The old adage about putting flesh on the skeleton used by genealogists reinforces the beauty of using local histories when building a picture of your family.

Heritage et al recently blogged about the most recent winners of the J. M. Sherrard award in New Zealand regional and local history.

The ultimate award went to Robert Peden for his book, Making sheep country: Mt Peel Station and the transformation of the tussock lands (Auckland University Press, 2011). Writing on early agriculture, “the economic and ecological transformation of New Zealand”, the information on the early high country sheep farmers and the decisions they made about where they, and how they, farmed provides social context to those others farming in nineteenth century New Zealand. Although focussing on Mt Peel station and John Acland’s experience of establishing large-scale sheep farming, what Mr Acland went through could easily provide the background for a family historian’s understanding of how life was for their own ancestor. As written in the book’s preface, “Acland’s story is in many ways typical of the experiences of his fellow pastoralists.”

Making sheep country : Mt Peel Station and the transformation of the tussock lands by Robert Peden

Another winner from the J. M. Sheerard awards for 2010-2013 was David Verran’s book on the North Shore, The North Shore : an illustrated history (Auckland, N.Z. : Random House, 2010).

This book is also an excellent example of how you can glean a picture of the way your ancestor lived through studying the local history. One of the chapters is on boatbuilding and the various boat yards that existed. Described are these various yards, their owners and how they operated; “At about the same time that the Holmes family was building the Waitemata, George Beddoes’ shipyard was constructing a schooner and three cutters. Other work this yard undertook included the repairs and alterations to a paddle steamer. It was this shipyard that built the paddle steamer Devonport in 1870, the first timber and steel ship built in New Zealand.”

Bailey and Lowe's boatbuilding yard at Sulphur Beach, Northcote Point, around 1910. The North Shore : an illustrated history by David Verran

Auckland Libraries holds a large and varied collection of local histories from throughout the wider Auckland region to around the country. You can search our catalogue under the name of the area to see what we have in our collection.

Bridget

In 2013 the Gulf News celebrated its 40th year chronicling the stories of the Waiheke community. We have been indexing the Gulf News into Index Auckland since 1990, with our focus on the people and their stories, and stories about Waiheke’s organisation’s and development.

We have followed Helen Elscot’s column as she interviews various islanders asking them where their favourite place is on Waiheke, finding out their life stories as they talk. We have followed families over the years through their various activities, such as protesting against marinas or initiating charitable ventures. There is more to these articles than a local’s rant at council, and even that can be of interest when researching a relation years down the track.

Like others of their kind, and there can’t be many that are similar to the Gulf News, local rags can be a gold mine for family historians. As an island newspaper, the Gulf News reflects its inclusive, thriving and vocal community.

It’s not just people who are of interest in this magazine. There is bucket loads of local history, ranging from early days on Waiheke to the history of the local library. For anyone interested in maritime history there are stories on historic scows that have been part of Auckland’s history, including the story of the hulk M. A. Doran.

Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, NZ Map 5173

The Gulf News is a little gem, packed with stories of human interest and stories that narrate the development and spirit of a gutsy little island.


Bridget

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

The Central Auckland Research Centre belongs to the Heritage and Research unit within Auckland Libraries.

Followers of this blog, may have noticed that a new blog called Heritage et AL was started back in May of this year. (- A wee play on words on the et al = and Auckland Libraries?)

This blog has loads to contribute in the way of Heritage news, not just about Auckland Libraries' collections, but also news from the Heritage sector, written by heritage specialists from across the Auckland region.

So if you aren't following Heritage et AL yet, I recommend its worth you having a look!

Lots of interesting stuff in there, which may help you with your own family history research!

Happy hunting

Seonaid

In our Digital Library, Index Auckland is a rich resource of history, art, theatre, film and music references sourced from Auckland area newspapers and journal articles.

 
The music references provide a comprehensive overview of the musical history of New Zealand and include:

• music in Auckland scrapbooks from 1890 to 1930
• New Zealand music scrapbooks from 1960 to 1995
• music programme collection
• various journal articles, performance reviews, and newspaper clippings from the New Zealand music vertical file. The local history, biography and family history references include:
• Auckland scrapbooks 1923 to 1994
• New Zealand scrapbooks 1916 to 1975
• obituary scrapbooks 1933 to 1941 and 1949 to 1979
• pioneer women's roll of honour, Auckland province
• Maori electoral rolls for the North Island, 1919
• Auckland city area suburban newspapers, particularly from 1996.

The local church has been a feature of the New Zealand landscape for decades but that landscape is changing as dwindling congregations are forcing churches to reconsider the practicality of staying viable.

A church in point was the recent  sale of Castor Bay Presbyterian on Auckland’s North Shore .  The ageing membership combined with decreasing numbers meant the congregation had to make the decision that it could no longer stay open. 

The process of selling the church was in this case simplified by there being no graves on site, nor historical/heritage classifications on the buildings.

While the parish itself may no longer exist,  there are, fortunately for the family history researcher, memories that have been compiled by parishioners over the years. Castor Bay Presbyterian is one such church. 

In 1983 it published a brief history, “Fifty Years in Good Soil” which related the history of the church up until that point, while harking back to the 1930s when the Rev Morgan Richards, a retired Presbyterian minister began an unofficial ministry to the residents.

While your ancestors may have had no devout affiliation with a denomination that you are aware of, it is possible they may have had a connection to the local church, given it was such a social as well as spiritual focus of the time. So don’t discount church publications when you’re trying to track down family.

We are regularly adding to our stock family and local history books in the Central Auckland Research Centre.

Some books you look at the title and think "not my area of interest/thing"; while others just seem to leap off the shelf at you. Two such books arrived recently which I found to be very interesting and thought they may be of interest to some of you.

Ragged London: the life of London's poor