Family Reunions

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It's my experience that family history brings families together. Not just with the ones that have passed away, but also with the ones still very much alive. Its also a great way of meeting new family members too! 

Years ago, when I first started my family history, I was introduced to new family members in person - who then gave me information about their branch or twig. 

A wee bit later, I progressed to posting queries on RootsWeb message boards, and was tickled pink to get email responses from other people who were also tracing their family tree, and had found we had relatives in common. 

Eventually, closer relatives that I had never met also got in touch. I have spread my net wide, and have posted my "interests" as we family historians call it, on various genealogy websites. I am always excited and amazed when I get a response from a posting that I made 10 years ago. 

I thank goodness that I chose and maintain a webmail address, so that I would always be found, no matter what country I live in, and no matter who my Internet Service Provider is. 

In more recent years, I have made great use of Facebook. I started genealogy interest group pages in the names of the four main branches of my father's family, and the four main branches of my mother's family. Just this year, so far, I have "met" six new family members, and in turn, been introduced to their immediate families. 

Like so many families today, our geographic spread is far and wide: UK (Scot-Eng-Ire-Wales), Spain, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. 

But the internet brings closer together and makes us neighbours . . . 

NEWSFLASH 
Also, a heads up to let you all know that the 1901 Census for Ireland is due to be launched on 3 June 2010 (UK time) and will be free. The site is fully searchable www.census.nationalarchives.ie . 

Along with the 1911, this is the only fully surviving pre-independence census for Ireland so is quite important for those with family in Ireland at the time.

Happy hunting to you all . . .
Seonaid

Guest post: Boards of Guardians records & other bits and bobs

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

When looking at some documents among the Newgate Gate Gaol Delivery Books (1785-1834) on microfilm at the Auckland Research Centre recently we found some records relating to Boards of Guardians that we had not realised we had. This is particulalry exciting given the recent apology of former British prime minister Gordon Brown to children who were sent overseas under the child migration scheme.

The records are for the areas covered by the Boards of Guardians for Brentford, Hampstead and Lambeth as well as minutes of the Central Unemployed Body for London (1905-11), all relating to emigration of children and families.

Some of the records of the Boards of Guardians relate to children who had been placed in schools having come from the workhouse eg Chase Farm School (run by the Edmonton Board Guardians). There are lists of children proposed for emigration to Canada and New Zealand (1891-1926), emigration consents and refusals (1925), and contracts and agreements to send children or families to Australia (c.1852-c.1855). Most of the material is unindexed but is quite legible and apart from names can include information such as: address sent to in the new country, school sent from, cost of emigration, date of emigration, and port of arrival.

Amongst the records is a booklet relating to the settlement of boys to Australia and a Handbook on the Dominion of New Zealand: containing information regarding openings for settlers, wages and hours of labour, cost of living, assisted passages, fares, etc (1925).

On another note, those who enjoy reading the Ancestors magazinepublished by TNA (the National Archives, UK) will be disappointed to learn that this has now ceased publication. It is envisaged that a different magazine will be produced, possibly later in the year.

Who do you think we are?  series 2 (Australia) UKTV Mondays 7.30pm. 
UKTV on Sky is currently repeating this series, if you missed it the first time around you may want to catch it this time. Auckland City Libraries has series 1 & 2 for the Australian Who do you think you are? and series1-4 for the UK version.

The Australian series is similar to the UK one but includes much more social history and perhaps slightly more insight into different records available in Australia. I really enjoyed this series and found it interesting as well as informative as the format follows the lines of how a family historian would work. Nick Barratt makes an appearance towards the end of the Ben Mendolssohn episode explaining how the ancestor probably came to be in the workhouse.

Also, we are now subscribing to the Who do you think you are? magazine and currently have the March and April 2010 editions available in the Auckland Research Centre.

Introducing...

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 Seonaid (Shona) Lewis, the new Family History Librarian at the Auckland Research Centre in Auckland City Library. 

I am delighted to be given this opportunity to introduce myself to the New Zealand genealogy community and look forward to meeting and working with you in the forthcoming weeks.

I have always had a love for history, starting with sneaking historical novels off my parents’ bookshelf when I was about nine years old – getting lost in the world of Tudor Kings and Queens.

I can also thank my parents for my passion for family history. My Scottish mother is a fabulous storyteller and she entertained me with stories of her family and what she knew of her ancestors. I would hang on her every word. Her mother was descended from McKenzie of Applecross, who reputedly sheltered Bonnie Prince Charlie when he came over from Skye prior to Culloden. My Scottish ancestry has always meant a lot to me.

My English father, on the other hand, knew very little about his father’s family. He was the youngest of a large Catholic family, his mother died of TB when he was about four months old, and his father, being a Merchant Seaman, was away at sea all the time. My father was fostered out and brought up by neighbours.

All we really knew about his father’s family was that his father had left Newfoundland for England at a young age during the First World War, and lied about his age to get into the Merchant Navy.

When I was living in London, my father asked me to look into some details for him. And before long, I was hooked and had completely caught the genealogy-bug! Currently I have hit the proverbial brick wall at around 1800 where both my father’s maternal and paternal lines lead back to Ireland. Nevertheless, my father now knows about his grandparents and his uncles and aunts and has connected with cousins he never knew before.

I have had much more luck with my mother’s line, tracing both branches back to the 17th Century. I have still to corroborate the McKenzie of Applecross story though . . .

When in London, I was a frequent visitor to the Public Records Office (as it was known then) and loved looking up the original indices. Since returning to New Zealand, I was a frequent visitor initially to Auckland Library, then also the LDS Family History Centre in Takapuna.

The advent of the internet has made researching family history a lot more accessible to the general public. My favourite online tools have been Ancestry, the Origins network, FindMyPast and RootsWeb. Being an “Apple Mac” person, my genealogy software tool is Reunion for Mac.

I have been very excited to find and be found by relatives when we’ve discovered each other on genealogy forums. Its been a delight to connect with a fellow family historian who is related to me, and we’ve been able to help each other with our brick walls.

Latterly Facebook has been a real boon for me. I started Facebook genealogy groups in the names of the four branches of my family trees, and relatives are now finding me all the time.

I come from North Shore Libraries, where I had been working as a general Librarian with duties as a trainer, also working with the Oral History team, assisting with workshops and training people how to use digital technology. I’d also been converting tape cassettes over to digital format to ensure their continued preservation.

So through these important tasks, I have also discovered a passion for Oral History and love listening to the older folk describe their earlier life experiences.

Formerly, I had worked for 26 years’ in design and publishing for both print and web! After starting my working life as an apprentice Typographer, I became heavily involved in management and IT. 

Once I had had my family, I decided I needed to have a change of career. After weighing up my options, it made sense for me to choose librarianship and so I left my career to study and work my way up through the library system, with the idea that some day somehow I could become a family historian.

In the four years since making that decision I have gained my library qualifications, and my professional library registration and I am intending continue my studies towards a degree in history.

Library work seemed the perfect way of bringing together my love of history and books. I have also been very pleased to help others with their family history – so this is my dream job, doing what I love! Family history research and helping people! 

I intend on carrying on Karen’s legacy and will develop some new ideas and services in the future.

Meanwhile, I look forward to meeting with you all in the near future…

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