The old adage about putting flesh on the skeleton used by genealogists reinforces the beauty of using local histories when building a picture of your family.

Heritage et al recently blogged about the most recent winners of the J. M. Sherrard award in New Zealand regional and local history.

The ultimate award went to Robert Peden for his book, Making sheep country: Mt Peel Station and the transformation of the tussock lands (Auckland University Press, 2011). Writing on early agriculture, “the economic and ecological transformation of New Zealand”, the information on the early high country sheep farmers and the decisions they made about where they, and how they, farmed provides social context to those others farming in nineteenth century New Zealand. Although focussing on Mt Peel station and John Acland’s experience of establishing large-scale sheep farming, what Mr Acland went through could easily provide the background for a family historian’s understanding of how life was for their own ancestor. As written in the book’s preface, “Acland’s story is in many ways typical of the experiences of his fellow pastoralists.”

Making sheep country : Mt Peel Station and the transformation of the tussock lands by Robert Peden

Another winner from the J. M. Sheerard awards for 2010-2013 was David Verran’s book on the North Shore, The North Shore : an illustrated history (Auckland, N.Z. : Random House, 2010).

This book is also an excellent example of how you can glean a picture of the way your ancestor lived through studying the local history. One of the chapters is on boatbuilding and the various boat yards that existed. Described are these various yards, their owners and how they operated; “At about the same time that the Holmes family was building the Waitemata, George Beddoes’ shipyard was constructing a schooner and three cutters. Other work this yard undertook included the repairs and alterations to a paddle steamer. It was this shipyard that built the paddle steamer Devonport in 1870, the first timber and steel ship built in New Zealand.”

Bailey and Lowe's boatbuilding yard at Sulphur Beach, Northcote Point, around 1910. The North Shore : an illustrated history by David Verran

Auckland Libraries holds a large and varied collection of local histories from throughout the wider Auckland region to around the country. You can search our catalogue under the name of the area to see what we have in our collection.

Bridget

In this, the second in the series of summer reads for teens, we have this absolutely fun novel that is also the debut novel of author Lindsay Tam Holland.

Like the previous book, our teen protagonist (sixteen-year-old Vee) has to investigate his family. Which is a bit of a mission since his Chinese Dad and Texan mother never talk about themselves, so the homework sucks, and Vee hates that he doesn't know much about his family. Its as if his father never had a life before going to the USA: Vee says:

"I hated my life. I hated brainless, cruel homework and the way I was supposed to figure out everything on my own. Other kids would have tough life stories: single parents, divorced parents, alcoholic parents, abusive parents, dead parents, all of the above. They'd be coddled and cooed over and given A's just for telling the truth. I wanted to tell the truth, I did, but there was no truth to tell. there was just this nothingness, this silence."

To make matters more interesting, Vee's best friend is Chinese and she does have a story to tell.
The novel chart's Vee's mission to find out the truth about both sets of grandparents, and includes along with it some good old angst, love interests, your basic teen confusion, and life as a kid of mixed parentage.

And of course he does find out the truth about his family although when his father tells him how he came to America, its not quite what Vee had imagined:

"The whole time I'd wondered in the back of my mind if he'd sneaked into America by hiding in some cramped cargo hold for months on end, or by bribing a high-level official, or by drifting the way Cubans do in a boat the size of a bathtub. Madison's family with their false papers and grueling interrogations were more interesting than Dad's immigration. His trip sounded about as exciting and difficult as an excursion to 7-Eleven."

You can check out the book on the library catalogue here. Like all great YA novels, there's no reason why folks well and truly into adulthood shouldn't read them. Take no notice of those critics who say reading young is beneath you!

For more info on Lindsay Tam Holland. Check out her website.

I sure hope she's writing another book because The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong is a winner.

And have a great reading-filled 2016, everyone!

Joanne