May is New Zealand Music Month!


Accessible through Papers Past and the Digital Library early New Zealand newspapers are great for finding advertisements of musical engagements, performance reviews and are an excellent way of tracing the development of a musician's career.


Geraldine May (Ina) Bosworth (1894 -1975), a Chamber Music pioneer of New Zealand. Ina started her musical  training at an early age, initially instructed on violin by her father, a conductor of one of Auckland's first choirs, the Liedertafel. Here is a glimpse into Ina's impressive musical career as captured in the newspapers.

A review of her concert prior to departing overseas as reported in the Auckland Star, Friday 11 April 1913:

Auckland Star, Friday 11 April 1913

Ina spent 14 years in London studying violin and during that time she also "entertained troops on the battlefields of France, playing chamber music just behind the lines, and once, near Verdun, on a stage built of bully beef tins." - New Zealand Herald, 8 February 1975.

Upon returning to New Zealand her personal life was also captured in the newspapers, including her engagement to Arthur William McNeish, it was announced in the "Social Jottings" column.

Auckland Star on 14 November 1924.

After her marriage to Captain A.W. McNeish, she continued  her musical career giving concerts and broadcasts while raising their two children, Jill and James. Ina was also an advocate for establishing a professional orchestra for Auckland. By 1965 she had her own group - the Ina Bosworth Quartet, and had led six orchestras including the Mozart Players. 

Mrs McNeish (on the left) at a rehearsal with the Mozart Players, 1965.

Auckland Star, 21 June 1965.

According to her obituary published in the New Zealand Herald on 8 February 1975 she celebrated her 80th birthday [in 1974] by "driving to Hamilton and performing a Bach unaccompanied sonata."

Ina embodied the spirit of a true musician throughout her life.

Death notice & obituary from the New Zealand Herald, 8 February 1975.

For more about the Bosworth-McNeish family, her son James McNeish has recently published Touchstones:  Memories of People and Place, borrowable copies are available from the library. There is a lovely photograph of his mother in her youth on page 184.

If you would like to listen to live music for free, there is a Thursday Lunchtime Concert Series at the Central Library during autumn. "This year’s concerts will bring together solo instrumentalists and vocalists, chamber ensembles and choirs from around the Auckland region, as well as showcasing the brilliant musical talent from the University of Auckland School of Music and selected secondary schools."

For more information on who is performing, click here.

Karen 

www.nzmusicmonth.co.nz

May is New Zealand Music Month!

This is part one of  a series of blog posts during May to celebrate New Zealand Music Month. Each week it will highlight Auckland Libraries heritage resources relating to New Zealand music, and its talented musicians, across all genres. So, if you have a "muso" in your family's history and are looking for information on them, these resources might just help you with your search.
Gareeb Stephen Shalfoon (1904-1953), "Epi"- a nickname from his family, was a jazzer who initially played piano but he taught himself how to play clarinet and saxophone  because he said at that time it was easier to hire a pianist than horn players. In 1924 he put together a band called the Melody Boys who went on to make New Zealand's first jazz recording. It eventually became a family affair - his daughter Reo, a very talented and popular singer in her own right, frequently performed with the band.

Epi Shalfoon and the Melody Boys, Filmcraft, 1930. Image from the Film Archive.

Sadly, Epi died at the young age of 48. He collapsed while dancing with his daughter at his favourite music venue, the Crystal Palace Ballroom.

Quackery Prevention
Pills & Potions at the Cotter Medical History Trust
By Claire Le Couteur
Otago University Press, 2014

This recent addition to the Central Auckland Research Centre's collection shares some of the bizarre and miraculous-sounding medicines sold in New Zealand before the 1942 Medical Advertisements Act restricted excessive advertising and false testimonials.

Medicine time in the Kindergarten, 1938  Sir George Grey Special Collections, AWNS-19381116-53-3.

Rather than gain a patent, manufacturers of the time trademarked their products in order to conceal their ingredients and method of production from competitors. When the 1904 government tried to curb their extravagant claims they were defeated by both the manufacturers and newspaper owners – who would have lost advertising revenue as a result.

