D Or Boise, Ada, Idaho.
D Or Logan, Cache, Utah.
D Personal knowledge.
B Date of birth calculated from death certificate and age listed on the shipping manifest. Death Certificate reports birth in England. Family last reported living in York, 1851, hence, approximated place.
M Evidence of marriage from children's birth registration, husband's death certificate and from the coroner's report of the death of the wife.
D 1989 NZ Reg. Gen. Registration: Actual death registration was examined C.H. Edwards. Father's & Mother's names obtained from death Cert. and from a record of the father Robert sending a letter of his son John to be published in The New Zealand Journal, 1 May 1849. WE NEED TO FIND HIS OBITUARY, IF ANY. HE WAS 80 YEARS OLD AND MAY HAVE HAD SOME KIND OF INFORMATION ON HIM IN AN OBIT. WE HAVE A WILL, CORONER'S INQUEST, DEATH CERTIFICATE, BUT NEED MORE INFO STILL.Two letters available written by John to his father, Robert, in England.
Sailed to New Zealand with family: Nelson settlement, ship Olympus, 500 tons, Capt. John Whyte, Surgeon Superintendent, Wm. Henry Manning. Sailed from Gravesend, England 16 June 1842. Register of Emigrant labourers who have received free passage to NZ. No. on the application register: 5490 John Edwards-Carpenter and Joiner, Mary. Man's age 32, woman's age 33, 4 children: girl--age 8, boys aged 7, 3, and 3 mo. Date?
LOG/NOTES:
-- A John EDWARDS born to Robert EDWARDS and Mary PALMER in Martham, Norfolk 6 Mar 1810, bap 11 Mar 1933, End 7 Mar 1934 SLAKE, SP Pre-1970.
-- In his letters, he mentions someone that he came with named "B--". Check original shipping manifests (Olympus sailed 16 Jun 1842 from Gravesend, England to Nelson, NZ, arr. 28 Oct 1842) to see if someone whose name starts with a B. (and perhaps a carpenter/joiner) is listed next to him -- SRE 14 Jun 2001.
-- Also, check same source for possible relations. There is a William Jones (brother to his wife?) a carpenter/joiner, who also came on the same ship. See if they are next to each other in manifest -- SRE 14 Jun 2001.
-- Checked 1851 census CD for Warwickshire to find a Robert and Mary Edwards, parents of John Sr. Didn't find anything. But then, they were probably in York by that time. Not sure whether they originated in York, Birmingham, or elsewhere -- SRE 15 Jun 2001.
-- Want to find John Edwards Sr. in 1841 census, because this will tell whether he was born in the county. If he were found in London, and said he was born in county, it would lend credence to the argument that they were from London (see note below about possible brother to John, William, in "Register of York Freemen..."; if found in Birmingham and found in county, family was from there; if found in York, it would show that the family possibly came from York city or Hull -- SRE - 14 Jun 2001.
-- Checked Franklin Row in London 1841 census for John Edwards (several months before they left for NZ), but didn't find them there (FHL 438804, HO 107/688, book 14, folio 4-6; book # is large penciled in no. at bottom of page where enumerator tells where his beat was; this was in ED's 13 and 14). Also checked Camden St. (FHL 464177, HO 107//1140, book 5, folios 24-34, 38, 45-52; Found a William Edwards Grocer, 35, Cassandra, wife, 30, and Cassandra, daughter, 10) and Edmund St. (FHL 464181, HO 107/1144, book 4, folios 21, 24-34, 38, 40-45) in Birmingham (see births of children), same census. Nil. Perhaps they were elsewhere in Birmingham, London, Wales (w/Mary Jones' parents), or other locality -- SRE 14 Jun 2001.
-- Marriage or death certificate of one of John Sr.'s children in NZ (check with Clifford H. Edwards, who has copies of certificates, to find out which one), says that he came from "Hull, England." John Sr.'s will in NZ says that he lived in "Hull Co., New Zealand" at the time the will was made. Could the certificate-maker or informant for the marriage/death certifiate have confused these two? Or, if the child was born in Hull, England, there is another interesting development (see next note) -- SRE 14 Jun 2001.
-- Register of York Freemen 1680-1986 (BYU or FHL?) 942.74/Y1; U2m FROM THIS SOURCE, FOUND ON P. 146-7: "EDWARDS, ROBERT, OF HULL. BRICKLAYER, SON OF CHARLES EDWARDS. SHOEMAKER, FREE 1830. This is interesting, since, as mentioned in the previous note, a child of John Sr. was reported to have been born at Hull, ENGLAND (not NZ, which is also where they lived at one time). There is a Charles Edwards Shoemaker from Hull, England, possibly a brother to Robert?
-- There is also an entry in the same source for a "William Edwards OF LONDON, son of ROBERT EDWARDS, SHOEMAKER, free 1820." William could have been a brother of John Sr. He would have been free at just about the right time. Not sure if the Robert Edwards Shoemaker for this entry could have still been living in London? Or maybe William was born in London and he and father lived in York in 1820.
