Every three years AFFHO holds a congress and this year, the 12^th one, was held at King’s College, Otahuhu, Auckland hosted by the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG) – the third time they have done so. 

 

This year 440 people attended the congress coming from such far flung places such as England, USA, Canada, Ireland and over 100 from Australia. The speakers were from New Zealand and abroad including such well-known personages as John Grenham, Michael Gandy, Chris Watts, Dick Eastman, Sherry Irvine and David Hey. They enlightened, educated and entertained us on a wide-ranging variety of subjects from how to make the best of particular records to forthcoming material available through commercial providers such as FamilySearch and Ancestry.com, digitisation projects and conservation.

 

Each day began with a plenary talk from 8.30-9.30am (no lying in bed late for us), however, the plenary talk which stood out for me was that given on Sunday morning by Elaine Collins, Commercial Director of findmypast.com about the newly released1911 census. Elaine was unable to attend in person so, instead, spoke to us via satellite. The index is currently available free of charge at: www.1911census.co.uk (it will later move to findmypast.com) but transcriptions and viewing of the original entries are pay per view. The project is currently 83% complete with Wales, parts of Yorkshire and some northern England counties still be added. One of the new pieces of data available with this census is that it includes how long a couple have been married.

 

While our days were full with the more serious side of research our evenings after dinner was more relaxed with visits to the NZSG Research Centre at Panmure, films from the NZ Film Archive, light-hearted talks and Speed Genealogy. The latter was an opportunity for attendees to spend 10 minutes discussing research problems on a one to one basis with one of the international or NZ experts.

 

Many old friendships were renewed and new ones forged as well as information shared along with plenty of light-hearted banter and laughter. At the banquet on Monday night Michael Gandy regaled us with quips and songs about life from a cockney perspective which had many of us singing along with him.

 

Karen, Bridget, Paul and I attended talks and seminars, answered queries from all and sundry, caught up with other exhibitors and old friends and generally had a thoroughly good time. We launched the Lock-in for 19 September 2009 at the Congress and already have five paid for bookings. 

 

The convening committee are to be congratulated on providing a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening time.

In my final blog for 2008, 1 would like to review what we have done this year.

Over this year, we have conducted the following full dayworkshops:

Every second Wednesday we have presented family history focused talks.

Some of the highlights from this series are:

          

In November we ran a hugely  successful series of meetings“Telling your life story. A series of workshops to get you started.

…and of course the piece de resistance for the year was the annual Family History Lock in – always popular and a chance for family history nuts to get together and research the night away.

I feel exhausted just thinking about what we have done this year

The programme of events from February til April 2009 has just been finalised

All lunch time sessions are FREE

                  The value of local history

                  Renowned local historian Lisa Truttman will talk about the value of local history

                  19^th Century Auckland

                  Ever wondered what Auckland was like in 1840, or 1900, or any time within that period.
                  Come along and find out.

                   Papers Past

                   Auckland City Council Archives resources that are relevant to family and
                   local history research.

                   Early NZ military records.
                   Come and hear renowned historian and military expert John Binsley.

                   Machinery – tips and tricks

                   Come and learn how to use our microfilm/reader/printer/scanners effectively.

Bookings are essential for these free lunchtime sessions.

You can book by phone   09 3077771

Or by email karen.kalopulu@aucklandcity.govt.nz

I would like to wish you all a safe and Merry  Christmas and holiday season. and hope that you return to your research rested and energised.

From our guest blogger: Bridget

We have indexes in the Auckland Research Centre unique to us and possible gold mines for genealogists.

One of them is the Auckland Provincial History Index. It is a card index containing both biographical and subject entries covering the 1840's and 1850's and is on microfiche within our collection.

Our New Zealand Card Index is the precursor to Index Auckland, which is available through our website. References in this index come from a multitude of sources, including local and national newspapers, various New Zealand periodicals and books of local history. It was commenced in the 1950's and continued until November 1996, the end of the New Zealand and Pacific Department. Searches can be done on people, place names and organisations. The major geographical focus is on the Auckland area, but there are references to elsewhere in New Zealand.

The Bush Index was compiled to allow for the writing of Dr Bush's histories of the Auckland City Council, 1871 to 1967 and 1971 to 1989, and allow's access to Council Minute Books and newspaper articles on Council activities including parks and public works.

The Dunstall Index is a useful guide to business leaders and their companies, in 1860's Auckland. It gives references to newspaper articles and the like.

These are just some of our gems.