Showing posts with label guest post. Show all posts

Guest post: Preparing for your visit to the Central Auckland Research Centre

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Guest contributor: Bridget Simpson

We welcome everyone to our Research Centre. Whether you are a member of our library or a non-member, a resident of Auckland, or a visitor.

We welcome all age groups, and really do enjoy it when we get a school visit.

If you are coming into our Research Centre to do your family history research, it does pay to come prepared.

Sometimes people, adults and schoolchildren, come in unprepared. They have surnames and anecdotal evidence but nothing concrete that we can usefully follow.

If you are coming in, it will make your visit far more satisfactory to do a little bit of preparation before hand. Start with yourself. Sit down with your parents and write down as much as they know (their parents’ names and dates of birth, and places they lived is a good start ).

If you have birth, death or marriage certificates for your ancestors, photocopy them and bring these copies along as well.

Filling in a genealogical tree sometimes makes all the difference to sorting out the different generations and families in your mind. And it’s helpful for us. You can find these free online. Start with what you know and we can then help point you in the various different directions to start filling in the rest.

A digital camera and a memory stick are optional, but very useful tools in our Centre. Sometimes we don’t allow photocopying for preservation reasons, so a digital camera is a good way of getting that vital copy for your records. Memory sticks are handy to save images to, then you have the file forever.

Before you come in, we recommend you read our information pageResearching Your Family History on our website.

Bridget Simpson

Guest post: Getting more from the internet

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

We have recently received the Christmas 2011 issue of Who do you think you are? Magazine in the Central Auckland Research Centre. I always enjoy reading this magazine as there is usually something of interest and this issue is no different as it is “chocca block”  with interesting articles.
There are explanations of the nursing records which have gone on line at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/nursing.asp and the Irish prison records 1790-1920 which are now on line at www.findmypast.ie. While the latter is a subscription database you can search the index for free but will have to pay to view the record. As is usual with this time of the year, there is a round up of 50 essential websites which include the “usual suspects” but there is mention of others which you may be unaware of, as well as information on new items to come available on the sites in the coming year. It is just so easy to become absorbed with the data on some of these sites.
I am the first to admit that I don’t use the internet to my best advantage so the article “Get more from the internet” was very helpful for me as it gives a number of tips and tricks which makes searching on the internet much easier. While on the subject of the internet, there is an article about the new British Library newspaper site and digitisation project. Postal workers records were published on ancestry.com last year which was great for those of us with Post Office ancestors so the article on postal workers should be of interest to you. 
Got a shop-keeper/worker in the family? There is a bit about some websites that may be useful.
Just as a short postscript, if you have ancestors in London, you will be interested to know that the London electoral rolls 1835-1965 were published on ancestry.com last week. In the main, these only give the name of the person, their address and qualification to vote. However, in some circumstances you get information about rent paid, to whom, whether or not the flat was furnished and where in the building it is eg 2nd floor at front – all useful information if you can get it.
As I say, this issue was a really good read. We have a non-borrowable copy in the Central Auckland Research Centre but you may be able to borrow a copy from another library alternatively, it should be available in the shops here probably next month but do check with your local magazine shop about this.

Marie Hickey

Guest post: Index Auckland and the NZ Card Index as sources for family historians

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Guest contributor: Janelle Penney

Index Auckland came into being in the mid-1990s as the online version of an indexing effort that had been ongoing at the Auckland Library since the 1950s. Before Index Auckland there was the NZ Card Index, which as its name implies, consisted of tens of thousands of cards hand-written by librarians, pointing to useful references in a wide range of NZ magazines, newspapers and books. Thanks to the miracle of modern technology, the images of those cards and the transcription of their contents, are now also available online, just like Index Auckland, through the Digital Library part of the Auckland Library's website.
 
Yeah, ok, I hear you ask. So where's the family history in all that? Well, I can assure you, that both those resources are worth checking for your family history research, and not just if you have Auckland family. Although there is a strong Auckland 'flavour' to the contents, there are references to people there from other parts of the country and for both the 19th and 20th century. To misquote Forrest Gump, the indexes are a bit like a box of chocolates - you never know what you'll get.
 
I would suggest a simple keyword search for checking the NZ Card Index. Index Auckland can be searched the same way but as you will see from the search panel, it offers other choices, too.
 
If you want to browse your family names of interest, go to the 'Subject' search box and click the 'Browse' button. In the lower middle part of the view that opens you will see the choices 'Terms list' and 'Words list' with the default choice given as 'Words'. Change that by clicking the 'Terms' button, then put your family surname of interest in the 'Find' box at the top and click 'Find'.
 
You will be presented with a shopping list of all the entries, in alphabetical order by personal name, of all the people with your family surname who have a descriptor entry in the index. You can browse up and down the list to look for possible hits. Selection is easy - just click to highlight the entry of interest, click 'Add' and then 'Close'. You will arrive back at the 'Search' box with your person's name neatly filed in the subject search field and all ready for you to click 'Search'. Good hunting!

Guest post: NZSG Family history fair in Hamilton

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

It seems as if we are currently working from one event to another; in June it was the NZSG Conference, August - Family History Month which has had Seonaid on the road most days and last weekend (26-27th August), the second NZSG Family History Fair was held at Claudelands in Hamilton. Auckland Libraries had a stand which was staffed by Seonaid Lewis, Karen Samsom and myself. There were 52 exhibitors (including us), 40 seminars and 16 workshops; the subjects covered websites, computer programs, research in New Zealand and overseas and specific types of records.
 
