http://www.FamNet.net.nz

Part of the worldwide genealogy/family history community

 

FamNet eNewsletter April 2015

ISSN 2253-4040

 

Quote: You live as long as you are remembered. -- Russian proverb

Contents

Editorial

From the Developer

Cenotaph Records – Progress Report

Transfer to New Server

Searching for People by Several Names

Telling your story, continued

Sharing your Story: Managing your Family Group

DNA Testing for Family History

Useful Websites

Group News

Whangarei Family History Computer Group

Waikanae Family History Group

News and Views

Wairarapa Wandering

Jan’s Jottings

A Story from John

Book Reviews

Voices of Gallipoli

Community

Information Wanted etc.

Have Your Say – Letters to the Editor

In conclusion

A Bit of Light Relief

Advertising with FamNet

To Unsubscribe

Copyright (Waiver)

Editorial

In this month, the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings, our media are full of Anzac stories.  The NZ Herald has been running a series of articles with the stories of soldiers who served in WW1 and WW2, TVNZ news has been featuring “Letters home” segments in which descendents of servicemen talk about a letter from their ancestors, and there have been many films and documentaries about World War 1, and the Gallipoli campaign in particular.   One of the most moving that I’ve seen was “Gallipoli” screened on Maori TV on Thursday 23rd.  Until then I hadn’t really appreciated how truly appalling the conditions were for the soldiers.  Not only were they being killed by the defending Turks, but with the stench and flies (flying between corpses, latrines, food, and the soldiers) they were mostly sick, with about eighty percent suffering from dysentery.  Their courage was unbelievable.  In one battle the first wave went over the top to be slaughtered by machine gun fire within yards of the trench.  The same happened to the second wave – and the third, and the fourth.  600 deaths, in an area about the size of a tennis court!  One can only imagine what was going through the minds of the soldiers, particularly those of the later waves.  And it’s hard to understand the officers who would give commands like this.  More should have been like Colonel Malone who refused to lead his men on a suicidal daylight attack on Chunuk Bair, but led the successful night time attack.

 

I am fortunate: none of my ancestors perished in the Great War, although I had three uncles who served in France in the NZ Rifle Brigade, and my wife’s father served with distinction on the Western Front for the whole four years of the war.  With schools’ history lessons focussing on WWI this month the stories that are recorded in FamNet have been a useful resource for three of our grandchildren’s school projects and we went along to one grandchild’s school with some WWI mementos. 

 

Like the TV and the NZ Herald, this FamNet newsletter also has an ANZAC emphasis.  In my “From the Developer” section I report on the progress in hooking up Cenotaph and FamNet records, and in “Useful Web Sites” section I’ve highlighted some ANZAC-oriented material.  We’re welcoming a couple of new contributors, both of whom have taken an ANZAC theme.  John Hyde, the chairman of the FamNet Trust, has contributed an article for News and Views about his grandfather, mistakenly thought dead at Galliopoli.  In the Book Reviews section my neighbour Janice Wilson has contributed a review of “Voices of Gallipoli” by Maurice Shadbolt.  A book that is well worth reading if you want to increase your understanding of what it was like for those who fought there.  I’m hoping that both will become regular contributors to this newsletter.   Another regular contributor, Adele, has also taken an Anzac theme, telling us about some soldiers buried at Featherston and a tree descended from the Lone Pine.

 

Other things in this issue:  Gail concludes her regular series about DNA testing and Family history.  In From the Developer as well as reporting the Cenotaph progress I discuss some search issues (and ask for feedback), and as part of the “telling your story” series show you how to use FamNet to share your stories in a controlled way by using a Family Group.

 

With the server changeover I’m not sure if everybody got last month’s newsletter.  Certainly the low number of bounce messages suggests that it may have only been partially sent out.  If you didn’t get it, or of course if you want to read it again, click here to see the February-March Newsletter.

 

Finally a plea: I’d really like somebody to step forward as newsletter editor, filling the huge hole left by the previous editors who are unable to continue.  Any volunteers, please email me.

 

Back to the Top

From the Developer

Cenotaph Records – Progress Report

In last month’s newsletter I announced that we were planning to link FamNet with Cenotaph, so that you could click on a link from a FamNet record and a Cenotaph record would open, and you could click on a link from a Cenotaph record and a FamNet record would open.  The first stage of this has been implemented: I have created a link table and from those records for which I could automatically create links a link shows in the record’s scrapbook.  Clicking this takes you straight to the record in Cenotaph.

