Guest post: Historical New Zealand BDM's now online

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Guest contributor: Bridget Simpson

As you probably know by now we are lucky  to have New Zealand historical BDM's accessible online.

There is more to this searchable website than meets the eye. Click on the Timeline for a wealth of facts to help you in your New Zealand research for, say, finding a marriage. Did you know that it was up to as late as 1933 that 12 year old girls and 14 year old boys were able to marry? Or that in 1911 a separate registration for Maori marriages was introduced?

What information is actually available online?
  • Births that occurred at least 100 years ago
  • Still births that occurred at least 50 years ago
  • Marriages, and eventually Civil Unions, that occurred 80 years ago
  • Deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago or the deceased's date of birth was at least 80 years ago
Although official registrations didn't start until 1848 there are earlier records taken from church and place registers dating back to 1840 included.

When seaching you will be asked to include two mandatory fields; one has to be the family name, the other a seach from date.  If you want to search the entire family name or have no idea when to start searching from, simply type in 01/01/1840. Of course, for a specific search, the more detail the better. You are able to order a printout or certificate online, unless you require a certificate for legal reasons our preference is for the printout because of the extra information it usually includes.

www.bdmhistoricalrecords.identityservices.govt.nz/Home/

Enjoy!

The New Zealand Gazette. What's that?

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Many family history researchers seldom seem to get beyond the standard research tools for family history. You know, things such as BDM’s, directories, electoral rolls etc. and never venture beyond the material in the “family history” collection. There are many excellent resources in existence which hardly ever get used.
Government publications – particularly 19th century and early 20thcentury – are a gold mine of information. The New Zealand Gazettes are not consulted enough when doing New Zealand research.
 
What is the New Zealand Gazette?
It is the official newspaper of the New Zealand Government and has been published in various forms since 1840. It is the means of publishing all kinds of official notices and proclamations.
Names of people can be found under headings such as:
  • Commissioners of Trade, Customs, railways, native lands
  • Consular and vice-consular appointments
  • Dentists' register: name, address, date of registration, qualification
  • Justice Department: appointments and resignations of judges, coroners, crown prosecutors, magistrates, justices of the Peace
  • Licensing committees: district appointments
  • Mail services: contractors 
  • Marriage celebrants
  • Medical practitioner: name, address, date of registration, qualification
  • List of qualified or registered teachers in various formats since 1887
  • Mining companies: company's and shareholders' names and addresses
  • Partnerships: registered, amended, dissolved
  • Patents: name, address and description of the product
  • Post and Telegraph: appointment of postmasters
  • Prisoners: appointment of gaolers, surgeons and visiting justices
  • Public Trust: names of deceased people whose estates are under management
  • Public Works: lists of applicants tendering for work
  • Registrars of births, deaths and marriages, of electors, the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal
  • Sheep farmers: names of farmers and the number of sheep owned   
               (information taken from Tracing family history in New Zealand, Anne Bromell)
 
As you can see, the people listed in the Gazette are many and varied and it would be well worth dipping into this source.

Many libraries through out New Zealand hold the New Zealand Gazette.

Auckland City Libraries also has an electronic version of this valuable resource. 

Guest post: AFFHO Congress

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

Every three years AFFHO holds a congress and this year, the 12th 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.

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