upon the countries legislation. This change was the Testator’s Family Maintenance Act of 1900, which was passed and would hopefully help women become secure once their husbands died. It had been thought the Testamentary freedom would work against women, where women might not be provided for and became an election issue. The Act meant if the deceased failed to provide for their spouse or children then the court could step forward and make sure the family would be provided for through the deceased estate. In the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century men were considered to have dependents and women did not. Women who were married had no paid work and were dependent on their husbands. It was not until 1911 when there was a widows pension. Other countries followed New Zealand’s lead like Australia and Britain. Today in New Zealand the various Acts like the Wills Act of 2007 includes people who are in de facto relationships of either gender. Since early 1900 the acts have changed in regards to wills and probates along with death duties being abolished later in the twentieth century.

Death duties are what the payment of duties on the estate of deceased people. Death duties in New Zealand began in the 1860s. It was placed upon documents where there would be a need for a stamp placed on them. This creates evidence that the stamp duty had been paid by the individual.  Depending on the value of the estate the death duties are compared at different rates especially during the different Act updates in 1885, 1909 and 1921. Death duties were used as a means of breaking up large amounts of wealth by distributing them. Death duties would later be abolished around 1993 in New Zealand.

Inheritance is one way of passing property and other assets down to a younger generation once the older generation had passed away. Inheritances can be provided through several purposes. They could be a symbol for family lineage, keeping property or other objects within the family and the final act of parents providing for their children. It is usually accepted that within most cultures inheritance is linked by blood ties, although legally it is limited to the relationship of the person. A significant amount of people who die leave assets and a large portion of people leave their family home, which usually is half of what they own. Within New Zealand family does take on different meanings when Maori or Pacific Islander cultures are included especially kinship. They are quite different from the Pakeha or while New Zealanders as they are otherwise known.

Sources

‘Early New Zealand Statutes’, Death Duties Act 1908, http://www.enzs.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1908/1908C038.pdf, accessed 31 August 2015.

‘New Zealand Probate Records’ Church of the Latter-Day Saints, 2014, https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/New_Zealand_Probate_Records, accessed, 7 September 2015.

‘Death Duty Registers’, Auckland Regional office fact sheet 9, 2009, http://archives.govt.nz/death-duty-registers, accessed 1 September 2015.

Dupuis, Ann ‘Housing, wealth and Inheritance: A theoretical and empirical explanation’, DPhils Thesis, University of Canterbury, 1997, pp. 1 – 389.

Galt, Margaret Nell ‘Wealth and income in New Zealand c. 1870 – c. 1939’, unpublished doctorate thesis in Philosophy in Economic History, University of Wellington, 1985, pp. 1 – 295.

Littlewood, Michael ‘The history of death duties and gift duty in New Zealand’, New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy, vol. 18, 2012, pp. 66 – 103.

Peart, Nicola ‘New Zealand report on new developments in succession law’, Electronic Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 14, 2010, pp. 1 – 23.

Stroombergen, Adolf & Rose, Dennis ‘The role of inheritance’, Office of the Retirement Commissioner, Wellington, 1998, pp. 1 – 12.

Thorns, D. ‘Housing wealth and inheritance: the New Zealand experience’, Housing and Family Wealth, ed. Ray Forrest and Alan Murie, London, Routledge, 2008, pp. 8 – 35.

Maud Milverton and the Asylum in Porirua

Recently I was writing an assignment and came across a family member called Maud Mary Milverton whose probate record said she was from Palmerston North, but temporarily of Porirua. Maud had died in 1909 and I had collected her coroner’s report several years ago not really paying much attention to it. I do seem to have a thing with not really reading records due to the messy handwriting, but it is a skill that has to be learnt especially in the age of the internet and typed documents. It never twigged to me why she would even be at this location let along temporarily. It only dawned on me when I translated the coroner report on her death.

Over the weekend when I decided to fix up my records and put them back in their correct locations after I had used them for a separate assignment on probate records and deaths. I decided to try and decipher the hand written coroner report. After getting some help from a fellow family historian in translating the names of the doctors and coroner involved, I had my story. The record was only three pages long with a report from the doctor and the nurse who was present during the event. There were no recommendations or anything else that would say what needed to be done. The place at Porirua was actually the mental hospital located in Porirua just north of Wellington. Maud had been admitted in December 1908 suffering from Mania later developing erysipelas which is a rash that appears on the body. She later developed pneumonia, which lead to her death in March 1909.