 

I was pleasantly surprised at how many good matches the program was able to find.  I was given about 102,000 records, and we were able to create links with 42,000 of them, more than I had expected.  My link table contains about 950,000 records, suggesting that on average each Cenotaph record matches with about 9 FamNet records. I had expected to find several FamNet records for each matched Cenotaph record, but what I hadn’t thought of was that there may be several Cenotaph records linked to a single FamNet record.  This represents situations where two different soldiers had the same name, I doubt that there were many people with two military numbers. 

 

Program matching is limited to a comparison of the name recorded in Cenotaph and the name recorded in FamNet.  This misses many case that should be matched: for example my Uncle Albert who served on the Western Front is recorded in FamNet as Albert Paul BARNES, but in Cenotaph as Albert BARNES.  The early versions of my SQL logic matched these records but also gave me a huge number of obviously-incorrect matches, so I ended up cutting the logic right back and Uncle Albert was no longer found by my program.  No doubt there are many similar cases.  I haven’t yet sorted out the best approach to this problem: I can’t ask volunteers to look through millions of matches, so we have to find a way of display a manageable number of possible matches.

 

The next stage is for me to provide a “landing page” that Victoria’s team can use as a link from Online Cenotaph.  This will go straight to the FamNet record if there is only one, or present a list if there are several.   I’ll then have to create editing functions so that a volunteer can sort out the issues.  I had somebody volunteering from the last newsletter (thank you Cheryl), but until I provide the appropriate tools for her to use there’s nothing that she can do.

Transfer to New Server

This is still a work in progress.  I have disabled the Charts feature because this wasn’t working, and although initially emails were being sent I messed this up without realising it and you weren’t getting your “Welcome to FamNet” and “Thank you for your subscription” emails.  I’ve just got email working again so things like these and “Forgotten Password” should now be OK.  You’ll know that email is all OK when you get your April Newsletter.

 

I’m not sure when I’ll be able to restore [Charts].  So far I’ve spend a full day fruitlessly trying to find out why it no longer works, and I think that I’ll have to go back to my technical support company and get some more help.  Bear with me!

Searching for People by Several Names

There has recently been a discussion on the Rootsweb NZ list about the difficulty of finding people whose name has changed.   Perhaps they were registered with one name, but always known as another.  Spelling changes are common. And of course in our culture women have traditionally taken their husband’s name on marriage.  So how do you cope with all of this when you’re looking up records?

 

FamNet provides some support for name changes already: if you click [Advanced Search] the extra options include a couple more names.  Thus if you weren’t sure whether the person that you’re looking for is Richard or Dick you could look for both in the same search.

 

 

As well as several names, the Advanced Search options include an option to search for particular fact values.  Thus you could ask for fact type “ALIAS” with value “Dick Smith”.  Or fact type Nickname.  However you can’t choose more than one fact type at a time, and including a fact in the search slows it down.  Fact searches are intended to filter the records returned by the basic search, not to provide the basic criteria for a search, so the feature needs to be used carefully.  If you ask for name “Robert Barnes” and also Nickname “Bob” you DON’T get all the Robert BARNES records PLUS the Bob BARNES, you get ONLY those Robert BARNES records with Bob recorded as a nickname.

 

I am considering adding a feature to FamNet that creates an index of alias (and also partner) names, allowing these to be added to the basic search efficiently.  Thus imagine a few more checkboxes in the search panel above: -

            [  ] Include alternative names

            [  ] Include nicknames

 

The search could then return records in which the name you searched for was one of these.  Thus you could search for Dick Smith and this would locate the record for Richard.  I could use colour-coding to distinguish the different types of result.  Of course this depends on people properly using the fact types provided by their software: this would only be useful where the record owners have used ALIAS (AKA) and NICKname facts,  not just put the information into a note.  Of course for a record owner it’s much easier to use a note, but I can’t include notes in the search.  Within my programming budget there’s no way of reliably distinguishing notes that record “Sometimes called ‘Dick’ from “Sometimes called a dick”. 

 

This would also provide a way of handing situations where you want to look up a person, but you only know their married name.  The correct way to record anybody in a genealogy database is by their birth name, so my wife is Mary PYM in FamNet, although of course everybody knows her as Mary BARNES. (In a genealogy database, never record a woman by her husband’s name.  If you don’t know and the software requires you to give a surname, write “Unknown”).   What if you want to look up somebody that you know as Mary Barnes, and you have no idea what her maiden name was, nor what her husband’s given name was. FamNet used to have a feature allowing you to search for a person with their partner’s surname – you could look up Mary Barnes and the system would find her from the relationship with me.  Although this feature was obviously focussed on locating females when you didn’t know their maiden name, it worked equally well the other way, and you could have looked up me with surname PYM.   However I had to take the feature out as it made the search too slow, and as data volumes grew far too many searches were failing with timeouts.  

