Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

New on ancestry.com - Canada Ocean Arrivals 1919-1924.

Unlike previous immigration databases these are digitised copies of the actual arrival cards.

Information given includes: name, age, marital status, if accompanied by spouse their name, current occupation, intended occupation, birthplace, religion, why going to Canada, whether or not they intend to stay, if previously they lived in Canda where, and why did they leave, ports of previous entry and departure from Canada with dates, amount of money in possession, whether they can read, what language, who paid the passage, where in Canada are they going to, which Canadian railway will they be travelling on to their destination, nearest relative in the country they may be coming from, physical or mental defects of self and/or family members travelling at the same time, signature.

The name of the ship is noted on the index page as is the port and the date of arrival.

Else Churchill has written a very informative blog on the Society of Genealogists' website about these records which is well worth readingwww.sog.org.uk

British Army records WWI
All records held at The National Archives, Kew, have now been digitised and indexed. These have been uploaded onto the ancestry.com website which is available at most Auckland City Libraries.

Born in Auckland, Karen grew up in the new suburb of Otara and following work with an employment scheme started her library career as a library assistant at Mount Albert Library in 1979. She obtained her library certificate in 1983 and remained with Mount Albert until 1987. 

In 1987, she moved to the Central Library as a senior library assistant and worked as a member of Coral Ridling's esteemed Social Sciences Department. It was here that she learned how to use non-New Zealand family history material, a collection which was being built and expanded to recognise the burgeoning interest in that area. This became the area of her specialisation from the early 1990s. 

In 1996, she moved to the newly created Auckland Research Centre with family history as one of its key specialties. She worked with others to create a separate shelf identification system for the integrated New Zealand and non New Zealand family history material. In 2000, she achieved her ultimate goal of becoming the Family History librarian and significant changes ensued. 

In 2003, she was celebrated for the library's acceptance by the Genealogical Society of Utah's (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) allowing the direct borrowing of their genealogy microfilms. 

In 2005, she inaugurated the library's first 'Lock In', with 40 keen researchers taking the opportunity to study in the Auckland Research Centre from 8pm to 8am from Friday evening to Saturday morning. The fifth annual 'Lock In' took place in September of this year. 

In 2008, she piloted 'Our Stories' at Avondale College and in 2009 very successfully expanded this to many other schools in the Auckland City area. 

All this while she regularly attended family history conferences both here and in Australia, was a regular speaker to family history groups around the greater Auckland area and conducted training classes to expand people's knowledge of our library resources. She also initiated the Central Library's lunchtime talk sessions, along with the 'Telling Your Life Story' workshops. 

All remarked on her cheeriness, dedication and passion, which she brought to family history and the collection we have here at Auckland City Libraries. Allison Dobbie, group manager Libraries for Auckland City, said of her, "Karen is highly respected and much loved by her colleagues and by the many customers who value her outstanding skills as a family history librarian. Karen's work extended across many libraries and many community groups and organisations. We will miss her very much indeed. This is indeed a very sad passing." 

Karen leaves two sons, two daughters and a grandchild. 

David Verran,
Team leader, Auckland Research Centre.

Guest contributor: Frances Devaney

Following on from the Scottish theme in my blog in May I wanted to alert you to some of the family history resources that you can find in Auckland City Libraries research centre.

One of my favourites is the Register of New Zealand immigrants of Scottish birth arriving in New Zealand before 1 January 1921. This has been compiled by the Scottish Interest Group of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists and contains not only an index giving the name, year of arrival and the year and county of birth in Scotland but copies of the original forms that people completed giving information about their ancestors. These can contain further information such as the ship of arrival, parent's names, names of children, and so forth.

On microfilm we have the Scottish index of births 1907-1955 and of marriages 1932-1956 and the Scottish 1901 census. Although this census is available on www.ancestry.com the original images of the census forms are not. However, with our new microfilm reader/printer/scanners you can get copies of the original forms from the microfilm. 

We also have a large variety of cemetery information both in hard copy and on CD, particulary monumental inscriptions, most of which have been compiled by various local genealogical societies. Because of  variations in title these can be difficult to locate in our catalogue. One of the easiest ways to find out what Scottish cemetery resources we hold is to use the classic catalogue search option on our websitewww.aucklandcitylibraries.com and search by call number using the family history call number notation 4 SCT CEM. Give it a go and you'll be surprised by the gems held in our collection.

This is only a small selection of the Scottish resources available in the Auckland Research Centre so if your ancestors are part of the great Scottish Diaspora don't despair, you can still carry out some of your research in New Zealand through our fanatastic collection here.

Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

Children's charity Barnado's has launched a new family history service, offering people the chance to access records of the thousands of children cared for by the organisation since the early 1870s.

An initial search to determine whether your forbear was a Barnado's child costs 15 pounds, with additional charges of twenty to eighty-five pounds to acquire copies of documents or photographs.