With a little bit of research, I found I could visit the asylum now a mental hospital museum. They offer tours once a week and I found the story to be interesting especially the changes in the mental health acts within New Zealand. The facility is actually located within the hospital grounds so no longer separate from the rest of society. Accessing records to patients will be tougher as you do need permission as the records are still restricted. At least I do know the records are accessible. You never know what records you may have in your possession even if one lot of records are a little vague. The records if they can be accessed might provide an insight into what happened with Maud. I did have a little confusion between the coroner being a medical examiner, but he was a legal expert, not a medical doctor. There does seem to be many stories about the hospital from when it began in the 1800s until the mid 1900s.

Sources

Porirua Lunatic Asylum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porirua_Lunatic_Asylum

Porirua Hospital Museum

http://poriruahospitalmuseum.org.nz/

New Zealand National Archives, Mental Health fact sheet

http://archives.govt.nz/research/guides/mental-health

Coroner report National Archives New Zealand

Coroners inquests - Case files - Wellington - Milverton, Maude Mary - [Use copy MICRO U 5451] (R23733208)

Researching the death of Joseph Milverton and family

Recently a university assignment had me researching the records family leave after they die. I had in the past collected death certificates and probate records not really knowing what to use them for. The aim of the assignment was to look at what the person left in their probate namely their will and how the inheritance was divided between family members. Basing the assignment on my great, great, grand uncle Joseph Milverton of Palmerston North, New Zealand did prove to be an interesting exercise. I was not sure about the records that were available including Journal articles about inheritance in New Zealand. I soon found searching for articles online to be quite tough especially when searching for information around the early twentieth century. It wasn’t actually the journal articles search website that I perform through the university library, but through Google where most of the articles turned up including two thesis’ one written around the 1980s.

I found the whole assignment experience to be really tough as I was searching for information and one thing I did have access to was Paperspast in New Zealand where I could find obituaries and even death duties, which provide you with the estate value. From there you can work out what percentage you would have to pay. During that time I had wondered how much these properties would be worth in today’s money and I found a program that did just that. While searching for more information on Joseph Milverton’s death in 1912, I went looking for the property information. I assumed the Testamentary Registers were what I was looking for. They are meant to provide you with information on real and personal estate unless I misread the information. A week before the assignment was due I received the Register microfilm at my local family history group, but problem was the records I was after did not appear unless Palmerston North did not give the government all the records even though there were people from the same town recorded. I had another person to search for and they did not have a record either even when they died without a will. The other person was actually Maud Milverton, Joseph’s daughter who passed away in 1909.

Tracing Joseph and his children was interesting as I knew some of the story already. Joseph was born in Beaminster, Dorset around 1831 and was a painter, which appeared in the 1851 and 1861census’. Between two census periods of 1851 and 1861, he had moved to London, where he married Mary Anne Prior in 1857 from the county of Norfolk. In 1873, Joseph and his wife Mary Anne left London with their three surviving children, William, Edward and Elizabeth Brett on board the vessel, ‘Duke of Edinburgh’. The ship arrived in Wellington after a three month journey from London to Wellington. Joseph was one of the first rate payers in Palmerston North and he did have a business with either one of or both his sons called ‘Milverton and Son’. The business sold farm produce from grains to equipment and appeared in various newspapers advertising the wares. Both Joseph and his sons were contractors who worked on metalling (graveling) several local roads and disputed their actions with the local council on several occasions including being heard at the Supreme Court. Mary Anne died in 1891 and was buried in Terrace End Cemetery. Around 1895 Joseph did retire due to failing eyesight. In his daughter’s probate amongst the letters of administration he couldn’t help sort out her estate as he was blind so his son William took charge instead. 

When Joseph died in 1912, his probate was written to say his sons would get everything between them and his daughter Elizabeth would get 300 pounds legacy, which could not be touched until seven years after his death. If Elizabeth died during that time then her children would get the money. I did know Joseph owned a house, but wondered about several plots of land that were in Edward and William’s names as I had seen council rates where Joseph had paid. The two sons and Joseph were at the same address within the Electoral roll for 1911 and the brothers were still living there several years later. The mutual will between the brothers meant when one of them died the other would receive everything that was owned by the other brother. I had found from reading that mutual wills were something usually done between husband and wife. The writing of a completely new will would mean the mutual will would have been voided. The mutual will had been written in November of 1911, when Joseph was still alive. I am unsure if Joseph was behind the writing of this will or not. The first brother to die was Edward in 1925, so William the survivor would have received everything. Both brothers in 1925 were still bachelors with Edward aged 66.