Seonaid and I presented seminars and workshops.  All three of us were kept on the go the whole time between trying to attend some seminars ourselves, giving our talks and staffing our stand. We were lucky to have our stand right by the entrance doors so we got to speak to many visitors as they arrived; many returned later in the day after having been around the other stands. I spoke to a number of people from Matamata; and am convinced that my relatives were the only ones left in town as the rest were at the Fair.
 
The weekend was very successful for us as we got to speak to many people from different localities and were able to show the extent of our resources and how they can assist with their research - one couple had travelled from Australia especially for the Fair! From the buzz in the hall I think that everyone enjoyed themselves and went away having gained something from the experience.
 
One of the seminars I was able to attend was Brad Argent's talk on "How we do what we do" (he was representingancestry.com.au). This was fascinating as he spoke of how records often have to be conserved before filming can begin, how they do their filming etc. One example he gave was of a sheet from the 1861 census for Manchester that had taken a conservator four hours to unfurl so it could be filmed.
 
Judy Jones from FamilySearch was the keynote speaker on Friday evening and Sir John Trimmer on Saturday evening. We have been fortunate that Judy, Mark Bayley (thegenealogist.co.uk) and Carole Riley have made time in their schedules to speak at Central Auckland Research Centre and I am sure that those who attended these presentations learned something to help in their research.
 
Overall, it was a great weekend and hopefully we will be back again next year. Next event - the Karen Kalopulu Lock-in!

Guest post: What was your ancestor's voyage to New Zealand like for them?

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Guest contributor: Janelle Penney


So, you've tracked down the passenger list of the ship your ancestor arrived in NZ aboard and perhaps you've even managed to find a picture of the vessel, but you still want to know more - what was it like to travel aboard that ship?

Some of us are lucky - our ancestor left behind a letter or a diary which tells the story of their experiences in their own words - but for most of us, there is only silence from our forbears. We have to find what we can about that voyage as seen through others' eyes, and work out from that what the experience of our own ancestor was probably like.

HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS are a common source of voyage descriptions. Many NZ newspapers of the 19th and early 20th century, in addition to publishing the names of passengers who arrived at the local port, would also list cargo brought aboard the vessel and give some description of the voyage itself, based on information provided by those operating the ship. Sometimes passengers who had died or given birth might be named, but the weather encountered en route, voyage duration, the 'healthfulness' (or not) of the voyage, are the kinds of topics that crop up most frequently. To look for voyage descriptions, try the Papers Past website of digitised NZ newspapers.

Of course, not all papers are to be found on the website, though it is gradually growing over time. Compilations of newspaper accounts, (supplemented with some useful photos) such as "White Wings", are still of value in tracking down information. "White Wing" by Sir Henry Brett, covers passenger ships in the NZ trade 1840 to 1885. There are reference copies of the original two-volume edition available in the Central Auckland Research Centre and loan copies of a 1976 reprinttwo-volume edition available in the library system. There is also a condensed version, but I personally prefer the two volume original.

Newspapers on microfilm are also a source but may require either a visit to the library concerned or sending a request to staff of the relevant institution. The Central Auckland Research Centre, for instance, holds the NZ Herald from November 1863 on microfilm.

VOYAGE ACCOUNTS by crew members or by passengers, are even more desirable research material than the newspapers. Your own ancestor may not have been a diarist or left a letter about the voyage, but maybe one of their fellow-travellers did? Some shipboard diaries have been published and many more exist in manuscript form and are held in archives, libraries, museums and private family collections. An invaluable source to track down this material has been published by the NZ Society of Genealogists "A guide to firsthand shipboard accounts for voyages to New Zealand, 1840-1900" by Martha Donaldson.
Checking the ship name and date of voyage will tell you if someone produced something about your ancestor's voyage. There is always the faint hope that such a diary or shipboard account might even name your ancestor, if he/she was an acquaintance onboard of the person doing the writing. For a lucky few, the hope may even be fulfilled, but a word of warning - most diarists were people travelling in the better class cabins who had more free time (and perhaps education) for such pursuits. The bulk of people who travelled to NZ as immigrants travelled in steerage, and lived both at a physical and social distance from the cabin passengers during the trip. Having said that, there is still much valuable insight to be gathered from such diaries, for many of the experiences of shipboard life were common to all.

Now that the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives have been digitised up to 1906, official reports made about the voyages from people like ship's doctors, or government inquiries that were mounted about particularly-problem filled voyages, can be accessed online.

Another source of shipboard accounts is Ian Nicholson's remarkable"Log of logs : a catalogue of logs, journals, shipboard diaries, letters and all forms of voyage narratives, 1788 to 1993, for Australian and New Zealand and surrounding oceans."
Note that each volume should be checked in turn, as each is a separate listing and may contain different entries for the same ship and voyage.

GAINING INSIGHT. You may not have the good fortune to find a voyage account that relates to your ancestor's ship, but there are still resources available that will enable you to gain some understanding of what they experienced. Indeed, I would recommend the following two things to anyone with immigrant ancestors of the 19th century, no matter how well-informed you may be about their personal experience. The two things are: a splendid book about the experience of immigrants aboard ship, which is a distillation of ten years of study by the author of shipboard accounts ("Over the mountains of the sea : life on the migrant ships 1870-1885"); and a visit to the immigration exhibition at the Voyager Maritime Museum.