 

It occurs to me that the same approach as above for alias and nicknames would work for partners’ names.  Again, I’d use colour coding to distinguish the type of result represented by a line in the search grid.  If I added a checkbox: -

            [   ] Use Husband’s Name

and you checked this, you’d find the record of Mary PYM when you searched for Mary BARNES.  Here “Husband” means any male partner, just as “Wife” would mean any female partner, not just relationships formalized with a marriage service.  For this purpose we don’t have to worry about whether record owners have used their software correctly, marriage and/or joint children is one of the fundamental relationships in a genealogy database.  

 

Would these search enhancements be useful?  If the feature to look up a woman using her husband’s name is useful, is there any value in making this work the other way as well so you could look up Robert PYM?

Telling your story, continued

So far in this series of articles about telling your story I’ve covered

1.      Writing your story as notes, or with Word.  Embedding links in Word documents. 

2.      Embedding pictures in Word documents

3.      Saving Documents for Web Publication.

4.     Saving Scrapbook Items

 

This month I gave a couple of presentations on FamNet, one to a SeniorNet group in Glenfield, and the other via Skype to the Waikanae Family History Group.  To both groups I posed the question, “What are the most important things about your family history”?  “Sources” hesitantly replied one person.  “Dates” said another.   No, no, no!   The most important things are the stories.  The data you discover things from records is relatively unimportant.  If you don’t find it, the records will still be around for your children, or grandchildren, if they’re interested.  But don’t you wish you could talk to your ancestors and ask them about their lives?  And I’ll bet that the questions that you ask are only incidentally about dates and places, mostly they’re about the person.  What did they do?  What did they think?  What sort of lives did they live?   So now, turn it around and think about your grandchildren, and imagine that they’re asking questions – but you’re not around.  If you don’t record your memories they’ll be lost for ever with you.  Get them written down while you can!   Nothing else comes close in importance.  Let me repeat my previous message: telling your story, and recording your recollections of those of your family that you knew, is the most important thing you can do in Family History.  Here ends the sermon. 

Sharing your Story: Managing your Family Group

Having learned the lessons of my previous articles you’ve created a database on FamNet that records at least your immediate family and several of your ancestors, and possibly many more.  You’ve added pictures and stories to these, making them much more interesting to your family than a mere collection of names and dates would have been.   If, like me, you have school-age grandchildren then your family may be finding these records useful as they do various school projects.  For example, three of my granddaughters have used the record of their Great Grandfather in their ANZAC projects this month.  But now you realise there’s a problem. You want them to see all your records including your own story which you attached to the record of yourself, but FamNet is doing a great job of managing your privacy so they won’t be able to see your record.  By the time they can, it will be too late for them to ask you questions.  Also, will they need to pay a subscription to see these records?  That’s not what you had in mind when you decided to use FamNet to share your records with your family!   

 

Fortunately there’s an easy solution to all this – the Family Group.  Everybody who has records on FamNet automatically gets a Family Group.  Initially your family group is just you, but you can add more emails and give these other people some or all of the permissions that you have.  The default is that you give your family group members permission to see all of your records, including the living people.  In a few cases you may give others permission to update part of your tree.

 

To show how this works, I’ve logged on as a new user called “TestUser”.  FamNet responds to the logon as normal, displaying the home page with the Genealogy Database tab selected: -

 

Click the button on the right, [Groups] to see the group administration page.  TestUser is not currently the administrator of any groups, so the only option is New/Find and FamNet responds like this,  We supply a group name, change nothing else, and click [Add]: -

 

FamNet creates the group, removes the group options that don’t apply to family groups, and responds like this: -

 

FamNet has formed the TestUser group with a single member, TestUser.  Obviously the next thing to do is to add some more people to the group, so we click [Manage Membership OnLine] or Select.  The following screen appears and we can start adding more members to this group by entering emails or FamNet userid’s.  Here I’ve added an email Grandaughter1@gmail.com, and FamNet looks up its membership database to see if she is already registered in FamNet.  She’s not, so the system creates an initial registration for her.  We have to give her name and at least one line of address: -

 

We leave her permission level as the default, View Any, and click [Add].   FamNet adds user Grandaughter1 to the membership database with the temporary password “password”, adds this user to our family group, and drafts an email for us to send to them: -

 

Note the colour key at the bottom.  User Grandaughter1 has General View Permissions, meaning that she can see all of my records, even those of dead people.  Of course this permission won’t extend to other people’s records where, as usual, she’ll be blocked unless the subject of the record is dead.

 

Now, what about a subscription?  Do they need to pay to see your records?  Well, that depends on whether you have a subscription.  If you do, then all members of your family group will get free access to your records.  Remember that you will get a subscription credit for putting your own records into FamNet, calculated as a year for every 2000 records, plus a day per scrapbook item.  We think scrapbook is very important, so each scrapbook item is worth more than 5 GEDCOM records.

