Showing posts with label scots. Show all posts

On-line magazine goodness

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The joy of going on-line to read, is the instant access to so many great publications via Auckland Library e-resources such as Press Reader. Press Reader, available on our digital library (but also on your own device at home if you’re a library member) is a way to look through not only hundreds of local and international current newspapers, but dozens of magazines. For those of you keen on family history, there are several of interest.
If you're all about things Scots, take a look at Scots Heritage.  It’s a quarterly publication, the ‘official magazine of the Standing Council of Scottish Clan Chiefs,” and it runs regular features on the clans, genealogy, Scottish history, and culture. The current issue has a feature on the reformer, John Knox, and a fascinating true life story about a Scots girl, shipwrecked off the Queensland coast, who was found living with an Aboriginal tribe. 
Then there’s Canada’s History (formerly titled The Beaver) which has a history just of itself.  Back in the 1990s,  the Hudson's Bay Company donated their corporate archives and museum collection to public institutions for research. The Hudson's Bay Company History Foundation was formed and provides funding for the Canada's History magazine. The latest issue includes a feature on the Ottawa Trek of the Great Depression, and takes a look at the author John Buchan, not only the author of The 39 Steps but also Governor-General to Canada.
There are a couple of British history magazines - History Revealed, with lots of pictures and trivia, and the BBC History Magazine - apparently  one of Britain's biggest selling history magazines. And of course, there's a family history title, Your Family History, a monthly UK genealogy magazine. In the August issue, there's a nice story on seaside resorts and their popularity back in the day as the "medical tourism industry," along with an article on the Lancashire famine. Lancashire had been the leading producer of cotton goods in the world but a blockade on cotton coming out of  America in 1861, saw extreme poverty and starvation strike the area as jobs dried up. Twelve months later, an estimated half a million people were starving.
You need your library membership to access Press Reader if you’re not in the library – but well worth signing up, Aucklanders, for that alone!
Joanne - Central Research

Travel Tuesday: 150th Commemoration of the Arrival of the S.S. Viola, Waikato Immigration Scheme

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A new title into the Central Auckland Research Centre recently is a book written to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Waikato Immigration Scheme 1864-1865.

The book was published by the Clevedon and Districts Historical Society to coincide with the arrival of the Viola settlers, part of the Waikato Immigration Scheme.

Showing a stereoscopic view through trees of
All Souls Church, Clevedon

Heritage Images, Sir George Grey Special Collections,
Auckland Libraries, 4-8640

Title: 150th Commemoration of the Arrival of the S.S. Viola in April 1865, 29th March 2015: Commemorative Booklet
Author: Clevedon and Districts Historical Society
Subjects: Viola (Ship), Ships, Auckland, Passenger lists, Immigrants, Genealogy, Clevedon, History
Location: 2 NZL IMM AKD

Abstract from the book:

“In April 1865 a shipload of mainly Lowland Scots arrived in ignorance and hope into the depressed province of Auckland and into the depleted community of the Wairoa. They had come, recruited in advance before confiscation was even finalised, as part of the Northern Waikato Immigration Scheme. Under this scheme, two main inducements were offered to labourers and mechanics. The first was a free passage to Auckland, and free transport from Auckland to the settlement for every settler and his family. The second was free land to be surveyed at Government expense. A quarter or half-acre town grant would be given, plus a ten-acre suburban or rural grant. The immigrants were not allowed to absent themselves from the allotment and were to repay half their passage money in three years. The Viola was one of the last ships to arrive under this scheme,” – ‘Clevedon Sustainable Development Plan Project: European Historical Assessment’, p 36.


In the Research Centre, this book is reference only - but do look in our catalogue to find a borrowable near you


Happy hunting

Seonaid