The Voyager Maritime Museum is located at the Viaduct Harbour down on Quay Street. (You really can't miss it - it's the only building with a large yacht parked outside on the street!). It contains much of interest to family historians and in particular a replica of a 19th century vessel's immigrants' quarters, in steerage, complete with a mechanised floor that replicates the swaying feeling of being aboard ship. If you want to experience a little of the dark, cramped, creaking and swaying world your ancestors' survived during their voyage, this offers you a unique opportunity. Only the rats, cockroaches, damp, and smell of bodily wastes are lacking. Believe me, when you are standing in the middle of that exhibition space, they are easy to imagine.

And one last note about the museum - if you have the good fortune to be a JAFA (a resident of Auckland), it is free. (See the website for details).

Guest post: New Zealand Mariners #1

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Ever read a really good book that gets largely overlooked by others and you wish more people knew of it? I have just such a book I want to tell you about. It deserves to be better known amongst family historians who have NZ merchant sailors in their family trees. It is called Crew culture and provides a detailed examination of the working conditions and lifestyle of NZ merchant seamen in the days of sail and steam. There are loan copies available in the Auckland Libraries collection.
And why am I particulary keen on this book? - Many of us with NZ merchant seamen ancestors struggle to piece together a picture of their working lives because so many of our maritime records have been lost. The sad truth is, that we may never be in a position to name all the vessels on which our ancestor served, or fully document their career at sea. However, with some effort and a bit of luck, it may be possible to glean information about one or two of their vessels, and at least get some idea of their experiences. This makes a book like Crew culturesuch a valuable resource - it makes a major contribution to our understanding of our sea-going ancestors' working lives, even if we don't have all of their precise details.

And on the subject of gleaning details of ships that ancestors served on - there is an excellent Australian website called Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters (though properly speaking it is based on Sydney, NSW. records). It is a growing index. Coverage is currently from 1845 up to the 1890s (with some gaps) and some years from the early 20th century. (It will eventually go to 1922). It includes a scan of each original record as well. There is some variation in the information given on crew members, but many entries include the age, rank or job, and palce (often just the country) of birth. Researching the vessel will indicate a great deal about the working and living conditions your ancestor would have experienced. But the researching of ships is a topic for another day...

Guest post: So, what did your ancestor's passenger ship look like, then?

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Guest contributor: Janelle

Once we have discovered which ship our ancestor came to New Zealand on, for most of us, the next question is "Where can I can get a picture of that ship?" And, just like passenger lists which are scattered in many places, so too are images of ships. Here are some of the search strategies and sources for ships pictures that I know about. I suspect that there are others out there that have escaped my notice, so please don't take this as an exhaustive guide!
A logical place to start the search for a picture is any museum or library you can find at or near the port where your ancestor arrived. If the ship was using that port, then a local photographer may have taken a photo and that image may now be housed in a local collection. If you have no luck with that port, check other NZ ports, to see if the same vessel ever put in there and if it did, check those institutions in turn.

You may find a list of NZ museums here and a directory of NZ libraries here.

A helpful source in determining which ports a particular vessel visited is "Shipping to New Zealand 1839-1889" popularly called the Comber Index after its compiler. The Comber Index doesn't contain passenger information or references to pictures, but it does give the departure dates, brief voyage details, and arrival ports and dates of immigrant ships to NZ. 

The Central Auckland Research Centre holds a copy of the Comber Index on microfiche.

Although the idea of checking libraries, archives and museums seems very straightforward (though time-consuming), there are a couple of other important points to keep in mind.

Firstly, the bulk of photo collections are not yet digitised, so even if the library or museum of the port of interest to you has an online digital archive, do not assume that the lack of a hit on that database indicates that no image is held. What is available in digital form may well be only a selection from the total collection of photos owned, so enquire specifically about your vessel of interest to the relevant institution.

The Heritage Images Online collection held at the Auckland Library is an example of the sort of situation I am talking about. The online collection of images is over 40,000 (not just ships, of course!), but the total collection is over half a million. 

If local collections at ports of interest don't yield an image, try Matapihi - a site that lists amongst other things, pictures contributed from a range of large national collections such as Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, which holds material reflecting the entire country, not just one region.

If a ship also visited Australian ports, a picture may be held in that country, if not here. Try the National Library of Australia's Picture Australia website that works in a similar way, reporting the holdings of many Australian contributing collections.

Secondly, you need to be careful to identify your vessel correctly. If you are lucky there will be enough information accompanying the image in the collection to be sure that you have the correct ship, but this is not guaranteed. If the relevant details are lacking then you need to be wary. Not only might there be two vessels afloat at the same time using the same name, but many shipping companies 'recycled' ship names, renaming new vessels with traditional company names as they took them into their fleet and disposed of the old vessel of that name.

So, (hypothetical example here),if you know that your ancestor's ship was the SEAHORSE owned by the J.J. Bloggs Shipping Company and arrived in 1874, check that photo you find of the SEAHORSE owned by J.J. Bloggs Shipping but dated 1885 very carefully. Is it the same vessel or the replacement? You may have to do some research on the history of the 1874 SEAHORSE to see if it was still afloat and owned by the same company. You could discover that it was wrecked in 1878, or that it was sold to another shipping company and sailing under adifferent name by 1885! (Which of course means you have to search for pictures under that alternative name, as well.)