 

Back to the Top

DNA Testing for Family History

© Gail Riddell 2014

Previous articles in this series. 

1.      What is Molecular Genealogy?

2.      Where would I begin?  

3.      What test should I take?

4.      What DNA will NOT tell you and the risks involved.

5.      Direct paternal line (men only).

6.      Direct maternal line (men and women).

7.      All the lineages including maternal and paternal (men and women).

8.      Understanding direct paternal results.

9.      Understanding direct maternal line results.

10.  Understanding your Autosomal ("cousin") results.

11.  Understanding the X Chromosome.

12.  Bits ‘n Bobs.

12. Bits ‘n Bobs

 

This is the last in the popular series of 12 articles by Gail Riddell on the subject of DNA testing for genealogy purposes.  For further information, please contact her directly at riddellDNA@gmail.com

 

In the 11th article for this newsletter, I asked for questions or a direction as to what might be interesting to you as a reader of this series.  I have received very few indications as to what might be of interest, but these will have to wait for further articles – this is no problem as I have asked to continue the momentum. 

 

This article is simply going to be “comparing testing companies” and a Glossary because these seem to be the most common questions put to me.

 

Genetic genealogy Tests – what is looked at; who can take; what is received

 

Type of Test

Y Chromosomal Tests

Mitochondrial Tests

Autosomal Test

Alternative Names

·      Y-12 or Y-25 or Y-37

·      Y-67

·      Y-111

·      The surname test

·      mtDNA

·      HVR1 & HVR2

·      Full Sequence/FMS

·      atDNA

·      ‘Family Finder’

·      23andMe

·      Ancestry DNA

Which Firms?

FTDNA

FTDNA

·           FTDNA

·           23andMe

·           AncestryDNA

Who can take this?

A male

Anyone

Anyone

What is the outcome?

A male’s DIRECT paternal family Haplogroup and Haplotype

The tester’s DIRECT maternal ethnicity – back some thousands of years

The chromosomal matches with relatives who are part of the tester’s genetic make-up

Limitations

Considers ONLY the DIRECT paternal line

Considers ONLY the DIRECT maternal line

Only reliable back to 3 generations but possible to locate 6th and 7th cousins.

Recommended

Y-67 minimum

mtDNA FMS

No choice, but AncestryDNA does not report X chromosome

 

 

Testing companies compared for the Autosomal Test – as at 28 January 2015

(This table was compiled by Dr Tim Janzen)

Company

23andMe

Family Tree DNA’s Family Finder test

Ancestry.com's AncestryDNA test

National Geographic Genographic Project Geno 2.0 test

Chromo2 test

Primary purpose for which the test was designed

Medical
Genealogical
Personal Ancestry

Genealogical
Personal Ancestry (Autosomal only)

Genealogical
Personal Ancestry (Autosomal only)

Population Genetics Research
Personal Ancestry (Autosomal)
Personal Ancestry (Y-DNA)
Personal Ancestry (mtDNA)

Personal Ancestry (Autosomal)
Personal Ancestry (Y-DNA)
Personal Ancestry (mtDNA)

Website

www.23andme.com; www.23andMe.ca; www.23andme.co.uk

www.familytreedna.com

http://dna.ancestry.com

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com

www.britainsdna.com; www.cymrudnawales.com;

www.irelandsdna.com; www.scotlandsdna.com

Price (as of 28 January 2015)

$99 for the lifetime of the platform in the U.S. (ancestry only; health reports discontinued in November 2013); CAD $199 or £125 for health and ancestry reports (Canada and UK only at this time)

$99 (£65) for the lifetime of the platform

$99 in the U.S.; £99 in the UK and Ireland (an Ancestry subscription is required to access some features)

$199.95 (£132)

$279 (£169) for the autosomal test only (All My Ancestry); $399 (£250) for the autosomal, Y chromosome, and mitochondrial DNA combined test (Chromo Complete)

Shipping charges

$14.95 for the first kit and $5 per kit for additional kits in the U.S.; CAD $19.95 for Canada; included in the cost of the test for the UK; price for other countries varies, but tends to range between $66.95 and $94.95. See Shipping DNA kits for further info.

$9.95 for the USA and for international orders (prepaid return postage is included for US kits) ((£6.55 UK)[1]

$9.95 per kit; £20 UK and Ireland and £10 for additional kits (includes prepaid return postage)

None for the U.S.; $10 for Canada; $20 (£13) for Europe and Australia; $50 for all other countries

None

International product availability

56 countries

Worldwide

United States, United Kingdom and Ireland only at this time

Worldwide

Worldwide

Method for collecting the DNA sample

saliva sample (about 1 cc)

cheek swab

saliva sample (about 1/2 cc)

cheek swab

saliva sample

DNA sample storage

Yes, indefinitely

Yes, for a minimum of 25 years

Yes, indefinitely

Yes, for 25 years if the free transfer to FTDNA is used

Yes, indefinitely

Projects?

