Heritage Images database Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 4-RIC252'

Showing the grave and tombstone of Reverend James McDonald in St Patrick's Cemetery, Panmure.

The inscription, in English reads: Of your charity pray for the repose of the soul of the Very Reverend James McDonald Vicar General who for 38 years laboured in the Diocese of Auckland and was devoted to the Maoris who raised this monument to his memory.

He died at Purakau Hokianga July 6th 1890 aged 63 years. May he rest in peace.

The inscription in Maori reads:
I runga I ngakau aroha inoi atu ki tu atua kia takoto pai te wairua o Hakopa Meketanara Wikario Henerari 38 nga tau i mahi ai ia i tana mahi karakia i roto i te tiehehi o akarana me tana aroha nui ano hoki ki nga Maori. Na ratou nei tenei kohutu i whakaara hei tohu whakamaharatanga ki a ia. I mate ia ki Purakau i Hokianga i te 6 o nga ra o Hurei 63 o nga tau. Kiaokioki ia i runga i te rangimarie

Jewish ancestry?

“Why New Zealand? Some had heard of Australia but New Zealand? 
For me it was absolutely the right decision – there was no where further away from Germany...”

- Hansi Silberstein in Promised New Zealand



 The eight-day Jewish holiday, Hanukkah (the festival of lights) is celebrated this week, in commemoration of the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

This year, Hanukkah runs from Saturday December 8th until sunrise on December 15th and while there has never been a large Jewish population in New Zealand, there are certainly resources to help you start your research if you think you may be able to lay claim to Jewish ancestry.



Gary Mokotoff’s Getting Started in Jewish Genealogy (we have the 2011 edition in our collection) is recommended by New York’s Museum of Jewish heritage (and their www.jewishgen.org website).

Mokotoff shows how you can trace ancestry on line and he describes a search he conducted on a family (going back 200 years) using familiar sites such as www.ancestry.com with its Ellis Island databases.

While Kiwi Jewish ancestors are less likely to have travelled via Ellis Island, in our collection we do have several books to mull through, such as guides to cemeteries and how to read headstones (in Auckland, both Symonds Street and Waikumete have Jewish sections), and especially relevant to our country, stories of post World War 1 Jewish immigration (such as Freya Klier’s Promised New Zealand.)

Interestingly, a couple of our prime ministers can lay claim to Jewish roots– Sir Julius Vogel was a practicing Jew, and John Key has Jewish ancestry via his mother, an Austrian immigrant.

If you’re looking for aids to begin your research, use the Central Auckland Research Centre call number on the catalogue, which is... 1 GEN REL JEW.

Bring on the potato latkes and Mazel Tov in anticipation of some excellent finds.

Joanne

Our Digital Library contains the valuable gem: The New Zealand Card Index which began in the 1950s and closed in 1996. It indexes a range of sources including local and national newspapers, New Zealand periodicals, books and scrapbooks.

The digital version of the New Zealand Card Index provides keyword access to local history, biographical and family history references from sources such as:

• Auckland scrapbooks (1923 to 1994)
• New Zealand scrapbooks (1916 to 1975)
• Obituary scrapbooks (1933 to 1941, 1949 to 1979)
• the New Zealand Herald
• the Auckland Star
• Auckland area suburban newspapers before November 1996.

The main geographical focus is Auckland, but other New Zealand material is also included.

Subject-wise, the database focuses on people, places and organisations. The index includes references to information on Auckland buildings, businesses and places, plus references to obituaries, death notices and marriage notices for 1877 to 1886. 

See also the related database Index Auckland.