A busy 2011 planned for Central Auckland Research Centre

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A belated Happy New Year to you all. I've just returned from my summer holidays, and am well rested and ready for another busy year in the Research Centre.

I had done most of the planning for 2011 lunchtime sessions before leaving prior to Christmas, but am still stunned by how quick February has crept up on me!

Tours of the Central Auckland Research Centre
From February 1, we will be offering guided tours of the Central Auckland Research Centres. These tours will be a regular offering, and timetabled to be the first Tuesday of every month 6-7pm.  Please phone 09 307 7771 to book or fill in the online form.

Lunchtime events for February to April 2011

February 9: Anahera Sadler Nga Wahine Rangatira i hainatia i te Tiriti o Waitangi - Honoured Maori women who signed the Treaty of Waitangi 
Anahera Sadler will discuss the 13 Maori women signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi and examine who these leaders were, their backgrounds and their deeds.

February 16: Helen Wong, Chinese New Year, past and present
Chinese New Year is an event of the highest importance to Chinese families. Come and hear Helen Wong discuss Chinese New Year Past and Present, and the continuing importance within today's community, which is also celebrated by non-Chinese. She'll discuss Chinese New Year as it was celebrated in NZ by the men early last century; the perspective from Chinese children growing up in NZ in the middle of the century; the perspective of the recent migrant Chinese, as children in their era, in their home country; and what has changed for them and their children, in New Zealand.

February 23: Malcolm McDonald, Researching Irish Family History - the basics and beyond
Are you wanting to trace your Irish ancestry but don’t know where to start?  Experienced researcher Malcolm McDonald will set you on the right path in this introductory presentation that is guaranteed to be both informative and fun.

Topics covered will include:
*some important dates in Irish history
*civil registration of births, marriages, & deaths,
* Irish naming patterns,
*1901 & 1911 census records
*Irish land divisions
*useful websites & online resources
*a list of recommended reading material

A comprehensive handout with be provided to all attendees.  Everyone is welcome!

March 9: Viv Parker, Introduction to Researching Welsh Family History
Long-serving NZSG member Viv Parker, an experienced researcher and presenter, guides us through the seemingly daunting process of researching your ancestors in Wales, and make it all seem so very easy!

March 23: Father Bruce Bollard, Using Catholic Church Archives
Father Bruce of the Pompalier Diocesan Centre, explains what you might find in Archives of the Catholic Diocese of Auckland and how to use them.

April 6: Claire Bruell, Researching International Red Cross Archives at Bad Arolsen, Germany
For the last 20 years Claire Bruell has been researching her family history in the lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, focusing on the current day Czech Republic. Claire has written extensively about her research. December 2009, she joined a group of 8 genealogists from Israel and spent 5 days at the Bad Arolsen archives, searching for details of her family.  She will speak about the experience and what she found there

April 20: Michael Wynd, Visiting the The Navy Museum at Torpedo Bay, using Museum Research resources
The library, research archives, oral histories, objects. Ship's Logs and Ship's ROPs location and what they are. Family History and the navy - access issues, location of personal files, terms, abbreviations, acronyms, posting cards, why the navy is different when it comes to where an individual serves. The Navy Museum, our research programme, challenges of naval history, PhD research experience

Please phone 09 307 7771 to book or book online.

Other eventsI am planning workshops in the winter months, to be held monthly, over three consecutive Sundays. Details and dates are still being worked out and will be advised once finalised.

ParkingDon't forget, if you are coming into the Library after 6pm in the evening or anytime over the weekend, you can get a parking voucher from us to redeem at Victoria St East carpark.

Looking forward to seeing you all
Seonaid

Guest post: Military research

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Guest contributor : Marie Hickey

One of the most popular subjects researched in the CARC (the Central Auckland Research Centre, as we are now known in the Supercity) is military related whether it is a particular person or theatre of war.  Many of our visitors are aware of the basic resources such as nominal rolls, medal rolls, digitised copies of service records (British Army) and rolls of honour etc, but what of other material held at libraries?

For instance, we have a large collection of regimental histories in the library system mainly found in categories 940 and 355 as well as the family history section in CARC.  These cover not only British Army regiments but also German, American and others; they can be as current as the Vietnam War or as early as Charlemagne.  Anexcellent series of small books is the Men-at-Arms series produced by Osprey Publishing which not only gives information about the Army, Regiment etc but invariably include a good range of illustrations some of which are in colour.

We have the National Roll of the Great War 1914-1918 which includes civilians who died on war service and therefore women are mentioned who were not serving with the military.  Entries are a brief summary of the person’s service and includes their home address; the series is available as books or digitally through www.ancestry.co.uk orwww.findmypast.co.uk – all of which are available in CARC.  This series was published by subscription so is therefore incomplete but is nevertheless quite comprehensive.  For England we also have a large collection of militia muster rolls which generally give the name, address and occupation of the person.  Don’t forget, you will find Irish, Scottish and Welsh serving in the British Army as well as many from various countries of the former British Empire.  We
also have some muster rolls for the Royal Engineers, 12th, 65th and 80th Regiments of Foot.

For New Zealand we have Military Board appeals 1916-17, Biographical sketches of NZ servicemen WWI vol. 1 – both copied from the Otago Witness, and three volumes of New Zealand servicewomen WWI copied from Kai Tiaki magazine.  Another interesting publication we hold relating to WWI is The Chronicle which is a newspaper that was originally published in London for the NZEF.  These newspapers include articles, jokes illustrations etc of interest to the troops but perhaps more importantly for the contemporary researcher, they also have lists of prisoners of war, obituaries and those in hospital (includes the name of the hospital).  The Chronicle is available at CARC on microfiche and there is an accompanying name index on microfiche.  We also have a listing of Kiwis serving with forces for other countries.

Guest post: Your story

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Guest contributor: Marie Hickey

Over the Christmas/New Year break many of you will have spent time with friends and family catching up on all the latest news and/or reminiscing about past events or people no longer with us, etc. Others will have done as I did and gone to visit family graves to give them a bit of a tidy - it was interesting to see how many were at Waikumete Cemetery, Auckland, on Boxing Day.

As family historians we often become fixated with the past and forget that our lives are of interest to the younger generation; young children often enjoy hearing about the "olden days". We may consider our lives to be ordinary but think of those things we have experienced during our lives that the younger generations will not. For instance, the thrill of the family getting its first television or car, milk being delivered to the house (perhaps you worked on the milk truck/cart). I know that my uncles and aunts sometimes wouldn't tell my grandad when there was a horse out in the street just so they didn't have to shovel the droppings to put on the garden.

It is important to write about our memories as we are the last with a memory of our grandparents or, if you are lucky, great granparents, uncles, aunts, etc, and if the memories of them are not noted then they will become a series of notes in someone's future research without having a personality. Having an idea of someone's personality can help when trying to work out why they took this action or made that decision. Think how pleased you would have been to find such a series of notes or stories when you started your research.

Writing your story need not be a daunting task. You could simply make notes about events and people in your life or you may decide to write a series of short essays. Given the current holiday season, you could write about Christmases past, or summer holidays - remember those essays you used to write when you returned to school, "What I did in the holidays?"

Some things in your life may bring back bad memories but do try to wirte about these as well as it could be healing for you. If you are concerned about the family reading it you could place that story in a sealed envelope with instructions that it is not to be opened until a particular time.

I hope this will encourage you to begin writing something about your own life as you may be surprised what you remember when you get started. If you want to go further with this you may find a course in writing available at your local night school or community centre.

Happy writing, and a Happy New Year!

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