No

Yes

No

No

No

Means of contacting people who share matching segments

Contact may be made after seeing your list of matches in DNA Relatives or Ancestry Finder; the matches must be willing to share genomes with you if you are to see what segments you share with your matches

E-mail addresses of all matches are available

Contact can be made through Ancestry.com’s messaging system

No, but stories about one's Y patrilineal and matrilineal ancestry can be posted on the web site for others to view, so add your contact information to them.

No

Average responsiveness of matches

Fairly low

Medium to Fairly high

Medium

Not applicable

Not applicable

Average level of genealogical knowledge of matches

Fairly low

Fairly high

Medium

Not applicable

Not applicable

GEDCOM file upload allowed

Yes

Yes

Link is created to Ancestry.com pedigree charts

No

No

Upload of raw data file allowed from other companies

No

Yes, but  only 23andMe Version 3 files (c. November 2010 to November 2013) and Ancestry.com files

No

No

No

Upload of raw data file allowed by GEDmatch into the GEDmatch database

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

SNP chip used for testing

Customized Illumina chip

Illumina OmniExpress

Illumina OmniExpress

Customized Illumina iSelect HD chip developed in collaboration with Family Tree DNA and Eran Elhaik at Johns Hopkins University

Customized Illumina Core chip

Number of autosomal SNPs tested

577,382

708,092

682,549

126,307

290,169

Number of Y chromosome SNPS

2329

None in the autosomal test – the Y SNPs are tested separately

885 (labeled as chromosome 24)

12,064

14,497

Number of X chromosome SNPS

19,487

18,091

17,604 (labeled as chromosome 23), plus 440 SNPs labeled as chromosome 25 that are either from chromosome X or from the pseudoautosomal regions of the Y chromosome

3803

None

Number of mitochondrial DNA SNPS

3154

None in the autosomal test – mtDNA SNPs are tester separately

None

11,378 probes covering 3281 positions on the mtDNA genome

3142

Number of people in the database (as of 29 Jan 2015)

Over 750,000

About 120,000

700,000

180,959 kits have been sold (705,343 - 524,384)

over 10,000

Source for number of people in the database

Joanna Mountain, 2014 International Genetic Genealogy Conference, 15 Aug 2014

personal estimate by Tim Janzen

Timothy Sullivan, 2015 Personalized Medicine World Conference, 28 Jan 2015

Genographic Project website, 17 Dec 2014

personal estimate by Tim Janzen

Medically related SNP data included in data

Yes

Yes, but about 3000 medically related SNPs get removed

Yes

Yes

Yes

Download of raw data file allowed

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Information about the matching segments shared with customers and available for download

Yes (if the match is willing to share genomes)

Yes for all matches

No

Not applicable

Not applicable

Chromosome browser available for comparison of shared segments

Yes, using the Family Inheritance: Advanced tool

Yes, using the Chromosome Browser tool

No

Not applicable

Not applicable

Chromosome browser can be adjusted to different thresholds for matching segments

No

Yes, with thresholds of 1 cM, 3 cMs, 5 cMs, and 10 cMs

No

Not applicable

Not applicable

Maximum number of comparisons that can be done at a time using the chromosome browser

5 in the graphic.

5 in the graphic but unlimited if downloaded via a .csv file

None

Not applicable

Not applicable

Criteria for matching segments

7 cMs and at least 700 SNPs for first segment; 5 cMs and 700 SNPs for additional segments and for people you are sharing with

7.69 cMs and at least 500 SNPs for the first segment and a total of at least 20 cMs (including the shorter matching segments between 1 cM and 7 cMs)

5 million base pairs for the first segment

Not applicable

Not applicable

Information about the start and stop positions of matching segments

Start and stop positions are rounded to the nearest millionth base pair in Family Inheritance: Advanced and nearest hundred thousandth pair in Ancestry Finder

Start and stop positions are rounded to the nearest complete block of 100 SNPs

Unknown

Not applicable

Not applicable

Information reported about the lengths of matching segments

Lengths of matching segments reported in cMs and rounded to the nearest tenth of a cM

Lengths of matching segments reported in cMs and rounded to the nearest hundredth of a cM

