This week is Samoan language week and the theme for 2014 is Taofi mau i au measina: Hold fast to your treasures.

Here in the Central Auckland Research Centre, we do indeed hold fast to our treasures and what better motivation can you have to begin researching your Samoan family history research?

If you search our classic catalogue using the "call number" 3 SAM you will see have a large Samoan family history collection, consisting largely of microfilm - filled with information for the researcher.

Our resources for Samoa include what was formerly Western Samoa and also American Samoa.

The microfilms contain registers starting from around1852 and some going right up till 1993, with titles such as:

• Births within the district of the British Consulate at Samoa, 1852- 1915
• Delayed registrations of births for Western Samoa, 1948-1993
• Marriage licenses and certificates, 1900-1968
• Death certificates, 1900-1972

As well as births, deaths and marriages the records also cover wills and probates, genealogies and pedigrees, immigration records, and published family histories.

The records also cover Europeans as well as Samoans - and cover periods of German and British occupation, as well as New Zealand and American.

So please look at our catalogue - "call number" 3 SAM - to see what we have, or else pop in and see our friendly research librarians on the second floor of Central Library.

Happy hunting

Seonaid

This week Auckland Libraries is celebrating Samoan Language Week starting today through to 1 June 2014. The nationwide theme is ‘Taofimau i au measina’ or ‘Hold fast to your cultural treasures’. We have found some Samoan family history treasure!

Many of you reading this will use the subscription database, Ancestry.com on a fairly regular basis but how many of you ever refer to the card catalogue?

There are probably quite a number of records “hidden” away treasures that we are unaware of, and an example of this is some select records of baptisms (1805-1910) and burials (1895-1970) for Samoa. To access these, click on “card catalog” which is in the lower left-hand side of the Ancestry.com Home Page.  Enter Samoa as a keyword and you will have a selection of record sets including these select baptism and burial records.

The entries on Ancestry are only transcripts but do give a (FamilySearch) film number and are included in the catalogue entries for films held at the Central Auckland Research Centre - the desk staff are always available if you require any assistance.

The Ancestry.com database it is accessible through Auckland Libraries Digital Library from within any of the 55 libraries for free.

Marie Hickey

Their daughter Tonya shared with me the family's story about these birth notices ...

My Grandmother (Jean nee Foote Bellingham), tore the original clipping of the birth notice out from the paper after Mum (Helen Bellingham) was born, making sure that she had the entry for her daughter's birth.

Alot of years later someone (probably my Grandmother --Jean Bellingham), was going through all her old newspaper clippings, had a look through and saw that the birth notice not only included Mum (Helen), but Dad (Tony) as well!  Interesting as they were both born in different places in NZ, and on different days (my mums parents were late getting their birth notice in the paper) -- throughout the years us kids were told of the story but the original newspaper clipping has been mislaid.

Their birth announcements were published in the Monday, 9 April 1934 edition of the New Zealand Herald and indeed it was true -- they were together in the birth announcement column with just one other entry between their family names.


Helen and Tony met at teachers training college, became engaged and were married on 25 January 1958 in Auckland at the Onehunga Presbyterian Church. 

The couple on their wedding day.

It is quite a nice thought that perhaps they were destined to be together since birth.

Mr & Mrs Dunn kindly gave us permission to post their story on Kintalk and thank you also to Tonya for supplying us with the lovely family photographs.

Karen

New Zealand Historic BDMs are searchable online.

• Births that occurred at least 100 years ago
• Stillbirths 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

• Vol 1 BDMs from the New Zealander 1845 -1866
• Vol 2 Thames Newspapers 1869-1909
• Vol 3 NZ Herald 1863 -1880
• Vol 4 Daily Southern Cross 1843 -1876
• Vol 5 Index of names of soldiers who died in WWI and whose pictures were published in the Auckland Weekly News.