Glossary
| Word/phrase | Other terms | Comment |
| Ages at death |
D = day/days
H = hour/hours M = month/months N = mins/minutes S = secs/seconds W = week/weeks Y = year/years YA = years about |
|
| BDM | Abbreviation for Births, Deaths and Marriages. | |
| Certificate | Cert | Is an official document containing registered information about a person’s birth, death, marriage, civil union or name change event. A certificate contains less information than a printout. |
| District Keys | Compiled books of the folio numbers relating to the places of registration. | |
| Family name |
Surname;
Surname at birth; Maiden surname |
Family name recorded on the registrations.
Surname of a person prior to their first marriage. |
| Folio number |
Refers to the page number of a register that an entry is in for that year.
Folio numbers are recorded against each record on the microfiche. There can be multiple records with the same folio number. Numbers usually started at the top of the North Island through to the bottom of the South Island. |
|
| Given names |
First names;
Christian names; Names at birth |
Given names recorded on the registrations. |
| Life Event | Identification of which type of record is required e.g. birth, death, marriage, civil union or name change. | |
| Māori registrations | Separate registers kept from 1913 to 1961 for births and deaths; and 1911 to 1952 for marriages for persons who were of full or part Māori blood. | |
| Living Issue | Children of the deceased alive at the time of the death. | |
| Māori registrations | Separate registers kept from 1913 to 1961 for births and deaths; and 1911 to 1952 for marriages for persons who were of full or part Māori blood. | |
| Microfiche index |
BDM microfiche;
Fiche; BDM Fiche |
Sheet of transparent plastic which contains usually 60 pages of BDM index information (e.g. name of person, folio number). |
| NR | Not Recorded. The information wasn't collected or provided at the time. | |
| Party |
Bride or Groom;
Spouse |
The other person involved in the marriage or civil union. |
| Printout |
A scanned image of the original record, however if a record has been updated or corrected it will be typed, as a correction cannot be made to a scanned image.
All records 1998 onwards will be typed as there is no scanned image. All non emailed printouts are produced on white A4 paper. |
|
| Registrations-Birth, Deaths and Marriages | BDM Registrations | The paper based forms provided to BDM of life events for registration purposes. |
| Registration Number | A unique number allocated to every registered birth, death, marriage or civil union within each life event type. Format yyyy/nnnnnn. | |
| Transliteration | In this context, a translation of a Māori name of a person to an equivalent English name or vice versa. |