Not provided

Not applicable

Not applicable

Information provided regarding the number of SNPs in each matching segment

Yes

Yes

No

Not applicable

Not applicable

Information about matching segments on the X chromosome reported

Yes

Yes

No

Not applicable

Not applicable

Criteria for matching segments on the X chromosome

For half-IBD segments: Male vs male: 200 SNPs, 1 cM; male vs female: 600 SNPs, 6 cMs; female vs female: 1200 SNPs, 6 cMs For full-IBD segments: 500 SNPs, 5 cMs

1 cM and 500 SNPs for both males and females; matches must already meet the autosomal DNA matching criteria

Unknown

Not applicable

Not applicable

Information about mitochondrial DNA matches reported

No

Not unless the mtDNA test has been purchased

No

Yes, for those who have completed their profile about their matrilineal ancestry

No

Integrated genealogy database available to which customers may link

No

Not for autosomal but yes for Y-DNA and mtDNA

No, but OneWorldTree is on the Ancestry.com web site

No

No

Biogeographical ancestry analysis

Yes, using Ancestry Composition, Global Similarity, Ancestry Finder features

Yes, using the My Origins feature

Yes, using the Genetic Ethnicity feature

Yes, using the "Who Am I" feature

Yes, using Global Connections, Population Percentage, and Chromosome Painting features

Chromosomes painted according to ethnic or regional ancestry as part of the biogeographical ancestry analysis

Yes, using Ancestry Composition's Chromosome View

No

No

No

Yes, using Chromosome Painting

Average number of autosomal SNPs with discrepant data using two parent/one child trio datasets

About 335

About 210 to 220

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Link can be made to confirm known relationships

Yes

Yes

No

No

No

Special features

Ancestry Composition, Ancestry Finder, Neanderthal Ancestry, Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry tool, Y and mtDNA haplogroups provided for people you are sharing with

Customers can integrate their matches with the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA results. Family Finder matrix is available for project administrators.

Comparison of overlap of ancestral origins between matches and automatic identification of common ancestors, surnames and birth places between matches' family trees

There are approximately 75,000 Ancestry Informative Markers from about 450 populations around the world that are included on the test. About 10,000 of the Y chromosome SNPs included on the test have not previously been tested in large populations. Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestral percentages are provided.

Most of the 14,497 Y chromosome SNPs included on the test have not previously been tested in large populations.

Online Community Forum

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Lead scientists in the company

Joanna Mountain, Brian Naughton, Steve Lemon

Connie Bormans

Ken Chahine, Catherine Ball, Scott Woodward, Jake Byrnes

Spencer Wells

Jim Wilson, Angelika Kritz, Katie Barnes

Ownership

Privately held by various investors, particularly Anne Wojcicki, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., The Roche Venture Fund, Google Ventures, and New Enterprise Associates

Gene by Gene

As of January 2013 owned by the European equity firm Permira

National Geographic Society
a Non-profit scientific and educational society

The Moffat Partnership Directors include Alistair Moffat and James Wilson

Additional DNA testing options available from the company

No, not at this time

Yes, multiple options for Y chromosome STR and SNP testing, complete or partial mitochondrial DNA testing, and complete genome testing

No, not at this time (Ancestry previously offered Y-DNA and mtDNA tests but this option was discontinued in June 2014)

No, not at this time

No, not at this time

Address

1390 Shorebird Way, Mountain View, CA 94043

1445 North Loop West, Suite 820, Houston, TX 77008

360 W 4800 N Provo, UT 84604

1145 17th St., N. W., Washington, D. C. 20036-4688

Renwick Suite A, High St., Melrose, Scotland, United Kingdom, TD6 9PB

Phone Number

Enter a ticket online at customer care for a call-back

713-868-1438

800-958-9124 (best for DNA related questions) or 800-262-3787 (in the U. S.); 0800-404-9723 (UK); 800-958-9073 (Canada); 800-252-838 (Australia)

888-557-4450 (in the U. S. or Canada) or 713-868-1807

0845-872-7634

Date product launched

November 19, 2007

February 16, 2010

May 3, 2012

July 25, 2012

June 14, 2013

 

 

Testing Companies for the Y-DNA (STR Test) 

 

Company Name

 

 

DNA Extraction Fee

10 to 18 STR markers

20 to 27 STR markers

33 to 44 STR markers

45 to 67 STR markers

91 to 111 STR markers

Additional markers

Discount

Surname projects

Geographical projects

Haplogroup projects

Haplogroup SNP test

Haplogroup prediction

Haplogroup chart

DNA storage

Size of database

Public database

Lab(s) used

Company headquarters

Year founded

Family Tree DNA

As at 7 February 2015

 

Included

US$49 - 12 markers

 tested

US$124 - 25 markers

 tested

$169 ($149) - 37 markers tested

$249 ($229)
67 markers tested

US$359 ($339 through project

111 markers tested

Yes[4]

Via projects and special coupons

Yes

Yes

Yes

$39

Yes

Yes

Yes (Free)
25 years

See below for 6 Feb 2015 data

Y-Search
3rd-party transfers

Family Tree DNA
Genomics Research

Center

Houston, Texas

2000

Genebase
Systems, Inc.
   (28 Oct 2013)

Included

N/A

US$119.00 US - 20 markers tested

US$199.00
- 44 markers tested

US$269.00
- 67 markers tested

US$339.00
91 markers tested

Yes[9]

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

US$89 - $99

Yes

Unknown

Unknown

Not known

No

Genetrack Biolabs, Inc.