A full history package (where available) includes contextual information, a handwritten admission history, a handwritten ledger of correspondence with family and friends, employment records, a photograph of them and of their Barnado's home.

For further information visit the Who do you think you are? magazine website at
http://www.bbcwhodoyouthinkyouare.com/news.php

1911 Census onlinehttp://www.1911census.co.uk/

Great news, the census is now complete - all remaining records have been added. These include Guernsey, Isle of Man, the Islands of Alderney, Jersey and Sark and also troops stationed in overseas military bases, and crew serving on Royal Navy ships.

Guest contributor : Marie Hickey

With the advent of the internet, the amount of resources coming available to family historians is increasing at a rapid pace. Below are some websites and television programmes which may be of interest.

http://www.ancestry.com/ 
Many board of Guardians records for the Poor Law Unions of Hampstead, Lambeth, Holborn, Islington, Paddington, Westminster, Poplar, St Marylebone, St Pancras, Southwark, Stepney and Wandsworth. The images have not been name indexed; some collections are individually indexed but do not indicate this so check the early images for one.
Obituary [death notices] collections for various countries, including New Zealand and Australia.
Large collection of French and German records.
Crockford's clerical directory 1932.

http://www.theoriginalrecord.com/
Contains a variety of records. Search of the index is free but fee charged to view and download screen images.

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)http://www.proni.gov.uk/ have added a name search database of pre 1858 wills.

National Library of Scotland http://www.nls.uk/ - Ordnance Survey maps (1843-1923, Scotland, and 1945-47, England and Wales), including the six inch to one mile series now available to view online.

1911 census http://www.1911census.co.uk/ - all English counties now covered; Wales and military abroad still to come.

http://www.deceasedonline.com/ - a newly available online database of over 400,000 entries and hopes to cover the UK and Republic of Ireland. Currently includes some London cemeteries, Angus Council area, Kent and Sussex crematoria and Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/new-zealand-in-the-south-african-boer-war/database - gives surname, first name, address, next of kin and ship embarked on.

Huntingdon Library and Archive centre is due to open at its new premises on 11 June 2009.

Check out  :
- courses offered on http://www.pharostutors.com/. A fee is charged but may prove to be well worth the cost.
- Larkrise to Candleford UKTV (10 part series, started mid May)
- Who do you think you are? on UKTV and Prime

Last but not least, we now have an almost complete set of Ancestors magazine (PRO/TNA) bound and available on the shelves in the Auckland Research Centre.

Guest contributor: Frances Devaney

Many people when using Ancestry get stuck on the major collections - the UK census collection, military records etc and forget that some of the smaller resources can provide rich untapped seams for the family historian. It's always a good idea to go browsing and see what's new and explore some of the lesser known collections on this fantastic resource.

I was enthralled when browsing through Ancestry.com recently to find two resources of which I had been previously unaware. Fife, Scotland, Cupar Library Newspaper Index Cards, 1833-1987 and Perth, Scotland Newspaper Index Cards, 1809-1990. Both can be found under the births, deaths and marriages Scotland section.

The first contains a collection of index cards referencing articles and announcements found in several Fife area newspapers from 1833-1987. I was delighted to locate information pertaining to various family members who resided in the area ranging from birth notices to their involvement in the local dramatic society.

This Perth database is similar in that it contains a collection of index cards referencing articles and announcements found in several Perth area newspapers from 1890-1990 (with a gap in coverage from 1890-1920). Although it is recorded as being only up to 1990 I have found reference to family members up to 2006. Most of the cards reference births, deaths, retrials, golden and diamond wedding anniversaries, or personal tragedies.

And finally a reminder that anyone, member or non-member,  can access Ancestry from any of our 17 Auckland City Library sites.

• Births that occurred at least 100 years ago
• Still births that occurred at least 50 years ago
• Marriages, and eventually Civil Unions, that occurred 80 years ago
• Deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago or the deceased's date of birth was at least 80 years ago

• Commissioners of Trade, Customs, railways, native lands
• Consular and vice-consular appointments
• Dentists' register: name, address, date of registration, qualification
• Justice Department: appointments and resignations of judges, coroners, crown prosecutors, magistrates, justices of the Peace
• Licensing committees: district appointments
• Mail services: contractors 
• Marriage celebrants
• Medical practitioner: name, address, date of registration, qualification
• List of qualified or registered teachers in various formats since 1887
• Mining companies: company's and shareholders' names and addresses
• Partnerships: registered, amended, dissolved
• Patents: name, address and description of the product
• Post and Telegraph: appointment of postmasters
• Prisoners: appointment of gaolers, surgeons and visiting justices
• Public Trust: names of deceased people whose estates are under management
• Public Works: lists of applicants tendering for work
• Registrars of births, deaths and marriages, of electors, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal
• Sheep farmers: names of farmers and the number of sheep owned   

Guest contributor: Marie Hickey