William would later go on to marry twice, once in 1929 to Elise Renton and again in 1934 to Jane Pascoe, a year after Elsie had passed away. William’s story is also an interesting one as he was pretty active within the Palmerston North community. I did read about several stories including on during World War One where William corresponded with the New Zealand Minister of defence during 1917 about tanks known as Milvertanks that were basically traction engines with armour. No idea if the correspondence would still exist in archives or not. In 1925 in the same month that Edward died, William donated a block of land to Palmerston North council for children to play in.   The park would later be known as Milverton park this is located on the corner of Victoria and Ferguson streets in Palmerston North. The plot of land was called section 954 at the size of 4 acres. He offered the donation in 1925 and after his requirements were made said he would hand over the deeds in 1926. One of the requirements said for the land to be drained. By the time William Milverton died in 1950, he was been well known in Palmerston North where he was once an elected councillor in the local council between 1927 and 1929. William had spent around twenty years trying to get votes to become a councillor and was not successful until 1927. He did have issues with several of the other councillors to the point where he was caught tampering with sewerage pipes being laid in Palmerston North and this issue was bought up at a council meeting. William could have stayed in council longer than the period of time in 1929, but resigned stating in his resignation letter he would not sit with the current council.

In earlier years there might have been an explanation for both the donation of the land and why he requested that it be drained of water. Within Paperspast there had been various reports where William had disputed the land values through land assessments as the land was water logged, several disputes with council about inadequate drainage and these could have led to him donating the four acres of land so it would not cost him. William died in 1950 and there were no children, but within his will there were references to donate money to several local children’s charities through his estate. He did make sure his wife was cared for by paying her 200 pounds per year and allowed to live in the house in Main Street, Palmerston North. The will went on for 8 pages including requirements for having cattle on farmland and that some belongings were to be donated to the museum when one was built. When the will had been written William was also blind like his father before him. His wife Jane had only survived for another year when she died in 1951.

The biggest Surprise was reading Elizabeth Dudson’s probate as she had married James Dudson and was the sister of Edward and William. She was the last sibling to pass away in 1957 in Tauranga and what was written in her will did give me something to think about. Her husband had been a flax miller, although in Maud Milverton’s probate during 1909, he had been stated as being a farmer for his occupation. James had died well before Elizabeth in 1947. He did not leave a will so Elizabeth being his wife would have received everything.  Elizabeth mentions her surviving daughter as Sister Sylvia instead of by her name Eileen Dudson. Money was to go to Sister Sylvia, Abbotsford Children’s House in Waipawa and the Roman Catholic Church’s orphanages in New Zealand. I wouldn’t know if Sister Sylvia / Eileen would have had children or if the family line had ended with her. It does raise some questions especially in regards to why she joined the church and what records are available.

I did find it interesting to research a family line that I had collected some records about, but had not gone through them. There are still plenty of records that I had not done any research on. Before my assignment, I did not know you could collect a bit of information through the death of an ancestor. The reason I traced a branch instead of a direct line was that I had limited information on them even though I had some records of my great, great grandparents who were living in Palmerston North around the time of Joseph’s family. I had not actually done any research into the main branches of the Milvertons. One of then Frederick from the United States died in Washington DC, but I cant access his probate records unless I apply in person. Others I had not even traced very far and the lecturer did mention expense in doing the exercise so this would be left for later. I will leave a list of some sources that I used. Throughout the time period not one parliamentary Act would completely cover the family as they were always changing to include something including death duties or the Family Protection Act of 1900 as an example where family would be taken care of instead of being left destitute.

Sources / Bibliography

‘Early New Zealand Statutes’, Death Duties Act 1908, http://www.enzs.auckland.ac.nz/docs/1908/1908C038.pdf, accessed 31 August 2015.

‘Death of Mr Joseph Milverton’, Manawatu Daily Times’, 9 March 1912, p. 5.

‘Death dues’, Feilding Star, 6 June 1913, p. 4, http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=FS19130606.2.55, accessed 31 August 2015.

‘Inflation calculator’, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/monetary_policy/inflation_calculator/, accessed 8 September 2015.

