Mission (General)

by Paul Andrews , Shropshire, England, Friday, November 02, 2012, 20:29 (4406 days ago) @ slowhands

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

Lorri posted this message two days ago and the response by memebers has been excellent. However, please can you clarify? "The mission of this Web site is to provide resources for family history researchers who have ancestors and families that lived in the Forest of Dean and its borders." That is: The mission statement on the Home Page of this site.

In the discussion the places mentioned are:-
Newport, Monmouthshire
Ireland
India
Cardiff
Swansea
Shergavenny, Monmouth
Aberdare
Bristol
Brighton
London, Middlesex
Poplar, MDX
Caerwent, Monmouthshire

I viewed the message from Lorri minutes after it was posted. After researching the data I added information to the 1901 Wales Census details on Ancestry for John Dukelow. I considered that, as the request was not within the boundaries of this site, I would contact Lorri offline. However, as the discussion continued, I have not done so.

Please can you tell me what is now considered to be within the boundary of this site?