Over the last couple of days I decided to jump down the rabbit hole and look at one branch of my family tree to see if the information I had was correct. There is always the possibility I have started following the wrong family line. I tend to use the resources I have and with research in New Zealand I start with the website searches through the New Zealand National Archives and the BDM websites.
The Archives I can find people’s wills if they have one and usually link them with the Births Deaths and Marriages. The New Zealand BDM gives you certificate numbers up to certain dates. The wills usually give you the names of family members, and other archive records including if someone contested the will. I have found several so far, but outside of the wills or probate I have to visit the Archives in person. The best part of the BDM search is the results give you the name of the parents, which is helpful.
The other sources I use are Ancestry as they have access to more records and even Familysearch, although I always see what I can find in Paperspast through the newspapers to see what other information they have.
The family line I have been looking at is a family from Palmerston North as that’s one of the places my main branch had been living. The Milverton family are known in the area and I decided to sort out the information or lack of through the Kells line as they are linked with the Jorgensen family. I hadn’t done much research into the Kells, but I can always see my notes I have written on them and the certificate numbers.
The direct line of Kells is the funeral director William Roger Kells, whose father John Foster Kells came to New Zealand and had some involvement in the conflict between the White settlers and Maori known as the New Zealand Wars, but didn’t seem to end up in the Waikato area. John had arrived with his brothers according to a news article and I have not traced them through shipping records. The newspapers say they came from Ireland. John was married in New Zealand in 1852. That was when I realised that was one of the earliest finds I had in New Zealand so far.
I decided to have a look at John’s wife, whose name seems to change. She was Rose Hannah, Roseanna, Rose Anna in several records. Her name before being married was Rose Hannah Tonks. A look on Ancestry gave me the name of the ship and names of her parents, but no record. The familysearch website gave me the name of the ship, her age and the year she arrived in New Zealand. The earliest arrival so far I had come across was the Tonks family arriving in 1841. Rose’s father was listed as a bricklayer and they were a family with young children. I havnt looked into any of that side of the family yet.
So far with the Kells family I have found that several were involved with the Salvation Army. One ended up living in Australia and is buried in Brisbane. Others have stayed in the Palmerston North area. I have to look into the records more and see what else I can find especially through the electoral rolls and the Archives, especially the newspapers as they have some good information including gossip. I will be interested to see where the Tonks family end up and what other information I can find.
Sources and links
William Roger Kells, past blog
https://tangaroa81.blogspot.com/2020/05/william-roger-kells-undertaker-of.html
Births, Deaths and Marriages New Zealand
https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search
Paperspast
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
Archives New Zealand
Ancestry
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