Historical newspapers, encyclopaedias of shipwrecks, shipping company histories, and maritime sources such as Lloyds Register of Shipping, are some of the things that may be checked if you need to ensure that you have the correct ship. For information on Lloyds Register and associated sources, see the website of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in the UK.

The National Maritime Museum also holds a large collection of ship pictures. Another helpful website is The Ships List. Also try the New Zealand Maritime Index (vessel search) to identify pictures of ships that have been published in books relevant to NZ.

The Central Auckland Research Centre holds on CD-Rom an index listing the location of more than 11,000 ship pictures held in the State Library of New South Wales: 
Master index to ships pictures in the Mitchell Library: Sydney, Australia (1500-1991)
The above is not an exhaustive list of sources, but I hope it gives some ideas about where to start looking. If your search for a picture seems to hit a brick wall, don't give up. You never know what will turn up eventually and where you will stumble over the vessel you want.

For instance, if anybody is interested in the ship CITY OF AUCKLAND which brought out immigrants to New Zealand during the 1870s, there is a rather nice model of it in a glass case, sitting on display against the far back wall of the Central Auckland Research Centre, Level 2, in the Auckland Central Library, Lorne Street.

Janelle

Guest post: Passenger Lists - Where Did My Ancestor Come From?

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Guest contributor: Janelle Penney

When we start out researching our family tree, one of the first things we want to know is how did our first New Zealand ancestors get to this country?

For many of us, that means looking for passenger lists of the 19th or early 20th centuries. The problem for the new researcher (and sometimes the more experienced with a brick wall) is that there is no one-stop shop for this information - it is scattered amongst a range of sources, some on the Internet and some not; some in NZ and some overseas; some in published hard copy, but most not. Knowing where to look, and what to look for, is quite a task. So today I want to discuss some of the best resources that I know of as a librarian, in the hopes that they may help someone make that new discovery or breakthrough.

Firstly, a little history about immigration to NZ. There were different immigration schemes that operated at different times and places, and the kinds of records that they left behind vary greatly. Schemes were run by private immigration (land) companies, by provincial governments, by central government and by private groups based on religious or ethnic affiliation. (And of course, some people paid their own passage here, seeking their fortune on the land, in business or on the goldfields.)

A list of sources on this complex situation, can be found amongst the research guides available on the website of Archives New Zealand.

On a first look-through, the list of possible sources seems a bit overwhelming, particularly if you only have a vague idea of when and where your family first showed up in New Zealand. So, the key is to work on that question of "when and where" till you have as accurate an idea as you can of the answer.

Look at electoral rolls, post office directories, and records of birth, death and marriage, to establish a timeline and location. Once you know that, check to see what resources exist for the nearest port, in the time period they first appear. As a rule of thumb, it is best to assume that people settled somewhere in the vicinity of their port of first entrance to NZ. This of course was not always the case, but it happened frequently, so start with that assumption till proven otherwise.

Many libraries or museums around NZ have worked to develop indexes of passenger arrivals based on their local port. For many, the records available for the purpose were mostly the passenger lists published regularly in the local paper as ships arrived in the port, supplemented with any official sources they have been able to access. Some of these indexes are now available online.

Examples of these are AUCKLAND , TARANAKI , WELLINGTON ,CHRISTCHURCH , and NELSON.

WARNING. It is always tempting to just jump in when searching a newly-found database, but you are not helping your research efforts at all if you don't also read about what it contains  (or doesn't!) and how it is arranged. You may be missing some vital piece of information and not getting a hit on your search because you didn't know some fact that was explained in the introduction to that database which you skipped in your excitement. BE SMART AND READ THE NOTES.

Many official passenger lists are held by the government department called Archives New Zealand. Previously only accessible through (Wellington-based) card indexes, these are now being digitised in a joint project with the Latter Day Saints' FamilySearch.org. This is an ongoing project so you may need to keep checking for your family names till you get a hit, but when you do, you will be able to obtain (without charge) an image of the original passenger list. See a similar joint project that operates between The National Archives UK and the commercial site Findmypast is 'Ancestorsonboard' which traces passengers leaving UK ports for all destinations (NZ included) from 1890 to 1960. It can be searched for free on the Internet but copies of the transcribed results or images of the original passenger lists must be purchased.

The Central Auckland Research Centre has a subscription to this database which visitors may book and use to either do a search from scratch, or, if they already have done the free part of the search online, to obtain the image of the passenger list via our subscription access without further charge, if a memory stick is used, or standard photocopying costs if a paper printout is made. (Note, the colour versions although a dollar for an A4 page, often look much better than the cheaper black and white). Bookings for access to this are required as the number of people who can use the subscription at one time is limited.

Not all websites offering passenger lists are run by government departments or institutions. There are also many individuals out there who run free websites where they offer transcriptions of passenger lists as a goodwill contribution to the family history research community. There are too many to give an exhaustive list here, but a few of my favourites are Denise and Peter's Our Stuff ; New Zealand Yesteryearsand New Zealand Bound. 

