By JOSIE CLARKE
A woman's death certificate, issued with up to eight mistakes, has angered her family and raised questions about the accuracy of official archives.
The family of Timaru woman Elaine Woolf, who died on May 26, said the error-ridden certificate was hurtful and useless as a family record.
The mistakes included:
*
The date of her death - listed as May 28.
* It was stated she had lived in New Zealand for 18 years. She was 18 years old when she arrived, but had lived here for 72 years.
* It stated her place of marriage was not recorded. It is. She was married in St Mary's Church in Timaru in 1928.
* The certificate left off one of her sons.
* Her home address was wrong.
* Congestive heart failure was listed as one of the causes of death. The family said she had never had a problem with her heart.
Elaine Woolf's daughter, Nancy Taiaroa, said Births, Deaths and Marriages should have cross-checked the death certificate with her mother's marriage licence.
The doctor and undertaker had since promised the family they would make the necessary corrections.
Births, Deaths and Marriages produced 38,351 death certificates during the 2000 financial year. During that time, the registry corrected 1641 errors highlighted by informants.
A spokesman for the register, Tony Wallace, said: "Our aim is to obtain the highest possible level of accuracy and we will act on information necessary to achieve that."
