Sometimes in family history, you come across a story that sounds more like the plot of a sweeping historical saga than a real life event. Such is the case of the story of the Spaniard, Manuel Jose.

Māori Children on a North Island East Coast Farm, 1937 Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19370630-51-3

We have two books on the family in the Central Auckland Research Centre, both written by Vivienne McConnell, a  Manuel descendant, and her husband, Bob. “Olive Branches” is a meaty history that track’s Manuel’s descendants to the 1980s  with photographs and profiles on family members.

"Ole Jose” chronicles the first ever reunion of the Manual Jose clan, held in 1980. For one weekend in December, descendants converged on Tikitini, on the East Coast for a celebration of their Māori/Spanish heritage.  At that time two of Manuel’s grandchildren were present at the reunion,  including 88-year-old Juliana Rickard, herself the mother of eleven “still living” children, 53 grandchildren, 71 great grandchildren and two great,  great grandchildren.  Subsequent reunions have been held, and even trips to Spain. An article in the publication Te Māori at the time, estimated there were 5000 descendants of this one man. Subsequent estimates put the number at more than twice that today.

A Māori home in the Urewera Country, 1909. Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19091230-10-1

Interestingly, it came to light in recent years that while there had been a rumoured connection of Manuel to the South American Incas, this proved false when the discovery of Manuel’s actual birthplace was announced. Valverde, Spain.

Ole Jose!!

If you – or your ancestor – was a bright young thing in 1940s Auckland, chances are the name El Rey might ring a few bells.

The El Rey Country Club was a nightclub operated out of an Arts and Crafts style house on Hillsborough Road in what was then still farmland. The location was panoramic, set amidst acres of bush and with gorgeous views out across the Manukau Harbour to South Auckland. Equally as panoramic, it might be said, were the goings on in the El Rey itself. It came under the eye of the law for illegally serving liquour several times, and regularly featured in the Auckland Star’s Lost and Found column:

“Topaz ring in the vicinity of the El Ray, substantial reward.”
“Watch, gold, ladies between El Rey and Devonport.”
“A five pound reward for the return of a diamante evening bag and contents, lost or taken by mistake at the El Rey.”
“A raincoat, marine officer’s, between Farmers and the El Rey night club. Reward”
“Watch, wrist, chromium with brilliants, El Rey Saturday night. Reward.”
“Fur cape, brown velvet, New Year’s Eve between Grand Hotel and El Rey.”
 (All from Papers Past)

Visiting American soldiers, aka “bedroom commandos,” also added glamour to the scene. As noted in The Encyclopedia of New Zealand Te Ara, they flocked to the El Rey and other clubs “where they could dine on steak and drink whisky as a swing band played the latest hits of Glenn Miller.”  If you did fancy dance music and couldn’t make the trek out to Mt Roskill on a Saturday night, 1YA would relay the dance music on the wireless.

Interestingly, Te Ara also reports that the El Rey was a favourite club of the intrepid Admiral Richard E Byrd who used NZ as a base for his Antarctic explorations.

Auckland Libraries, AWNS-19400410-41-1

• Write a blog post about an Australian or New Zealander serviceman or woman's family, and the impact war had on their family history
• Post a comment with the URL to your blog on the comments section of this post.
  Or if you don't have a blog then email us your story at kintalk@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
• Publish your post by 26 April 2015.

Just to get you started, see recommended resources for New Zealand and Australian research, within the Auckland Libraries Digital Resources. 

Access great online resources: 
Coming Home virtual exhibition 
The virtual exhibition consists of "albums" containing photos/images and documents. Virtual albums entitled "Gallipoli", "Lest We Forget", "New Zealand Maori Battalion", "Peace", "Postcards" and "Returned Services Association". Also has a portal for searching content nationwide from organizations such as libraries, archives, museums and galleries, including Auckland Libraries. Courtesy DigitalNZ. 

Index Auckland and New Zealand Card Index 
For references to articles and other resources regarding WWI and WWII. 

Manuscripts Online 
For diaries, letters, postcards and albums

And Papers Past and Trove for newspapers of the time.

Within the library catalogue: Auckland Libraries, search using World War, 1914-1918 or World War, 1939-1945 to find suitable resources. 

Searching using WWI or WWII etc will return you wonderful results of holdings throughout the whole of Auckland Libraries, which you can narrow down by location by using the "select location" dropdown menu on the right of screen. For example, available in all four Research Centres:- Central, South (Manukau) and West (Waitakere) and North (Takapuna) are gems such as:

• New Zealand Expeditionary Force casualties, WWI. Books I to XIV, 15 Aug. 1914 to 6 Jan. 1919

Try searching our library catalogue, using call number: 2 NZL MIL for more

You'll also find Australian resources in the Central Auckland Research Centre; for example:

• Book of remembrance of the University of Sydney in the Great War 1914-1918
• Index to news items and obituaries of WWI servicemen and women in the Tasmanian weekly magazines

Try searching our library catalogue, using call number: 2 AUS MIL for more.

For other sites, look at:

• the Auckland War Memorial Museum;
• the Australian War Memorial site and
• the National Archives of Australia or look further by 
• using the resources listed on Cora Num’s website.
• National Archives of Australia Facebook page about their Shellshocked Exhibition and some of the personal stories that they have collected might also be of interest.

Helen Vail's blog 100 NZ WW1 Memorials 1914-2014 is a mine of information about WW1 memorials, and individuals that she has researched. Helen's goal is to personally visit and collate information from 100 New Zealand World War One Memorials throughout New Zealand by August 2014 to commemorate the 100 year Anniversary of the start of World War One and to honour those who paid the ultimate price.

Here are contributions from the three earlier years:

• 2013 Trans-Tasman ANZAC Day Blog Challenge
• 2012 Trans-Tasman ANZAC Day Blog Challenge and 
• 2011 Trans-Tasman ANZAC Day Blog Challenge to get you started!

Have a look at Auckland War Memorial Museum's Armoury Resources page, and search the Cenotaph database.

Hopefully this will inspire you and provide you with some assistance in writing your blog!

The centenary of the First World War - 2014-2018

While thinking about your blog, remember that  2014 marks the centenary of the beginning of the First World War. 

The Ministry of Culture and Heritage is developing projects to assist with commemorations, WW100 is providing a portal for New Zealanders who want to be involved in the commemorations, and NZ History Online provides a place for our school children to go to for homework and study assistance.

You may already have read about the launch of New Zealand's WW100 on our sister blog Heritage et AL .

Its worth considering how else you might want to contribute to commemorating, and ensuring that your stories are collected.

Each country will have its own WW100 commemorations, so if your ancestor was involved serving for another country, see what you can find out about that that country is doing.

Have a look at Britain Remembers, and the Imperial War Memorial Museum's Lives of the First World War and also look at what's going on in UK public libraries.

FindMyPastAU and Inside History magazine have a joint initiative to create an ANZAC Memory Bank  and invite people to contribute.

Blog away

Seonaid