Talk:William Young (New Zealand politician)

Who was he?

This is probably the skinniest bio that we've got for a NZ legislative councillor. Standard reference works aren't much help. He has an entry in the 1951 edition of Who's Who in New Zealand and it's shorter than this bio. His extremely common name is probably part of the problem. I've had a look and what I could uncover is that he was obviously a longstanding dairy farmer in Otahuti (Q25661821). The Southland Times mentions him regularly over the decades in relation to dairying and agricultural shows, where Young is often a judge. This notice from 1924 refers to a "W. Young" who as a rugby selector has suffered a family bereavement. Is that our William Young? I've had a look and the person who died was Margaret Young (died 16 May 1924 at "Viewbank", Waianiwa, aged 83). His mother? If so, Margaret's husband John died on 9 November 1922 aged 87 years. Both are buried at Wallacetown Old Cemetery. I thought I'd record this here in case anybody wants to go digging further. I suspect that The Southland Times would have published a decent bio in 1950 when Young was called to the Legislative Council. This newspaper is currently digitised up to 1928 only. Those publications from mid-1950 that are online are few and far between and none have anything decent on Young; he was, after all, one of 25 legislators appointed in one go. In good time, we will have the 1950s The Southland Times online and then it'll get easier. Schwede66 00:53, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Further to this. BDM lets you search for births specifying given name, family name, given name of mother, and year ranges. The results show all of these data plus the given name(s) of the father. Margaret would have been born around 1841. Which of the Margaret Young had a husband named John and a son William in the possible year range (say late 1850s to mid-1880s)? Turns out we have three potential candidates (and we need to acknowledge that it's entirely possible that our William Young was born overseas, in which case we won't find him on this database):

Registration Number	Family Name	Given Name(s)	Mother's Given Name(s)	Father's Given Name(s)	BD resolves for
1875/2196	Young	John William	Margaret	John	8 February 1875
1876/17234	Young	William Muir	Margaret	John Burnet
1877/9849	Young	William	Margaret	John	10 January 1877

It's of course possible that there were other given names involved that we don't know about, but the most likely case is the 1877 birth (registration number 1877/9849). Let's see what I can find. Schwede66 03:35, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Oh, a nice article expansion, Kiwichris. I assume that you haven't seen these notes on the talk page. I have been in touch with staff from the parliamentary library who in turn have pub me in touch with the Southland branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists. I shall report to them that you managed to find the obituary. Top marks, as usual! Schwede66 06:05, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

No I hadn't seen this. The obituary gave further family details that the society might be interested in. In addition to Ena Grieve, his other daughters were named Ruby (married to Mr C. Donald of Spar Bush) and Majorie (married Mr T. S. Smith of Oreti). His son, Jack, also lived in Otahuti. His wife was not named. Kiwichris (talk) 11:29, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

User:Kiwichris, now that I know who he was, I'm sure I can figure out who his wife was. Schwede66 23:52, 19 April 2022 (UTC)