Hello
I have no family or birth for Rachel and only her word on original marriage certificate which I have, stating age and birth place.
1863 m Walter Chisholm, Wedderburn Victoria Australia. She was 19 and born Belfast, parents Joseph Graham and Mary Gray.
From various online records I have the following:
1860 29 Sept arrived in Melbourne ex Liverpool on the "Wanata", age 18, occupation nurse. Assisted Passage.
1863 marriage as above.
1865 living married in Hokitika NZ
1880 birth of son (only child) 21 March, in Punt Rd Richmond Melbourne Victoria, named James Henry Robert Chisholm.
They return to Hokitika and then move to Mauriceville NZ around 1890. They have a general store, Walter a JP, on school board and strong Methodists. She is valued as a nurse in the community.
1905 move to Avondale, Auckland in retirement.
1910 27 May, Walter dies in Avondale.
1921 15 June Rachel dies in Avondale. AGE 76, information from death notice in newspaper. Buried St Ninians Avondale.
My confusion is with Rachel's age as gathered from records. The final ? is her age as inscribed on her headstone, which says she was 88 when she died.
I'm grasping at straws here and one possibility might be that son James had little idea of her age when she died and perhaps information came to light while going through her papers after death which gave him the correct birth date and hence the age 88 on headstone. The headstone engraving would have taken place after she died. They were well known in Avondale and I just can't see the headstone being left with incorrect age at death.
So, with a general birth place being Belfast and very confusing dates I really have nothing to anchor research on. I have tried. Family gossip was always how Rachel was in her 40's when she had son James.
Any help would be wonderful. Many thanks, Penny Brown