Vancouver,
BC Canada

2005 (1998)[11]

Oxford Ancestors,
Ltd.
   (28 Oct 2013)

 

Included

£199 (US$309)
15 markers tested

N/A

N/A

£549 (US $853)
65 markers tested

N/A

No

In projects

No

No

No

Base haplogroup only

No

Unknown

No

Not known

No

Oxford

Oxford, England

2000

 

FTDNA’s database is the largest in the field of Genetic Genealogy. As at 6 February 2015, the Family Tree DNA database has 712,818 records. Total numbers include transfers from the Genographic Project and resellers in Europe and Middle East. See         https://www.familytreedna.com/why-ftdna.aspx

·           8,145           SURNAME PROJECTS – this does NOT include geographical or Haplogroup projects

·           358,181       unique surnames

·           521,359       Y-DNA records in the database

·           211,016       25-marker records in the database

·           190,452       37-marker records in the database

·           92,910          67-marker records in the database

·           191,459        mtDNA records in the database

·           48,940          FGS records in the database

 

 

Glossary

 

DNA                Deoxyribonucleic acid.  This is the chemical inside the nucleus of all cells that carries the genetic instructions for making living organisms.

Nucleotides   Guanine (G), Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Cytosine(C).  These are the four bases holding the DNA molecule together at its base – they are always paired. A pairs with T;  C pairs with G.  When there is a ‘mutation’ at a particular position on any chromosome, there is a structural alteration to this pairing. 

 

Mutation         Depending whether this is in a SNP or in a STR result, this may exist for many generations or it may suddenly revert.  No one can predict.

 

SNP                pronounced snip are single-nucleotide polymorphisms; you have millions of these in your cells.

 

Y-STR             Y chromosome ‘short tandem repeat’ is what is tested when you chose a Y-DNA test from FTDNA.  In simple terms, the numbers of repeated sequences of G, A, T, C  are counted at the FTDNA lab and reported to you as a value at a particular position on your Y Chromosome – usually called DYSxxx

 

DYS                D = DNA,  Y = Y chromosome,  S = Segment  so if you see say DYS 393 showing say a value of 13, then you know that the lab has found there are 13 repeats of a particular sequence of nucleotides.  This sequence might be AGAT, and begins (does not finalise) the possibility that your Y-DNA haplogroup is R1b.  So too will your genetic family be highly likely to have this identical value. 

 

Haplogroup   A group of similar patterned (or sequenced) haplotypes who share a common ancestor and which is defined by a unique event polymorphism (this is a one-time SNP mutation) at a specific position in their Y-DNA sequence.  [See article 8 for the main haplogroups].

 

Haplotype      This is a commonly used term in genetic genealogy for the series of Y-STR sequence numbers (these positions are also called the allele) of the test results for a male taking a Y chromosome test.  (An allele can be on any chromosome – it is a particular position or place on that chromosome).

 

mtDNA           This is a shorted version of the test for mitochondria.

 

Genome         This is a term to denote all of the DNA which exists in a cell and includes all 23 pairs of chromosomes along with the mitochondria – which encircles the cell but is not a chromosome.

 

Endogomy and Endogamous         generally this refers to marriage taking place within one’s own family, however distant, or ones own tribe.  It affects autosomal results showing cousins as being closer than they actually are in terms of distance.  Very common in Island nations or the Jewish cultures – as examples.

 

My next article (13th) is intended to be a mixture of all sorts but will also include websites for Blogs, forums, etc for you to consider in your journey into genetic genealogy.  Some items will be repeats from previous articles.  Others will be new.  Whether experienced or a beginner, I hope there is something for everyone. 

 

[Hint:  for our newbies, do not take on too much at one time.  To be overwhelmed with a ‘reading list’ is worse than starting out at ‘varsity with a large list of recommended reading…  This is supposed to be a hobby and a tool to use for your genealogy.  Work out the types of test in which you interested; learn to distinguish between the three test types (Y-DNA [surname line], Autosomal DNA [cousins] and mtDNA [mother’s line]; and learn the scientific names).  If I can do it (not knowing a single thing about biology and ‘hating’ science – probably because of the way it was taught at my high school), then you too can do it – if you make up your mind to do it].