Advertisement for Dr Ensor's Tamer Juice New Zealand Herald, 6 July 1911

Auckland Star, 1 April 1938

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 January 1907

Although the 1908 Quackery Prevention Act tried to restrict advertising, it too failed. It wasn’t until the 1942 Act that excessive claims had to be proved before being advertised, and fictitious endorsements ceased. Consequently, many remedies were taken off the market.

Fortunately, The Cotter Trust in Christchurch has a collection of these remedies whose history has been beautifully documented in this book.

Leanne

A few weeks back here at Kintalk, we posted a blog on the Bomb Girls of England, those women and girls who worked in the munitions factories in the English countryside during World War One.

In New Zealand, as in the UK, the manpower shortage meant there was also a significant shortage of workers to another most important part of the economy – the farms -  and that problem was solved by the introduction of  The Women's Land Service.

An estimated 4000 young women, most often townies, were sent to work on farms with a view to doing the ‘man’s work.’ For many, it was their first time on a farm and there was no getting around the fact they had to become jacks-of-all-trades, and do real, gritty farm work.  They docked lambs tails, learned to shear, harvested, sowed, baled fertiliser planted, drove tractors  – any farm work that needed to be done, they did it.  Despite this massive culture shift, the head of the Women’s Land Service described the young women as “a very fine type, not afraid of work and willing to learn.”

By accounts, many of the girls were good workers. Maybe too good as the article “Is It Jealousy?” in the Auckland Star (2 November 1943) suggested when the North Otago Farmers’ Union moved to employ the girls as domestic workers instead of farm workers. The article suggested the farmers wanted the girls to be taken down a peg, and condemned the move.

Click here to read more.

The Land Service was not a scheme without problems, however. Locals could resent the girls, conditions could be gruelling, wives were often suspicious, and the girls themselves could be subject to sexual harassment.

Sadly, inspite of their labour keeping the country going during the war years, their contribution was largely unacknowledged; they didn't qualify as service people so were unable to be members of the RSA. In fact the only group to openly acknowledge their contribution was Federated Farmers. The Land Girls held reunions for many years after the war, and in recent times were finally given some recognition - Certificates of Appreciation from the New Zealand Government.

For more about the Land Girls, check out Dianne Bardsley’s book “The Land Girls: In a man’s world, 1939-1946.”  There are borrowable copies available in Auckland Libraries.

Joanne

In case you haven't heard the big NEWS, the New Zealand Herald has been digitized up to 31 December 1945 and is now accessible through Papers Past!  The Auckland Libraries homepage currently has a direct link to the database or alternatively, Papers Past can also be found under "P" in the A-Z listing of eResources in the Digital Library.

There has never been a better time to delve into your family history research and see what newsy items about your ancestors were published in the New Zealand Herald. Best of all, the contents can be downloaded, printed or saved in a pdf format for your records. If you would like some user friendly tips on getting the most out of searching on Papers Past, check out our research guides by clicking here.

While browsing through the pages you will also discover quirky, interesting articles and bits of gossip that will undoubtedly provide you with endless hours of distraction.

New Zealand Herald, 4 March 1939

New Zealand Herald, 22 March 1941

New Zealand Herald, 13 January 1927

Papers Past now has 83 titles and over 3 million pages of digitised content available. Besides the Herald and Auckland Star, the following list of historical newspapers on Papers Past also have Auckland content:

Happy searching!

Karen

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

Many of the customers coming to the Research Centres are aware that we hold copies of the New Zealand Herald, Auckland Star and London Times on microfilm but how many of you reading this know that we have Musical Times and Singing Class Circular (June 1844-1926) or the Weekly Graphic and Ladies Journal (31 May 1890-25 June 1913)?

We have reasonable sized runs for some of the titles held while others may only cover a few issues, months or years such as the Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser (19 July 1902-18 June 1904) and The Mail (Thames) 26 March 1870.

The collection includes the following Māori titles:-

• Te Karere o nui tireni (Māori Messenger) Jan 1842-Mar 1844
• Te Karere Maori (Māori Messenger) English & Maori (two issues only)
• Te Manwhiri Tuarangi and Māori Intelligencer English & Māori (31 May 1860 only)

Many local newspaper titles are held at the Research Centres such as North Shore Times, North Harbour News, South Auckland Courier, Howick Times, Western Leader, West Weekly, East and Bays Courier and Central Leader to name a few and these are generally in “hard copy”.

