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.

• 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

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