August is New Zealand Family History Month and for the 4th year in a row, Auckland Libraries will be participating in this National event.

A variety of topics will be available at various libraries around the region, and will be announced towards the end of June. One of the major topics this Family History month will be WWI and all things military due to the 100 year anniversary of the start of WWI.

In August 2013, we held 71 events at 33 library venues across the region, 19 different family history topics with over 2000 customers attending (this compares to 55 events at 25 venues, 10 different topics and 1000 people during 2012's Family History Month).

Family history/genealogy research is a hugely popular topic. The growth in popularity of family history as a hobby and research topic can be attributed largely to TV programmes such as "Who Do You Think You Are?" and adverts such as that for AncestrydotComdotAU.

Access to family history resources is becoming easier due to so many digitisation programmes worldwide, allowing genealogical information to become available on websites such as Ancestry, FindMyPast, The Genealogist, ScotlandsPeople and FamilySearch, to name but a few of the main ones.

Libraries, Museums and Archives are also putting resources online making access even easier.

However, despite the worldwide digitisation taking place, its been estimated that less than five per cent of the world's records is available online. The rest resides in Libraries, Museums, Archives and in societies such as genealogical and family history societies and historical societies.

Libraries are usually the first port of call for people starting out with family history. Libraries have many resources available on shelves, in filing cabinets, in drawers - as well as online. Best of all, libraries have librarians. Experienced staff trained in assisting with reference and research questions. While its true Librarians don’t (and can’t) know everything, they are really good at finding things out.

If libraries don't have the exact information that you need, librarians are very good at finding out who does - whether its online or maybe just knowing that another institution has the information the customer is looking for.

A quote I like from Neil Gaiman:

“Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one." 

Is a good illustration of this. Reference/research librarians are excellent at refining searches, and also analysing the results.

Auckland Libraries has significiant family history resources to assist the researcher.

Four Research Centres (North, South, West and Central) which all have a variety of New Zealand family history resources in their collections; West Auckland Research Centre has a partnership with the West Auckland branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG) in the Research Centre. which has some international resources; and Central Auckland Research Centre which has the largest international family history collection in a New Zealand public library.

Wellsford Library and Pukekohe Library, also have relationships with their local branches of the NZSG and hold their collections in these community libraries.

Ancestry Library Edition, FindMyPast and the rest of our Family History eResources within the Digital Library is available at all 55 libraries and four Research Centres, so we always encourage customers to go to their closest community library in the first instance, and take advantage of what’s available locally.

At some point though, the customer may want to take a trip into the Central Auckland Research Centre  and come and see our specialist team.

So watch our website, our events pages, this blog and/or our Facebook page for more details . . .

Happy hunting

Seonaid

The Old Colonists Association Register is an original manuscript listed on Manuscripts Online, that is held within the Sir George Grey Specialist Collections on L2 of Central City Library.

The Old Colonists Association was originally developed out of reunion gatherings for early Auckland settlers who arrived on the Duchess of Argyle and the Jane Gifford, the first two immigrant ships into Auckland.

It was extended to include early colonists of fifty years' standing and their descendants.

Members were listed in the Register between 10 October 1919 to 16 November 1934, and includes a list of 13 early vessels with their arrival dates pasted on the register's front endpaper, which covers the period 1840-1842.

The register contains a list of members of the association, including information relating to joining date, badge number, address at time of joining, when and where born, date of arrival in New Zealand, name of ship, and some miscellaneous remarks.

The inclusions of gems such as where and when born is pure gold, for those wanting to trace their ancestors back to their country of origin. And the date of arrival and ship's name answers the inevitable family history question "when did my ancestor arrive in New Zealand" for many researchers.

The Old Colonists Association Register is often cited as a source in our databases "Index Auckland" and "Auckland Area Passenger Vessels".

Searching for "Dora Close" in Index Auckland brings up six records. The top record is her entry in the Old Colonists' Association Register. You can open the actual image of the page by "Clicking here to view".

In this image of the Old Colonists Association Register, you can see where Dora Close was born, amongst other wonderful pieces of information.

Conducting a successful search for a name - Dora Close in this instance - in Index Auckland gives you not only an abstract of the record, but also allows you to click and open the actual image of the page, which you are free to download and use as part of your personal research. 

Happy hunting

Seonaid

As students and teachers are all now back in the classroom it reminded me of the many resources we have in our family history collection relating to education. There are numerous school lists and registers of graduates and students for various schools around New Zealand as well as special publications focusing on jubilees and centenary celebrations.

Karioi School, c.1908 from Heritage Images

To browse our holdings search using the Auckland Libraries classic catalogue  by selecting Call Number in the drop down list and typing 2 NZL SCH into the text box. Alternatively, you may want to do a Keyword search with the name of the school.

Open-air classroom, c.1939 from Heritage Images

If you happen to have a teacher in your family and are interested in their career details, the CD-ROM 'New Zealand Teachers Examinations and Licenses 1880-1920'  includes '... the name of those who have passed the teachers examinations and the area they are from ... and who are licensed to teach, the area of their teaching engagement and their rank in the teaching profession.'  This information is also available from the New Zealand Gazette -- there is a dedicated computer in the Research Centre for accessing these records.

Nelson (Boys) College, building completed in 1859, from Heritage Images.

The Heritage images and photography eResources page lists all of the photography related databases such as Footprints, Heritage Images and Local History Online to search for visual treasures of school buildings, pupils and teachers.

Karen