Last word. If you still can't find that elusive record, do not despair. More and more material is being made available on the Internet as time goes by. That breakthrough may be just around the corner!

Guest post: The New Zealand Company

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Guest contributor: Paul Veart

Over the past few months I’ve had the pleasure of researching the New Zealand Company for a presentation as part of Auckland Libraries’ lunchtime talk series.

When I first began looking at the New Zealand Company I must admit I didn’t quite realise what I’d be in for, expecting just a brief search through emigration records. Once I began, however, I quickly got sucked into a world of manipulative political dealings, life-and-death journeys and murky contracts – and that was just trying to book a microfilm reader!

Of course there are actually a large number of freely available resources on the New Zealand Company, including an excellent set of microfilms at the Central Auckland Research Centre, covering everything from emigrants’ original applications for free passage to letters of reference and land purchases. However, the resource I found most interesting was something different…

After several failed attempts as far back as the 1820s, the New Zealand Company was founded in England in 1839 with the aim of promoting, and financially benefitting from, the colonisation of New Zealand. The company’s principles were devised by a former diplomat, hypnotist and convicted kidnapper, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, while he was serving a three year jail term in Newgate Prison. The New Zealand Company went on to found settlements across the country, including Wellington,Nelson and Petre/Wanganui/Whanganui, as well as being involved in the establishment of New Plymouth, Dunedin and Christchurch.

Of the many excellent resources on the history of these settlements, the ones I found most insightful were not passenger lists or recruiting posters (although these are both worth investigating) but a series of maps, freely available on the Te Ara website.

Included is the 1840 map of Wellington on its original site, complete with its own Covent Garden and Billingsgate Fish Market, all on the banks of the Hutt River. There is also the first map of Wellington as we know it today. The ruler-straight roads can be seen running up the sides of Wellington’s notorious hills and if ever you’ve laboured up a particularly steep street in the country’s capital or have struggled to find a car park on ground flat enough that your handbrake will hold, you now know who to blame: the New Zealand Company’s first Surveyor General and author of the map, William Mein Smith. This online plan also lets you investigate every original section, and the order in which they were chosen – from lot 215, a prime waterfront location (at least until the land reclamations) to lot 524, just above the cemetery and chosen 993rd!

Te Ara has these maps not only for Wellington but also several other New Zealand Company settlements. The format allows you to zoom in to great levels of detail and appreciate them not only as genealogical and historical tools, but as works of art in their own right.

Paul Veart

Guest post: Military research

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Guest contributor : Marie Hickey

One of the most popular subjects researched in the CARC (the Central Auckland Research Centre, as we are now known in the Supercity) is military related whether it is a particular person or theatre of war.  Many of our visitors are aware of the basic resources such as nominal rolls, medal rolls, digitised copies of service records (British Army) and rolls of honour etc, but what of other material held at libraries?

For instance, we have a large collection of regimental histories in the library system mainly found in categories 940 and 355 as well as the family history section in CARC.  These cover not only British Army regiments but also German, American and others; they can be as current as the Vietnam War or as early as Charlemagne.  Anexcellent series of small books is the Men-at-Arms series produced by Osprey Publishing which not only gives information about the Army, Regiment etc but invariably include a good range of illustrations some of which are in colour.

We have the National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918 which includes civilians who died on war service and therefore women are mentioned who were not serving with the military.  Entries are a brief summary of the person’s service and includes their home address; the series is available as books or digitally through www.ancestry.co.uk orwww.findmypast.co.uk – all of which are available in CARC.  This series was published by subscription so is therefore incomplete but is nevertheless quite comprehensive.  For England we also have a large collection of militia muster rolls which generally give the name, address and occupation of the person.  Don’t forget, you will find Irish, Scottish and Welsh serving in the British Army as well as many from various countries of the former British Empire.  We
also have some muster rolls for the Royal Engineers, 12th, 65th and 80th Regiments of Foot.

For New Zealand we have Military Board appeals 1916-17, Biographical sketches of NZ servicemen WWI vol. 1 – both copied from the Otago Witness, and three volumes of New Zealand servicewomen WWI copied from Kai Tiaki magazine.  Another interesting publication we hold relating to WWI is The Chronicle which is a newspaper that was originally published in London for the NZEF.  These newspapers include articles, jokes illustrations etc of interest to the troops but perhaps more importantly for the contemporary researcher, they also have lists of prisoners of war, obituaries and those in hospital (includes the name of the hospital).  The Chronicle is available at CARC on microfiche and there is an accompanying name index on microfiche.  We also have a listing of Kiwis serving with forces for other countries.

Guest post: Your story

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

Over the Christmas/New Year break many of you will have spent time with friends and family catching up on all the latest news and/or reminiscing about past events or people no longer with us, etc. Others will have done as I did and gone to visit family graves to give them a bit of a tidy - it was interesting to see how many were at Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland, on Boxing Day.

As family historians we often become fixated with the past and forget that our lives are of interest to the younger generation; young children often enjoy hearing about the "olden days". We may consider our lives to be ordinary but think of those things we have experienced during our lives that the younger generations will not. For instance, the thrill of the family getting its first television or car, milk being delivered to the house (perhaps you worked on the milk truck/cart). I know that my uncles and aunts sometimes wouldn't tell my grandad when there was a horse out in the street just so they didn't have to shovel the droppings to put on the garden.

