28 August 2015

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
Papers Past

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.

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

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