Auckland Libraries, Sir George Grey Special Collections, 4-7356

All of the titles held at Auckland Libraries can be found on our catalogue but a member of staff can assist you if you are unable to locate a particular title.

We also have a number of indexes of birth, marriage and death notices for overseas newspapers on the shelves and there are also digitised versions of newspapers available through the Digital Library section of our website; most of which you can view from home (there are only a few titles which you cannot view from home if you are not a member of the Auckland Libraries).

Do have a look as you may be surprised as to what we have in the collections.

Marie

'Wedding Wednesday' highlights a wedding portrait from the Heritage Images photograph collection and this week we are featuring Mr W Norman Heather and Miss Myrtle Chatfield of Auckland who were married in October of 1899.

This photograph of the bridal party was taken on the front steps of the Chatfield family home located in Bridgewater Road, Parnell.

Heather-Chatfield bridal party, 1899. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.

The happy event was reported both in the Auckland Weekly News  27 October 1899 supplement as well as the 20 October 1899 edition of the New Zealand Herald which offers some lovely details about this special day.


Karen

There are certain records such as UK census records that are frequently consulted for doing family history research. Unfortunately, no such records exist for New Zealand so we have to rely on other records to find information about households - two popular alternative sources are the Wise’s Directory and of course, the NZ Electoral Rolls.

One our customer’s who regularly searches Papers Past for historical information about Auckland
came across a news item in the 9 February 1883 edition of the New Zealand Herald reporting on a City Council meeting which offers insight as how these records were introduced into the library's collection.

Check back later this week for a new blog post from Janelle with some tips and tricks on the NZ electoral rolls.

Karen

As mentioned in my 18 December blog about searching for passenger lists, particularly for those of us with ancestors who arrived through the port of Auckland, things are looking up!

Landing passengers, c.1910. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19100721-3-1

There is another online source which might help. The free website offered by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints now includes NZ passenger lists digitised from microfilms held by Archives New Zealand. An online name index is gradually being built up by volunteers (they still want help if you feel like joining in) and is worth checking. If you don't get a hit on the family name, there is an alternative, but be warned it is not a quick fix.

It is possible to browse through the more than 350,000 images of ship passenger lists for the period approximately 1855 to 1973. Now, I am not suggesting this for someone who hasn’t a clue on what ship or in which year their ancestor came into Auckland. However, if you have got a hit in either the Auckland Area Passenger Arrivals Index, or the online newspapers' shipping news, which means you have a ship name and date of arrival, then the task, although onerous, is possible!

The images of passenger lists are arranged by port and year, with different sequences for Auckland. For instance there is 'Auckland',  'Auckland (inwards)',  'Auckland (other ports also listed)', 'Auckland and Hawkes Bay' and so on. Each of these categories needs to be checked in turn to see if they cover the year in which you are interested. Where that year is listed you need to check through the listings of that year to see if your ship name appears. Where it does, scrolling through the images will reveal the original record and date of the passenger list(s). But be warned. Some vessels, particularly Trans-Tasman ones, made multiple trips into Auckland in the same calendar year so care is needed to check you get the right date of arrival.

So what do you get as the reward for all this effort, I hear you wondering?

Image from NZ, Immigration Passenger Lists, familysearch.org

Well, the results are variable. Some passenger lists are hardly more useful than the brief stuff in the papers, but others yield details such as ages of passengers and ethnicity. Some include occupation and (at least by the 20th century) some give a basic address from their place of origin.

The results may be rewarding or disappointing, but that is the essence of all family history research, is it not?

Good luck!

Janelle

Oh, and I should add, these search strategies and techniques work for other ports as well. For a discussion about finding passenger lists and some of the online sources that exist for other NZ ports, see my blog post from 25 May 2011.

Do you know what the source was for the Auckland area passenger arrivals database?

Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19100217-1-2

Some of us have been lucky enough to get hits on our ancestors' names in the Auckland Libraries' online index of passenger arrivals for the years 1828-1889, 1909-1921.