It is important to write about our memories as we are the last with a memory of our grandparents or, if you are lucky, great granparents, uncles, aunts, etc, and if the memories of them are not noted then they will become a series of notes in someone's future research without having a personality. Having an idea of someone's personality can help when trying to work out why they took this action or made that decision. Think how pleased you would have been to find such a series of notes or stories when you started your research.

Writing your story need not be a daunting task. You could simply make notes about events and people in your life or you may decide to write a series of short essays. Given the current holiday season, you could write about Christmases past, or summer holidays - remember those essays you used to write when you returned to school, "What I did in the holidays?"

Some things in your life may bring back bad memories but do try to wirte about these as well as it could be healing for you. If you are concerned about the family reading it you could place that story in a sealed envelope with instructions that it is not to be opened until a particular time.

I hope this will encourage you to begin writing something about your own life as you may be surprised what you remember when you get started. If you want to go further with this you may find a course in writing available at your local night school or community centre.

Happy writing, and a Happy New Year!

Guest post: The latest news from Auckland Research Centre

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1911 CensusI subscribe to Who Do You Think You Are? magazine and needed to contact them via their website.

Of great interest is that an agreement between TNA (The National Archives) and Ancestry and The Genealogist has been reached, and these sites can now add the 1911 Census to their databases. 

According to the article, it is expected that the first entries will appear before the end of this year with the project being completed before the end of 2011.  Each company will need to produce their own transcription and index, hence the delay in release.  For additional information see the above-mentioned sites.

FindMyPastAuckland Research Centre will be present at the History and Genealogy Roadshow at the Ellerslie Events Centre at Ellerslie Racecourse, Wednesday 24 November 2010 (noon-9pm). Seonaid Lewis, our family history librarian, will also be presenting there, amongst others including eminent international speakers.

As a result, I was checking out some of our subscription databases to include some information in folders we usually display giving examples of material available at Auckland Research Centre. 

One of the sites I was checking, was FindMyPast (which is available for use in Auckland Research Centre). 

One of the categories is "Specialist records" which includes: 
  • Crew lists 1861-1913
  • Civil Service Evidence of Age 1752-1948
  • GWR Shareholders 1835-1932 and
  • Other records 1320-1996. 
As I am familiar with most of these databases, I decided to have a look at "Other records ..."

I am pleased that I did as this is an amazing set of records and includes of the following -
  • Army deserters 1828-40
  • Bankrupt Directory 1820-43
  • Corfe Castle and district 1790 census
  • Dorset Flax and hemp growers (1783-91)
  • Glamorgan Schools admission registers - covers 18 schools and includes WWII evacuees
  • Lincolnshire settlement certificates
  • Match Workers' Strike 1888
However, it was the Match Workers' Strike 1888, that really caught my eye. 

How fascinating to find if your ancestor participated in the Bryant & May strike led by Annie Besant.  This includes details of 714 people and gives the details such as – name, address, occupation, wages, how much paid by strike fund, marital status and who they lived with.

I couldn't find Annie Besant included in the records, but a fascinating database all the same.

New Series on Sky - Living ChannelOn Saturday evenings and early Sunday mornings the above channel has started showing the acclaimed BBC series Victorian Pharmacy. 

The first episode went to air on Saturday 6 November 2010.  Catch this if you can as it is supposed to be very interesting; according to TV Guide, it airs before Heir Hunters which I also understand is an interesting series. 

Guest post: What's new in Ancestry?

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

Ancestry.com have just added the following databases to their collection over the past few days which may be of interest to some of you.

Newspapers/periodicalsLyson's Magna Britannia (Bedfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire - 1806-22) [to quote Wikipedia "a concise topographical account of the several counties of Great Britain (to give its full title) was an ambitious topographical and historical survey."]
Illustrated London News (selected years) - this is also available through the Digital Library part of the library website for the years 1842-2003.
Penny Magazine 1832-44 - this was published with the working man in mind and covered a wide range of subjects of general interest and everyday matters.
Soulby's Ulverston Advertiser (1848-62) - a window into the life of the market town of Ulverston, Cumbria
Tewkesbury Yearly Register and Magazine (1830-50) - an anecdotal history includes - marriage and death notices of those born in Tewkesbury but since moved from the area; a list of those who died in a cholera outbreak with details of the way they died, their address and occupation.

LondonLondon Poor Law records has been updated
London Parishes (post 1813 [Births, Christenings, Deaths and Burials], post 1784 [Marriages] - more records have been added.
London Parishes (pre 1813 registers) has had more parishes added.

MiscellaneousFife voters lists (1832-94) - full name, abode, occupation
Queensland Govt Gazettes (1903-10) - we have CDs of these in ARC for 1859-1905
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Notes & Queries (1893-98) - many articles on buildings, local history, general interest, flora and fauna
Lancashire & Cheshire Historical & Genealogical Notes (1878-83) [from the title page - "comprises unpublished items of local and family history, church notes, abstracts of charters, deeds, wills etc, folk lore, legends traditions etc"]

All the above are name/place searchable.

Another new addition is the selection of postcards for Canada, UK & Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Germany & Austria and Australia.

In case you missed them last month or have not read about them in family history magazines -
Prison Hulk registers and letter books (1802-49)
Licences of parole for female convicts (1853-71 & 1883-87)
Canadian soldiers - selected service records WWI
Canadian war dead - selected service records WWII
California - 1852 census

This should give those who are interested, plenty to play around with.  Check out other new additions by clicking on "recent" in the lower right-hand corner of the home page.