-- In application for emigration (no reference given, but scanned as source), he had two sons listed as "3". In shipping manifest, one was listed as 3, the other as 3 mo. If the 3 mo. one is correct, he should have been born 1st quarter 1842. I ordered birth certificates 14 Jun 2001 for all the following people named "Robert Edwards" with parents John and Mary Edwards. My letter:
To whom it may concern,
I would like to have you search some references for the birth of Robert Edwards. Please send me full certificates from the birth registers for only those of the following entries which show the parents as John and Mary Edwards.
1st quarter, 1842:
District v.# p.#
Horsham vii 376
Newmarket xiv 108
Holywell xxvii 262
Lambeth iv 239
Abergavenny xxvi 49
2nd quarter, 1842:
Poplar ii 297
Your sincerely, etc."
Hopefully, this will yield some results. John Edwards' last place of residence we know of, before London (7 Franklin Row, Chelsea, London 8W3, just before emigration), and emigration, was Birmingham. The birth of Robert, which would have been 1st quarter 1841, just a few mo. before leaving, was not in Birmingham area, according to 1st quarter entries listed above. Neither did his birth take place in the York area. There are, however, some Welsh areas. Hopefully we can nail down Mary Jones' parents here, as well as find the birth of Robert Edwards. Is it possible that they went to stay with Mary's parents in Wales, to have the baby and just before leaving for New Zealand? Hopefully he will be in one of these localities (Holywell, Abergavenny) -- SRE - 21 Jun 2001.
-- Results negative on that search. I tried again 9 Jul 2001, with the result that I had ordered ordered all Robert Edwards entries from 1st and 2nd quarters of 1842, and the 4th quarter of 1841.
"To whom it may concern,
I would like to have you search some references for the birth of Robert Edwards. Please send me full certificates from the birth registers for only those of the following entries which show the father as John Edwards. Some portions of the references are unclear on my copy of the index -- so please look up these four references.
District v.# p.#
4th quarter, 1841:
Poplar ? ?
1st quarter, 1842:
Abergavenny ? ?
2nd quarter, 1842:
Slanrust? xxvii 193
Bumondsey? xv 20
I would also like full certificates from the birth registers for the birth of Robert Edwards (again, for these seven persons please send certificates only for those which list John Edwards as the father), for which I have included full reference information. If any of my following references are incorrect, please look them up in the index to find the correct ones:
4th quarter, 1841
Liverpool xx 345
Liverpool xx 370
Dursley xi 320
Bangor xxvii 293
Bangor xxvii 304
2nd quarter, 1842
York xxiii 659
Wrexham xxvii 277
Yours sincerely, etc."
None of them panned out. It may either be that the age of the child is slightly older than what we think it is, or that Robert wasn't even recorded in the British civil registration records, since they were leaving for New Zealand soon. In the latter case, there's nothing that can be done. If the former case is true, however, it may well be worth checking the civil registration for the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 1841 (even 1st quarter?). The reason this should probably still be checked is that the records showing Robert was 3 mo. may not be completely correct. The application for emigration shows that he was 3 mo. old, and the actual emigration record itself shows the same. If they applied and left immediately left, this may be correct. Or might the ship manifest may just have been copied from the application form, done earlier? Not sure, but if there is a time lag in this case, there may be a time lag associated with the application record itself, as well, i.e., the information (that he was 3 mo. old) might be even older than suspected, perhaps he was 3 mo. old even ealier in 1841 than we believe. Study where this information comes from - SRE 10 Aug 2001.
-- The only thing I can think of trying now, barring this last suggestion, would be to wait for, hopefully, a country-wide index for the 1851 census (or try specific countires of York, Birmingham, counties in Wales, and London counties, followed by those in between). That might indicate his parents. Even better would be an 1841 census, though I doubt that such a thing would be forthcoming soon. Perhaps his parents could be found. Hopefully, there won't be too many Robert Edwards Shoemaker's with wife Mary, and born at the proper time. John Sr. and his wife Mary would also surely be on the 1841 census. There is some hope here, since he didn't appear to be on the 1841 census in either Birmingham (his long-time residence) -- at least on the two streets we know he lived on -- or at his address in London, just before he left for New Zealand. I'm hoping they went to see her parents in Wales, and stayed with them for a time. The 1841 census would at least tell us if the person were born in the county, which would be a tremendous boon, especially if the person WERE born in the county of residence at the time of the census.
B Reported in death information to be Wales. Birth date calculated from age listed on the shipping manifest and age at time of death.
M Reported in the death record of her husband to be Wales. Also the first child was reported to be born in Wales.
D Information obtained from parish records, St. James Parish, Lower Hutt, Hutt, NZ. Also from the cororner's report located at the New Zealand National Archives in Wellington, NZ. Both documents were examined by C.H. Edwards.
B NZ Reg. Gen. 1845. Record held by Ian Clapham.
C Ian Clapham's information.
D NZ Reg. Gen 1853. Died in an accident 8 months before his 8th birthday. Record held by Ian Clapham.
Bur Ian Clapham's information.