Section 128 - Family history

(1) Evidence of a hearsay statement by a declarant concerning the birth, marriage, divorce, relationship by blood, marriage or adoption, ancestry or any other similar fact of the family history of the declarant is not made inadmissible by section 117, and will not be made inadmissible by the fact that the declarant did not have any means of acquiring personal knowledge of the matter declared if the statement was made before the controversy arose over the fact of family history.

(2) Evidence of a hearsay statement concerning the birth, death, marriage, divorce, relationship by blood, marriage or adoption, ancestry or any other similar fact of the family history of a person other than the declarant is not made inadmissible by section 117 if the statement was made before the controversy arose concerning the fact of family history and

(a) the declarant was related to the other person by blood, marriage or adoption; or

(b) the declarant was otherwise so intimately associated with the other person’s family as to be likely to have had accurate information concerning the matter declared.

(3) Evidence of entries in a family bible or other family book, family portrait, and inscriptions on a building, a tombstone and the like is not made inadmissible by section 117 when offered to prove the birth, death, marriage, divorce, relationship by blood, marriage or adoption, ancestry or any other similar fact of family history of a member of the family by blood, marriage or adoption.

(4) Evidence of reputation among members of a family is not made inadmissible by section 117 when offered to prove the truth of the matter reputed if the reputation concerns the birth, death, marriage, divorce, relationship by blood, marriage or divorce, ancestry or any other similar fact of the family history of a member of the family by blood, marriage or adoption.