However, many of us have had no luck. The index was based on newspaper lists, signatories to a book celebrating Sir George Grey's birthday in 1886, and a few records obtained from Archives New Zealand. All of these sources have gaps in the information they offer, and for a long time, there was little else available in the way of online sources for Auckland. But things have changed.

The website Papers Past offers an online and keyword searchable versions of historic NZ newspapers, including the Auckland Star 1870 to 1945 and the NZ Herald 1863 to 1924 – which will also eventually go up to 1945. Papers Past is a free website run by the National Library in Wellington. These two Auckland papers offer hope to people whose family names never appeared in the Auckland Area Passenger Arrivals Index. Many people who 'hopped across the ditch', were not indexed in the original project but their names, regularly published in the port news of the Auckland papers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, are now available amongst the lists of passenger arrivals from Australia.  Of course, those of you familiar with the way the newspapers of the day published the lists, are aware that often only family names were published e.g. Messrs Smith, Brown, Jones.... This can make identification difficult if you don't have a distinctive name to search for, so it is not necessarily a 'magic fix' to your research problem.

For additional information about Auckland and New Zealand passenger and immigration lists, consider looking at the resources section on Auckland Libraries Heritage et AL blog.

Janelle

P.S. Check back soon for Part 2 about other sources for NZ passenger arrivals.

A while back a colleague from a sister research centre contacted us to see if we had a copy of the Jury List published in the Southern Cross issue of 16th February 1858.  Their customer was searching for an ancestor mentioned on that list, and they had found the issue on microfilm, but there was a problem. The jury list on the microfilm was incomplete. The list began on page three and went over to page four only to have the words at the bottom of the page read “For continuation see supplement.”

Supplement? What supplement? There was no supplement.

Did we have a supplement on our microfilm?

So I checked our copy and wouldn’t you know it, just like my colleague, there was no supplement. No separate publication at the end of the roll – nothing. For some reason, it had failed to be copied during the microfilming process many moons ago.

However. We did have the print copies of the Southern Cross in our news stack, those precious 150 year old originals, accessible only via Sir George Grey Special Collections. But did this original have the missing supplement?

Silence in the Court Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries,  973-39

Yes, it sure did, and they were, with some difficulty I gather, able to scan a copy of the complete jury list from the original to send to the customer and also provide us with a copy to bind and add to our collection on the open shelves, located at 2 NZL COU AKD. A nice treasure to have here in the Central Auckland Research Centre.

As a bit of background on jury lists, each year in New Zealand the police magistrate in a district would come up with a list of men, aged between 21 and 60,  who could serve on jury. These lists were published in newspapers such as the Southern Cross and listed three things; name, occupation and street or suburb.
The Southern Cross as it was known from 1843 to 1862 was a weekly paper which became daily in 1862 – hence the change of name then to Daily Southern Cross. It merged with the NZ Herald in 1876.

The extraordinary marriage case

Newspapers provide much more than the usual births, deaths and marriage notices, and the occasional obituary. They provide an insight into people's lives. Social history, local, national and political history - all of which add shape to the lives of your ancestors.

National Library is in the process of digitising New Zealand's heritage newspapers and has so far digitised more than two million pages, 70 publications across New Zealand, and covers the years between 1839 and 1945.

These digitised newspapers are being added to PapersPast.

People were pretty quick off the mark to discover in May, that the next batch of Auckland Star pages had been added to PapersPast. From 1870 to 1926 of the Auckland Star is now available online - more than 75 years worth, keyword searchable.

The Auckland Star is a joint project with Auckland Libraries and the National Library.

National Libraries say that PapersPast only covers a very small amount of New Zealand newspapers as yet, and that if you cannot find what you need online, you may find what you need in paper or microfilm formats at your library.

Access to heritage newspapers from round the world can be obtained by our Digital Library:-

• 19th Century US Newspapers;

• British Newspapers 1600-1900;
• Illustrated London News  
• Picture Post Historical Archive  
• The Guardian and The Observer (1791-2003) 
• The Irish Times (1859-2008)  
• The New York Times (1851-2007) 
• The Scotsman (1817-1950)  
• Times Digital Archive

And you can read more about our newspapers, both heritage and more recent.

Happy hunting

Seonaid