I am not very sorted. Genealogically-wise, I don’t have huge amounts of family ephemera to store, but I have recently amassed a fair amount of research that has Not Been Dealt With.
There’s all those wills and letters of administration I photographed at Wellington Archives Office when I was in New Zealand, plus all the photos I need to edit and put online for family to help identify. And not to mention all the little notes I’ve written in my A5 project book that need adding into Reunion.
My latest “discovery” is the New Zealand Electoral Rolls on Ancestry, which I now have access to since upgrading my subscription. Wow! Initially I was focussing on my grandfather (for my assignment) but I keep coming up with other ancestors I want to track down. While not as informative as a census record (only adults over 18 are listed), the rolls were compiled every three years, giving you a much better chance of tracking your relatives as they moved about. Not all the rolls are indexed, but as long as you have an idea of where your relative is living, you can search for them by browsing in the relevant electorate(s). Having said that, I have yet to find my grandfather in 1931.
So lots to do, and what do I end up doing today? Reading a book that arrived in the post – Settlers: New Zealand Immigrants from England, Ireland & Scotland 1800 – 1945 by Jock Phillips and Terry Hearn. Of course the first thing I did when I got it was check the index for names of any of my ancestors – no luck there, but so far the book is proving to be a very good distraction from other more mundane tasks such as filing and organising stuff that’s NBDW. Oops.
Sorting Saturday is an ongoing series at GeneaBloggers.
Maureen West
Hi Maggie,
The voting franchise changed significantly in New Zealand over time. In fact, 18 years did not get the vote until the 1975 elections. The best work to look at for the background is: Neill Atkinson, ‘Adventures in democracy: a history of the vote in New Zealand’, University of Otago Press in association with the Electoral Commission, Dunedin, 2003.
Regards
Maureen
Making Connections Genealogy
Maggie
Many thanks for the info, Maureen! I did not know that (and did not check, more importantly) – that certainly puts a different light on some things. Perhaps my grandfather wasn’t in the 1931 electoral roll because he wasn’t eligible yet!