Have fun and hopefully some of those brick wall may come tumbling down or you will learn something further about your family.

Guest post: Boards of Guardians records & other bits and bobs

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

When looking at some documents among the Newgate Gate Gaol Delivery Books (1785-1834) on microfilm at the Auckland Research Centre recently we found some records relating to Boards of Guardians that we had not realised we had. This is particulalry exciting given the recent apology of former British prime minister Gordon Brown to children who were sent overseas under the child migration scheme.

The records are for the areas covered by the Boards of Guardians for Brentford, Hampstead and Lambeth as well as minutes of the Central Unemployed Body for London (1905-11), all relating to emigration of children and families.

Some of the records of the Boards of Guardians relate to children who had been placed in schools having come from the workhouse eg Chase Farm School (run by the Edmonton Board Guardians). There are lists of children proposed for emigration to Canada and New Zealand (1891-1926), emigration consents and refusals (1925), and contracts and agreements to send children or families to Australia (c.1852-c.1855). Most of the material is unindexed but is quite legible and apart from names can include information such as: address sent to in the new country, school sent from, cost of emigration, date of emigration, and port of arrival.

Amongst the records is a booklet relating to the settlement of boys to Australia and a Handbook on the Dominion of New Zealand: containing information regarding openings for settlers, wages and hours of labour, cost of living, assisted passages, fares, etc (1925).

On another note, those who enjoy reading the Ancestors magazinepublished by TNA (the National Archives, UK) will be disappointed to learn that this has now ceased publication. It is envisaged that a different magazine will be produced, possibly later in the year.

Who do you think we are?  series 2 (Australia) UKTV Mondays 7.30pm. 
UKTV on Sky is currently repeating this series, if you missed it the first time around you may want to catch it this time. Auckland City Libraries has series 1 & 2 for the Australian Who do you think you are? and series1-4 for the UK version.

The Australian series is similar to the UK one but includes much more social history and perhaps slightly more insight into different records available in Australia. I really enjoyed this series and found it interesting as well as informative as the format follows the lines of how a family historian would work. Nick Barratt makes an appearance towards the end of the Ben Mendolssohn episode explaining how the ancestor probably came to be in the workhouse.

Also, we are now subscribing to the Who do you think you are? magazine and currently have the March and April 2010 editions available in the Auckland Research Centre.

Guest post: Researching family in the UK

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

As Autumn approaches some of you will be looking forward to an overseas trip to the Northern hemisphere during their warmer months. For those who may be, including the Merseyside and Manchester areas, you may be interested in the following:

The People's History Museum at Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester M3 3ER. Admission is free and it is open Monday to Sunday.
Ancestor's Arms, Wallasey, Merseyside, is the first family history themed pub to open in the UK. Newton & Ridley (the well-known Coronation Street brewers) are said to be brewing two special ales for sale at the pub.

If you are intending to visit the Somerset Record Office records on micofiche and micofilm only will be available for consultation 6 April to 5th July. After this period the centre will be closed for at least two months while records are moved to the new Somerset Heritage Centre which is envisaged to open 6 September 2010. Further information can be found on their website.

Want to experience what a Family History Fair in the UK can be like? Then you may wish to attend one on 11 September 2010 at Newcastle Central Premier Inn, Newbridge Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Check the website for further information.
Of course the 'big one' - Who do you think you are? LIVE- is now being held in London at the end of February. Check the Society of Genealogists' website for further information closer to the time.

If you are one of those lucky people travelling abroad and planning to do some research do go prepared (do you need identification? what are the opening hours & regulations?), your time will be more productive and more enjoyable.

Finally, those who enjoy reading the Ancestors magazine published by TNA (the National Archives, UK) will be disappointed to learn that this has now ceased publication. It is envisaged that a different magazine will be produced possibly later in the year.

Guest post: What's new in the world of family history

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

Those of you who enjoy reading Ancestor magazine published by The National Archives will be sorry to learn that the April 2010 issue is to be the last in the current format.  A new magazine is apparantly envisaged but as yet no details are available. For all those with London connections, the February 2010 issue is completely devoted to this City.

New databases are coming available all the time and it is hard to keep up with them all. Some recently added databases of interest are: -

New additions from findmypast:
Approximately 20,000 entries have been added to Essex Memorial Inscriptions bringing the total number of entries to 170,875 convering the years 1100-2007.

St John Wapping records for 1655-1707 and 1734-1780 have been added to the Docklands Christening records. Other areas included (but not necessarily comprehensively) are: Bermondsley, Isle of Dogs, Limehouse, Mile End, Millwall, Newington, Poplar, Ratcliff, Shadwell, Spitalfields, Stepney and Whitechapel. Unfortunately date range and parishes covered is not given.

Chelsea Pensioner Records: soldier's documents (W097) 1760-1913 and Militia Attestation Papers (WO96) 1806-1915 are being digitised and added to this site. The project is due to be completed in 2011. See findmypast for the proposed release dates. The first section to be released covers WO97/2172-4231 (1883-1900).

