Searching my great grandmother

Question

Hi everyone, im searching for information on my great grandmother, Sarah Allison. From what little information i have, she was born around 1855 and died in New Zealand in 1918. She married Thomas Dennis in 1877. Now, ive seen a few different sites say that Sarah was born in County Waterford, also in England, and a couple saying New Zealand. Her daughter, Blanche Nellie was my grandmother and she was married to Michael Mahoney. So far i cant verify anything. Any help would be greatly appreciated

     Daniel

Answer 1

Hi Daniel,

Wow that's a collection of Taranaki names you've got there! I'll be happy to help you out with working on this brick wall.
A good place to start is Category:New_Zealand_Genealogy_Resources which is a list collated by members the New Zealand Project. You'll see right at the top of this list is a link to search the NZ historical Births Deaths and Marriages. I'll also let you know of another useful resource which hasn't made it to that list yet, and that is NZ Ancestor Search Helper - sometimes abbreviated to ASH. This Helper will search the NZ BDMs and a pile of other sources such as cemeteries and NZ Archives on that Resources page I linked earlier, and some links prepopulated with search parameters for other sites like Family Search. If you plug in your Sarah Dennis nee Allison, you should get dates for her marriage to Thomas, their children, and her death. Yes, there will be other Sarah's in there that you need to filter through, so be careful not to jump to assumptions. Some really useful hints for using ASH are:

• If you see a magnifying glass - click it! It sends another query and brings back extra information, like a full date for BDM and links to search Papers Past for a specific period around that date - handy for the hatched, matched and dispatched notices! 
• Within each section of results the table headers can be clicked to sort by that column. Handy for blocking all one couple's children together for example. 
• If you have an idea where your subject died or may be buried, head back up to the top of the page and expand the Cemetery Regions section, and either click the region(s) on the map or click the tick box in the list. 
• View Scan! If it's there and looks like a record that my be pertinent, definitely see what the scan can give you. Especially useful are the military files and probate files.
   

Hopefully that wasn't too overwhelming and gives you a good place to start. It's important to remember to add sources when you can verify, and I'll find an example of a New Zealand profile with a variety of sources so you can have a look.
Cheers, Steph.

Comments

Hi Steph, Yes, Taranaki was where the Carrington side of the family headed too. Frederic Alonso Carrington, who was my great grandfathers brother, arrived in Wellington in 1840, he was a surveyor for the Plymouth Company, he made his way up to what is now Taranaki and opened up the region.

   Thanks for the information, NZ ancestor search helper is good, ive already located her marriage to Thomas. Nothing on NZ genealogy as yet, but ill do some searching. Passenger lists is another ill be searching, see if she did arrive from overseas.

    Thanks again Steph

Answer 2

Hi Daniel,

The first thing to do is edit your profile and add New Zealand and Dennis as tags (as you did "brick wall"). That will call the attention of folks who research New Zealand and Dennis.

Second thing to do is change her date of death. You likely meant to type 1881 rather than 1818.

Good luck in your search.

Comments

Thanks Kristina, i think i done it right now

    Daniel

Answer 3

Hi Daniel. I have added Birth and Marriage NZ BDM Sources to the unsourced profile for Marie Kathleen Patricia (Mahoney) Carrington.

Comments

Thanks Clare, ive got more info of her family on My Heritage, but needed to update Wikitree, but you have done that already

   Daniel

Answer 4

Sorry about the profile post about FamilySearch, didn't realise you had been working there as well. I also see that that site has us as 12th cousins twice removed (Cornwall).

Comments

Cornwall seemed to be a popular area for a few of my relatives, do you live there

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No, Canterbury, NZ, my Keast/Wilton ancestors emigrated in 1864.

 I've used this as a prompt to link myself to my Penkevell ancestors, but searching the visitations of Cornwall is a pain.

 That might connect us on Wikitree if FamilySearch is correct.