Auckland Libraries, Sir George Grey Special Collections, 31-68043.

A brief history of Mother's Day

Today is a special day to recognise and celebrate the women who raised us. Many countries around the world, including New Zealand, have adopted the Mother's Day celebration based on the North American origin of the holiday, with roots in the American civil war.

There are two histories associated with the origin of celebrating mothers, despite occurring several decades apart, both were in response to conditions resulting from war. The origin of Mother's day stemmed as a anti-war movement, and its reason for existence was commemorative rather than celebratory. 


Karen

For approximately 10 years, the Central Auckland Research Centre has run a fortnightly family history lunchtime series lectures from February through to November at Central Library.

They are a diverse range of lectures, covering many subjects related to family and/or local history, New Zealand and world history.

These popular talks are well-attended, but typically there are always people who are unable to make them largely due to geographic distance. I've frequently had calls and emails from people all over New Zealand and overseas - from as far away as the UK asking if we were going to be able to make the presentations available online.

This year, we have been able to record some of our lunchtime talks as part of a pilot study.

We were able to record most of the New Zealand Cemeteries Heritage Week events held at Central Library, and those proved very popular. We do captioning which means transcribing the whole presentation, to make each one accessible for the hearing-impaired.

Online now, is "The records of the English parish church" with Viv Parker.

Vivienne Parker, researcher & speaker, member of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists a former editor of The NZ Genealogist and the GRINZ Yearbook, and the compiler of Forty years on: The development of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

"The records of English parish churches recount the day-to-day running of the parish, including not only baptisms, marriages and burials but also a wealth of information about our ancestors. Their findings also uncover the roles of the vestry and church wardens, who held the responsibility for raising funds, appointing people to various jobs, maintaining roads and bridges in the parish, the care of the elderly, dealing with miscreants and illegitimacies, as well as ensuring the removal of those who had no right to remain in the parish."

About 40 people attended this lecture that Viv did for us on Wednesday, 4 March.

Viv is a member of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists and frequently runs workshops and tutorials out at their centre in Panmure.

She is also a regular speaker for Auckland Libraries and helps out with other events such as the Karen Kalopulu Family History Lock-In (28 August this year) and the Sunday Family History Club sessions (next one on June 21) that are held around three times a year.

I hope you enjoy watching  "The records of the English parish church" with Viv Parker.


Happy hunting

Seonaid

The wonderful people from the Auckland War Memorial Museum delivered an Artefact Digitisation Unit (ADU) to the Central Auckland Research Centre.

A what? I hear you say . . . .

Artefact Digitisation Unit (ADU) from Auckland War Memorial Museum

It is an awesome piece of technology that looks kind of like an ATM machine - a kiosk with a computer, touchscreen monitor and a camera.

With its connectivity to the internet, it has direct access to the new Online Cenotaph. 

People can use the ADU to search the Online Cenotaph direct from the Research Centre, and contribute information about the person they are researching - this includes the ability to photograph documents and objects to upload to a subjects record.

The Online Cenotaph itself has been completed re-designed and had been re-launched in January.

There are more than 140,000 service personnel listed, and alots of new content has been added:

• approximately 2,000 new images from Auckland Libraries’ Schmidt Collection of portraits
• direct links with servicemen’s sketches, poems and writing held in the Troopship magazines, which the Museum has now digitised
• around 2,000 additional records of New Zealand servicemen who served in the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) – purchased for Online Cenotaph by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage
• linking of of 437 records from the Māori Pioneer Battalion with a digital image of their signatures on the Pioneer Scroll, on display in the Scars I gallery
• digitising of the Mickle Album, including the 60 photographs of friends from Birkenhead who volunteered and left New Zealand to fight in WWI

3/4 portrait of Sapper Bertram Charles Robinson, Reg No 12074, of the New Zealand Engineers, No. 2 Field Company. Killed in action in France on 15 November 1916. (Photographer: Herman Schmidt, 1916). Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 31-R984. No known copyright