New Zealand censuses

[ElizabethHerts]

Could someone explain to me the situation as regards New Zealand censuses? I don't seem to be able to find any information about them.

[kiterunner]

This should help:
http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/FamilyHistory/Government/#Census

[ElizabethHerts]

Thanks, Kate.

I still can't see anything about their being available on line, either as transcriptions or images.

[Janet]

Does this help explain anything, Elizabeth?

http://bill-atkinson.suite101.com/new-zealand-electoral-rolls-on-line-a-census-substitute-a349768

I remember trolling through reams of NZ electoral roll entries somewhere, probably on Ancestry.

[ElizabethHerts]

Thanks, Janet, that's useful information. I shall check out Ancestry.

I take it that NZ census aren't available. I vaguely remember seeing that after taking the information they shredded them!! I don't know if that is true.

[Janet]

Ouf, I hope not but you might be right.

[Mary from Italy]

No censuses online, but the electoral rolls are useful:

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1836

You may also find useful information in old NZ newspapers:

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

[Mary from Italy]

NZ BMDs are here in case you haven't found them already:

https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/Home/

[ElizabethHerts]

Thanks, Mary. I'm a dab hand at the BMDs now, but I didn't know about the electoral rolls until Janet and you pointed me in the right direction.

[KiwiChris]

No NZ census available unfortunately. I think that something happened to them - shredding or a fire, I can't remember.

Can I help with anything?

[ElizabethHerts]

Christine, thanks for your offer of help.

You may recall I have been contacted by a lovely lady in NZ who has a wealth of information on my Wishart branch.

In the past two weeks or so every day or couple of days she has been e-mailing me scans of letters, photos, cemetery records and BMDs relating to the family.

They are absolute gems.
Two siblings emigrated to NZ - Robert Wishart, and his sister Eliza Dickson, nee Wishart. I have transcribed letters to them from their father, and two brothers and sister left in the UK (they came from Fetteresso/Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, Scotland). They are so interesting, and give me lots of information I didn't have before.

I know now that the brother of my great-grandfather also emigrated to NZ. His name was James Johnston, born in 1859 in Fetteresso. His mother was Catherine Wishart, and father James Johnston, and he was cousin of the two Wishart siblings mentioned above. His name is very common, and I was wondering if I could trace him via the censuses.

In about 1884 this was James Johnston's address:

Tiverton Coattage Kingsland Aukland NZ (sic)

I'd love to find out what happened to him.

[KiwiChris]

Pity about the name!

I guess that the only way really is to follow him on the electoral rolls, if you can narrow down his death, the NZ death certificates have quite a bit of information, but obviously only as good as the informant. My classic is one that was filled in by a person at a nursing hime, so everything was answered with "don't know". That cost me almost $30!

[ElizabethHerts]

The name is a problem, I admit! My contact had tried to find him briefly, but nothing obvious came to light. I was wondering if he married and if so his children's names might point me in the right direction as the Wishart branch seemed to have used family names for their offspring in many instances.

[kiterunner]

The New Zealand City Directories are available for browsing on ancestry, but not indexed yet (the World Archives Project is working on indexing them):
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1845

It says they're free.

[kiterunner]

The 1883-4 Wise's NZ Post Office Directory has Kingsland, Auckland, on image number 141 but no James Johnston.

1885-6 image 154 same.

1887-8 image 178 same.

1890-1 image 177 there is a Johnston but it is Thomas Johnston, milkman.

[ElizabethHerts]

Thanks for looking, Kate.