‘New Zealand Probate Records’ Church of the Latter-Day Saints, 2014, https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/New_Zealand_Probate_Records, accessed, 7 September 2015.

‘Death Duty Registers’, Auckland Regional office fact sheet 9, 2009, http://archives.govt.nz/death-duty-registers, accessed 1 September 2015.

Christie, James ‘Testator’s Family maintenance in New Zealand’, Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, vol. 18, 1918, pp. 216 – 231.

Galt, Margaret Nell ‘Wealth and income in New Zealand c. 1870 – c. 1939’, unpublished doctorate thesis in Philosophy in Economic History, University of Wellington, 1985, pp. 1 – 295.

Kennedy, Stacey ‘Dead wrong: A critique of the death provisions of the property (Relationships) Act 1976, and the case for change’, Unpublished B.A. (Hons) thesis for Law, University of Otago, 2014, pp. 1 – 65.

Littlewood, Michael ‘The history of death duties and gift duty in New Zealand’, New Zealand Journal of Taxation Law and Policy, vol. 18, 2012, pp. 66 – 103.

Matheson, I. R. ’Birth of Palmerston North, centenary supplement’, Evening Standard, 13 March, 1971, p.22.

Nield, Sarah ‘If you look after me, I will leave you my estate: The enforcement of testamentary promises in England and New Zealand’, Legal Studies, vol. 85, 2000, pp. 1 – 20.

Off down the rabbit hole: Land ownership, Joseph Milverton

Recently I was decided to look into some research for a university assignment and the best part of this assignment was the fact it was personal research. The research project though I do keep becoming distracted by little leads, it is about looking at someone’s will or probate record and seeing what family received and how much. I decided to write about a great, great grand uncle by the name of Joseph Milverton of Palmerston North, New Zealand mainly due to the reason I had most of the information already. I could have run the gauntlet of a direct family line, but there was still quite a lot of information to gather and I wanted to do that in person mainly due to expenses. I found going through the National Archives in New Zealand would end up being $50 for the research, which includes converting to PDF and emailing. They are extremely helpful as they told me I could access records online too through Family Search.

Sometimes research takes you away from the real purpose and this is what happened as I was trying to find out who owned what in property. I had sent away on a whim for land records through the Lands department in New Zealand, although I have no idea how the search would go and if I needed more than names. A reply came back thanking me and letting me know that I did indeed need to know the addresses. I had to look through my own records again and found there were block numbers and they gave information to where they were. The fun part was searching these through Paperspast, which is New Zealand’s newspapers that are online.

What I learnt was, Joseph Milverton did own a block of land of around 4 acres and one of his sons, William owned a nearby block of land. Both people appeared within the newspapers complaining about the land value being too high as the land was partially swampy. One comment made was its only good for frogs. While I cant seem to find much more information about Joseph’s will and what was happening with the property he owned, I later found mention of his block of land up for tender through the business he once owned by the name of Milverton and Son. The articles never say if the two blocks of land were sold, but I do know a little bit about them. One block of land later became a park called Milverton Park. The land was donated to the council in 1925 and became a park, which was known as section 954 at the corner of Ferguson and Victoria Ave. Section 956, which was owned by Joseph and later his sons Edward and William would become subdivided to be named Milverton Ave.

Joseph Milverton and family did seem to be interesting people. Joseph was one of the first rate payers in the town of Palmerston North. They do hold quite a few records about their business Milverton and Son, although I am not really sure if the business is actually just a farm produce or they also use this as a base for their contracts too as they worked on sealing roads or building them in the Palmerston North locality during the late 1800s to early 1900s. That effort in itself is a whole blog to write in the future. The business seemed to be operating as late as 1916.

You never know where the rabbit trail will lead you. Newspapers seem to be doing an excellent job in that way and can provide an insight as to what was happening in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century New Zealand. It makes you feel like Alice chasing the Rabbit.

Sources

National Archives New Zealand

http://archives.govt.nz/

Papers Past

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast

Three examples of land information and valuations found through Paperspast.

 Assessment Court

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7865, 16 June 1904, Page 6.

 ASSESSMENT COURT.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7996, 17 June 1904, Page 2

 VALUE OF LAND.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9250, 26 July 1912, Page 5

Family Search, LDS website.

https://familysearch.org/

‘Birth of Palmerston North, Centenary Supplement’, Evening Standard, 1971, p.22.