The Queen's Birthday weekend is upon us. In the UK, they are having a 4-day weekend to celebrate.
In recognition, The National Archives in England, have digitised about 60 Addresses to Queen Victoria for viewing in an online exhibition. It covers both jubilees in 1887 and 1897. The images are gorgeous, and you can also view a video clip telling you information about it.

Are you aware of our own Address to Queen Victoria?

In 1897, around 25,000 children in the Auckland education district signed a congratulatory address to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee, celebrating 60 years as Queen. The Auckland education district covered all public schools from Northland to Rotorua and Tauranga.

The information available includes the child’s name, which school they belonged to and a page number which refers to the signatures in the original manuscript held in the Sir George Grey Special Collections (NZMS 540).

Because of its fragile condition, the original manuscript has been copied onto microfiche. These are available in the Auckland Research Centre and the Sir George Grey Special Collections.

You can search our database looking to see if one of your ancestors, is one of the 25,000 children that signed this remarkable address!

Hope you have a happy and safe long weekend

Happy hunting

Seonaid

Queen's Birthday Weekend, Karen, Marie and myself are off to Taupo, to attend the New Zealand Society of Genealogists' 2012 Conference and AGM.

We're attending not only as members, but also to represent Auckland Libraries - with an exhibition/research table set up, and I will have the pleasure of speaking also.

We're all very excited that the keynote speaker for this conference is Dr Nick Barratt - formerly lead genealogist from the TV series Who Do You Think You Are? (both the UK and Australian series) and also the lead researcher and presenter of Hidden House Histories.

Historian, author, genealogist, and broadcaster, his presentations over the conference weekend will no doubt be well received.

Yesterday morning Dr Barratt was interviewed by Kathryn Ryan on the nine to noon programme on Radio New Zealand National.

He had a lot of really interesting stuff to say about ancestral tourism and personal heritage. I was particularly interested in his enthusiasm in getting children involved in personal heritage via the school curriculum - its a subject very close to my own heart.

Have a listen to his interview.

Inside History focuses on New Zealand and Australian history. The bi-monthly is an entertaining read with its mix of social history, genealogy, and features about our heritage. And there is some really good content!

Last year's May-June issue "What Really Caused Their Deaths?", really intrigued me - it takes a look at death certificates, and how to read between the lines.

It includes a glossary of the terms you might find on the certificates.

Bladder in Throat, for example, was another name for Diptheria; Rice Water Stools was Cholera, and Bad Blood was Syphillis – as was Lues Disease, French Distemper and French Pox.

In England it wasn’t until 1874 that it became law for a death to be certified by a doctor, and many times the docs were only called after the event, meaning they had some work to do to come up with the cause.

In this years' January-February edition, they have an article called Discovering Maori Links which discussed whakapapa, Maori land court minute books, and Maori oral history.

The magazine is Australian, but has an Australian-New Zealand focus, and New Zealand (and frequently the Central Auckland Research Centre) are often included in the upcoming events "History Now" page, and there are plenty of superb photos.

Do check it out. The magazine is classy – it just looks and feels good, the kind of mag to browse through, learn from and be entertained, all at the same time.

The current issue is on the latest releases stand, and back issues are shelved under FAM 2 ANZ. (In other words, ask a staff member!).

Joanne