August is New Zealand Family History Month!

It is an opportunity for us all to celebrate and commemorate our ancestors. To focus on learning and perhaps contributing to the knowledge that helps us to find out more about our personal heritage.

Libraries, archives, museums, heritage/historical societies and genealogy/family history societies around New Zealand are holding tours, events, lectures and workshops.

Auckland Libraries is no exception. Throughout August, there is a programme of events held at about 20 different Auckland Libraries' venues, From family history storytimes for children, to beginners' classes for new researchers, through to advanced classes for those who may have been researching family and/or local history most of their lives.

As well as the different events held in libraries throughout the Auckland region, there is also the Auckland Family History Expo, that Auckland Libraries and the Genealogical Computing Group of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists have organised for the weekend of Friday, 12 August to Sunday, 14 August.

After the Expo, we have another exciting event at Central Library, on Monday, 15 August. Another opportunity to hear our Expo keynote speakers, Dick Eastman and Shauna Hicks, speak on additional topics. Dick on "Genealogy searches on Google" and Shauna on "Skeletons in the Family: Looking at asylum and prison records."

Some researchers may also be interested in events and tutorials our friends at the NZ Society of Genealogists are holding during Family History Months.

August will be a fun-filled, information packed month for keen researchers!

Happy hunting

Seonaid

From February to November, fortnightly on a Wednesday lunchtime, the Central Auckland Research Centre hosts free Family History Lunchtime sessions at Central City Library.

These events are very popular, and cover many subjects related to family history. Sometimes they are country-specific: researching in Scotland for example, sometimes they relate to researching using particular record sets - wills and probates, or passenger lists for example.

Experts from our Library will often speak on their subject of expertise, representing one of our four research centres or Sir George Grey Special Collections.

Often our events are linked culturally or historically to events that are happening Auckland-wide - such as Waitangi Day, Year of the Snake or Pasifika for example.

Sometimes the speakers come from other repositories such as Church archives, Council archives, or maybe even a museum.

The speakers may be amateur researchers, or they may be in the field professionally. We often have local historians speak for us.

Often our speakers are members of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

We've even been lucky enough at times, to have international guest speakers from genealogy websites Ancestry, FindMyPast, The Genealogist and Family Search.

Sometimes our speakers have been professional genealogical researchers, local or international.

We have a good mix of speakers coming up for the next six months.

We have a new look events page, and you now just need to select "family history" in the scroll down menu, to find out what is happening in the next couple of months.

Or your local library may have our event leaflet showing the first six months of our lunchtime sessions - ask your friendly librarian.

Lunchtimes sessions are fortnightly on a Wednesday, 12 - 1pm unless otherwise stated, and are usually held in the Whare Wananga, L2 Central Library, Lorne Street, Auckland.

Bookings are essential, and you can book either via the website, or email us: arc@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz, or phone 09 307 7771.

Don't forget our NEW Family History Club begins on Sunday, February 10, 10.30am-3.30pm.

Research Centre staff are often asked to speak at other Auckland Libraries branches, and also for other community groups and organisations - so keep an eye out for those events too!

You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter to find out more!

Hope to see you soon!

Happy hunting

Seonaid