Watkins - male (electrician?) emigrated to NZ abt or aft1890 (General)

by Lorri , Wednesday, October 31, 2012, 10:15 (4409 days ago)

WATKINS

This is my first post, so I am not confident I will put out helpful info and questions.

I am trying to find the parents of my husband's grandmother. She knew herself as 'Ivy Watkins', and believed her birthdate to be 12 August (1895 or 1896). There is no birth record for that name or similar in NZ BDM.

She believed that her father came from Wales to take up a position in Auckland, New Zealand. (The position involved the electrification of Auckland's horse-drawn trams.)

Her father is reputed to have drowned in the Waitemata Harbour, Auckland when Ivy was about 12 - presumably in about 1907-1909. To date I have found no record of that anywhere.

Ivy's mother apparently died before Ivy had a conscious memory of her - presumably between 1895-1900. Whether in Wales or New Zealand is not known.

Neither parent's Given name is known.

Is any reader able to shed any light on this story?

PS: Another mystery related to the family: Ivy Watkins' firstborn child, my mother-in-law, knew herself as Beryl Dorothy Nicholson, born in New Zealand 16 July 1920.
However her registered birth name was Beryl Bruce Watkins. She did not know that until she was about 50. Due to legal restrictions related to 'illegitimacy', I am unable to convince NZ BDM to release her original birth registration information, to find out her birth father's names. Her mother married Albert John Nicholson in Oamaru, New Zealand in 1931. We believe that their two sons were both fathered by Nicholson. We do not know whether Beryl was. (And why the 'Bruce' in her birth name???)

Any help will be most welcome!

Lorri