Find Ancestors

I am looking for anyone in New Zealand that has this ancestor as a close relative.

I have no idea if he is related to me in some way shape or form but it would be nice to find out by any links to other family ancestors they may know of. What i do know is we have a curious letter from him to my great-aunt. He is not her husband, His last name was not her Maiden name. No-one in our living family can place his name. But it would seem he knew quite a bit about my great-aunt and must have been close somehow.

I do not know when he was born, I do not know how old he was in the picture we have of him. I'm afraid all i know is Bob Norris (guessing short for Robert but i've been proved wrong before) - New Zealand.

I would dearly love to take him out of the ever growing "unsolved mystery" pile me and my mother are generating since the death of the last elder in our family (we are now wishing we'd found this stuff about 10 years before she went senile and parted from this earth, but that's the way the cookie crumbles i guess) :-S

Sue, have you done a "Search Trees" (3rd from the left on menu above) to see if anyone on GR has him in their tree?

although you say you don't know his dob you can give us a rough idea - this century? also please delete your other posting and just use this one

i was just going to delete the old post. However ... slight problem. How do i delete the other post as this one is more appropiate with it having the name in for people to recognise i want to keep this one. Just cant find how to delete the other one?

Marie - I have tried the search trees option but i do not know where he was born to narrow it down and if his name was "robert norris" then it is a mine field of search results :-S

Ann - The letter he sent was from his time in the 2nd world war (the picture has the NZ cap badge on). Now i would love to say he might have been the same age as my great aunt which would make him born around 1914 but her siblings were all born between 1913 and 1921 so he could be older of younger than those date ranges.

above your initial posting there are three options - "Report as abuse", Delete and Edit - just click on delete

thank you, i've found it.

does anyone know of any free New Zealand online record searches?

ok i have sent an email to a possible member. Can a member still read the messages if they are not a paying member?

Members can receive, read and reply to messages sent direct to them provided they are still using an e mail address which they registered with on this site. They do not have to be a paying member.
They can read the boards from any e mail address.
They cannot post on the boards or start a contact themselves unless they are a paying member of the site.

Gwyn

Thank you Gwyn :-D

Sue this is the only record I can find that might fit:

Robert Norris, Army No. 30633, Pte., 4 A. Tk Coy., single, Enlisted at Palmerston North, occ. Tinsmith, last address Palmerston North, NZ, next of kin is Mrs. A. Henderson, looks like 574 Main Street, Palmerston North (sister).

This is from the NZ Army WW11 Nominal Roll 1939-1948, Roll 2 1 April 1940-30 June 1940.

Electoral Rolls for 1935 and 1938 show Robert Norris, Tinsmith living at 150 Main Street, Palmerston North, Manawatu-Wanganui District.

You can check NZ BDM - just google.

May not be him, but you never know. Good luck.

Does the letter indicate his occupation?

Probates from Archway (NZ archives online)
NORRIS Robert Peter - Te Awamutu - Mechanic d. 1983 (b. 1908)
NORRIS Robert - Christchurch - Painter d. 1972 (b. 1892)
NORRIS Robert Charles, Westport, Nightwatchman d. 1956 (b. c1902)

I followed Robert Norris, the Tinsmith/metal worker all the way through to 1981 where he is listed as a pensioner in East Hutt. He was married to a Beryl Caroline at some stage and she disappears from the Roll.

I think he may have lived past 1983 in the Wellington/Hutt Valley area.

As I said, it was the only record I could find. Marriage records for NZ are only available up to 1931 online. There is another Robert Norris b. 1909/19597, mother Elizabeth and father not recorded.

This is a curly one. Hope some of this helps.

thank you guys you are being a big help! :-D

We have some relations (now lost contact with) in new zealand one was called beryl, and as i've noticed alot with my family tree they liked to repeat names through the generations.

The letter was sent while he was at war. Very short, just explaining that he was "still stuck in england" and that he was sending a "photo to scare the baby".

This letter was to my great-aunt who had at that point recently had a baby. We know he wasn't her husband and she was living in the UK and his uniform has the NZ cap badge on so he wasn't a member of the english troops.

It's all rather bizarre. Im going to have to look at the dates and check it all see if i can find him anywhere as a cousin or a family member line i haven't gone down as much as i should have with.

It can get very confusing, i've found i have to keep just putting the laptop down and having a break and then try again when i haven't gone and confused myself anymore.

Sounds like this Robert Norris is your man. I will get those addresses up for you. Cheers.

I have found an Ancestry tree belonging to chris15982 with some details:

Robert Norris b. c1909 Palmerston North, NZ
death Levin aged 86 years - Levin is 90 kms. north of Wellington, so it would seem he went back to live near his home town in the Manawatu-Wanganui region.

Married Beryl Caroline Scott in 1950 NZ - 1919-1969 died Upper Hutt aged 50 years. This would fit with Electoral Rolls from 1946-1981. I will include those in next post.

I have searched NZ cemeteries that have online database, but have not found burial/cremation so far.

Beryl Caroline Scott:

1946 - living Wellington - Hutt region Y.W.C.A. Hostels, Woburn, spinster
1949 - living Wellington - Karori region, 10 Mowbray Street, Karori, spinster

Robert "Bully" Norris:

1935-1938 Manawatu-Wanganui region, 150 Main St. Palmerston North, tinsmith

1946-1949 Wellington - living 20 Kensington Ave. Petone, tinsmith

1954-1957 - Beryl and Robert living 20 Jessie St., Petone - still metal worker

1963 - Western Hutt, Wellington, both living 7 Deckston Grove, Taita, sheet metal worker

1969 - same address, but Beryl is now deceased and Robert now pensioner

1972-1978 Eastern Hutt same address, Robert pensioner

1981 Eastern Hutt, same address listed as Superannuant.

"Bully" has come from another tree and no children are listed that I can find.

No parents listed for Beryl and only Robert's mother Elizabeth Norris listed. Robert is one of 11 children.

Cheers.

11 children! My word i might be connected via any one of them haha. Looks like i've got a lot of work to do. Still have no idea at what point they would possibly be connected and who through. I know the Highfields start in our family between a samuel Highfield and a flora tinker in 1904. One of their children was the one who used to write from new zealand to my grandmother or my great grandmother. So that is where the new zealand connection first seems to start. However how we get from Highfield to Norris is still confusing. The Children - Flora Jnr. and Lewis were born in 1908 and 1910.

I wonder if the connection is either bobs mother or flora jnr? If his mother and fathers information is not recorded could that be because they were born in the UK?

Just off to bed now, but I will list the children for you tomorrow and more about the family. I have sighted the birth cert. for Elizabeth Norris, so I will take info. from that. Looks like Bob's grandmother was born in Creswick Victoria, Aust.

Goodnight.

Ok thank you so much for your help so far. You've been great :)