Ancestry has added Famine Relief Commission Papers (1844-47). These cover letters, minutes etc sent to the Royal Commission mainly from local relief committees, local clergy, lieutenants and concerned citizens from Cork, Galway, Clare, Mayo and Limerick counties. They are name searchable and provide good back ground knowledge of what conditions were like and steps taken to provide relief. The National Archives of Ireland website explains these papers.

Last but not least, for those of you who have not heard, the cost of certificates from the General Register Office (England and Wales) will increased on the 6th of April 2010 from 7.00 to 9.25. This fee is the same whether or not you quote the volume and page number reference or place your order online.

Guest post: Our digitised New Zealand Card Index

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Contributor: David Verran

We are thrilled to be able to announce the digitisation of our unique card index, known as the New Zealand Card Index and housed in the Auckland Research Centre. What is of particular interest to family historians is that this resource is available online through our website. 

The digital version of the New Zealand Card Index provides vastly improved keyword access to local history, biographical and family history references from sources such as: Auckland scrapbooks 1923 to 1994, New Zealand scrapbooks 1916 to 1975, Obituary scrapbooks 1933 to 1941 and 1949 to 1979, and the New Zealand herald, the Auckland star and Auckland area suburban newspapers before November 1996. Note that music references were at that time included in a different card index, which has now been entered onto Index Auckland.

Material was selected for inclusion in the scrapbooks because of its historical, or potentially historical, value. For the Auckland scrapbooks, this included the opening, demolition or history of any buildings, history or description of industries, suburbs, etc., new subdivisions and articles giving the origin of the name of a suburb or street. The articles selected were comprehensive rather than exhaustive. Those for the New Zealand scrapbooks were more of general historical interest regarding New Zealand as a whole. The Obituary scrapbooks covered any major obituaries from either the New Zealand herald or Auckland star, as well as some death notices which were not indexed.

The availability of microfilm reader printers from the mid 1970s allowed direct reference to issues of the New Zealand herald and the Auckland star and accordingly the various scrapbooks began to cease. The advent of Newsindex in 1979 and Index New Zealand in 1987 led to further refining of what was and wasn't indexed. Further, indexing from the non-Auckland City Council area suburban newspapers ceased from November 1989, the Auckland star ceased 31 July 1991 and increasingly the New Zealand herald left the local stories to the suburban newspapers. Nevertheless, as of November 1996 the New Zealand herald and Auckland City area suburban newspapers were still being comprehensively indexed. 

Index Auckland and the digitised New Zealand Card Index are available through the Digital library (the latter from the first quarter of the new year) on our website www.aucklandcitylibraries.com.

Links:

Guest post: Online images from the British Museum

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Guest contributor: Anahera Sadler

The British Museum online photographic collection, which now includes thousands of Pacific (including Maori) images that have just been scanned as part of a long-term research project undertaken by the institution. The database is huge. From my quick search, the Pacific collection appears to be twice as large (3000+ images) than that offered on Matapihi (the NZ archived image database).

There are about 1850 Maori images (there are 11,500 on Matapihi). Many of the images are also available from NZ archives, but some of the British Museum copies are apparantly of a higher quality and there are many images that are not available here. Access to these photographs would once have been through browsing reference images over many days in a large set of ring-binders in the research library of the Museum. This is so much more user-friendly, faster and cheaper, although the larger issues of open access to indigenous images remains a tricky question!

Guest post: Old Colonist membership roll

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

A gem of a resource with a remarks column that could have in it:
...first baker to bake bread for sale in Auckland
...born on the night of the High Street fire
...went to Tauranga & was there at the time of the Te Kooti scare
...father living in Sydney aged 85 years

This membership book covers the period 10 October 1919 to 16 November 1934.

It contains the following information:
Date of enrolment, badge no., address at time of enrolment, when & where born, date of arrival in NZ, name of ship, and miscellaneous remarks (examples of which were given above).

Membership was not limited to those who had immigrated as a number of members had been born in New Zealand but to either immigrant parents or grandparents.

All entries in this roll are indexed on to Index Auckland (accessible through our website in the Digital library) and the volume is held in Auckland City Libraries Sir George Grey Special Collections.

Guest post: Military and Irish records online

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

Now that the Christmas/New Year break is over many of you will have been visiting/visited by relatives and caught up on all the latest family news, exchanged family info etc and may now have new avenues of research to follow up on.
Here are some records which have recently come available on the internet which may be of use with your research.

Military:
 Digitised records of about 100,000 RAF officers serving in WWI (killed or discharged before 1920) from series AIR 76 at TNA (the National Archives) are now available through the Documents Online service.
 Another site for those with military links/interests is the aerial reconnaissance photographs for WWII.  The first instalment of 4,000 photographs may be viewed at http://aerial.reahms.gov.uk
 For those of you who may have links with the East India Company and therefore have someone who served in the Bombay Army 1795-1862 may find the databases  on The Families in British India Society useful although, do bear in mind that this is only a selection of records but still of value.  http://fibis.org
Ireland:
Twenty nine directories for Belfast and nearby towns 1819-1900 have been digitised are available at http://streetdirectories.proni.gov.uk
The National Library of Ireland have produced a free sources database cataloguing over 180,000 Irish manuscripts and articles from over 150 publications up to 1969 http://sources.nil.ie

Over 280,000 images from glassplates taken from three major collections held by the National Library of Ireland have also been digitised and can be viewed at:

Happy searching!

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