Remember the Jennings Family Tree mystery last year? Well, another mystery has come our way at the Central Auckland Research Centre!

A photograph album was handed into a librarian in Pukekohe, it was found in someone’s flat and rescued before it was put into a skip. It was given to the family history team for identification and preservation.  The album is now kept in Sir George Grey Special Collections and is identified as Album #224. 


Cover of the photograph album.

 The album is a collection of professional photographs, circa 1870 and  taken at various studios throughout the world including New Zealand, Barcelona, San Francisco and several in the UK. Interestingly, apart from the photographers names, the only names that seem to be associated with the album are:

                                                    Mr and Mrs Walter Johnson
                                                      Mildred Dunn
                                                       Mrs Curlett
                                                       Aunt Libby

Since August is family history month and we are celebrating families, this seemed to be a great opportunity to share images from this album. We hope that you might be able to help us identify some of the individuals in these portraits.


Loose newspaper clipping included in the album, Mr & Mrs Walter Johnson celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, date and newspaper unknown.




Portrait of Mildred Dunn, aged 3 years. On the reverse side of this image is written the name 'Mrs Curlett', Date and photographer unknown.

If you are able to help us identify these family portraits please post a comment on the Kintalk blog or email us at Library.Centralheritage@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Selected photographs from this album with be posted as a blog mini series 'Friday's Faces from the Past' throughout the month of August.

Regards