 

The team at FamNet has asked me to continue the series.  I have tentatively agreed, but they may be spasmodic.  Gail Riddell  

 

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Useful Websites

If you know of websites that you think may be helpful to others please either add them yourself, or email them to The Editor

 

In this newsletter I’ve highlighted a number of pages relevant to the ANZAC story. 

 

Obviously Cenotaph is a starting point for researching those of your NZ relatives who went to war.  It has the military records of our soldiers who went overseas in any of the wars in which New Zealand was involved.

 

Also, there is a wealth of information available on the web, particularly from National Library and similar sites.  Googling ANZAC I quickly found these pages: -

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/anzac-day/introduction

http://www.anzac.govt.nz/significance/

http://www.anzac.govt.nz/significance/traditions.html (thank you Colleen)

and many more pages if you follow the links.

 

The NZ Herald has been running a series of articles about Gallipoli leading up to ANZAC day, and on April 24th a commemorative booklet, “Letters from Hell” came out with out paper.  This is on line at

            http://anzac100.nzherald.co.nz/

 

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Group News

Whangarei Family History Computer Group

image001 Contacts: 

 Gloria: (022) 635 4161 barryandgloria33@gmail.com

 Wayne: (09) 437 2881 wayne@bydand.co.nz

 Pat: (09) 437 0692 whangareifamilyhistorygroup@gmail.com

 

Venues

Thursday evening venue is 6 Augusta Place, Whau Valley. Call Wayne, Gloria or me or;

email me at Whangareifamilyhistorygroup@gmail.com, if you need directions. **NB new Thursday venue

 

Saturday meetings are held in the SeniorNet rooms in James Street.

The rooms are upstairs in the Arcade leading to Orr’s Pharmacy and Tiffany’s Café, Start time 9.30 til finished before 1.30pm.

 

 

 

 

 

Waikanae Family History Group

 

Contacts:

Email:  wfhgroup@paradise.net.nz   Phone  (04) 904 3276,  (Hanley Hoffmann)

 

Venue:   Meets every 4th Thursday morning at the Waikanae Chartered Club, 8 Elizabeth Street Waikanae, just over the Railway Crossing from 9.30am to 12 -12.30pm, every month from January to November. Research days planned for either 2nd or 3rd Thursdays at 9.30am approximately four times a year.

 

For further information about why we did this, and why your group should also join FamNet contact Hanley Hoffmann.

 

From the April Newsletter – Fire is so Final!

SCHOOL RECORDS

I should acknowledge here that several of our group members are assisting Kapiti Branch NZSG in transcribing admission records of schools here on the Kapiti Coast and I wish to thank them for their sterling efforts – it does mean that all the schools including Paekakariki will have their records preserved.  Safe against fire or other catastrophe.  The fire at Paraparaumu school was a wake-up call for the region.

 

We should all be aware of this with our own family history stuff because none of us want to experience a house fire, but we should not be complacent.

 

Way back in 1949 my family experienced a machinery shed fire on Christmas Eve, where normally there were two families at home, on this occasion there was only myself and my Aunt and Uncle. This building had a thatched roof with a galvanised iron roof beneath.  It was my uncles engineering workshop.  My vivid memory, of days later, rummaging through the ash – old glass jars used for storing small spare parts were just a molten mass of glass and brass, or other metal.  But the lesson I learned was that unlike any other disaster, fire is so final, so final. This was also a huge inferno that did not start a bush fire even though there was tinder dry grass all around.  The local bushfire brigades could only stand and watch, they could not waste precious water on the inferno – and imagine the two fellows who rolled a 44 gallon drum of petrol down the paddock away from the fire only to find it had a loose bung which trickled a line of petrol along their escape path!

 

So, no it is not going to happen to you!  But that is no reason why you should not put your computer backup with one of your families, put a hard copy of your family history with it.

Hard copy

One good reason to at least produce two copies of your family history on paper NOW.  One copy given to one of your families for safe keeping is also good insurance.  So that is one good reason to promote doing a hard copy, but distributing hard copies to key members of your family is also important for many other reasons, paramount is the fact that you want someone to carry on where you left off, and you will be acknowledged for all your good work.  And hard slog!  It is so frustrating in rounding up stray family members who should be in your data sometimes.  Why are we offering prizes at the end of the year – to encourage you of course, someone has to reward you.

 

(And of course, put a copy into FamNet!   The best way of preserving your history is to spread it around.  Ed)

 

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News and Views

We invite contributions from FamNet members for this section: please The Editor if you have any material.  Contributions received after the 22nd of each month may be carried forward.

Wairarapa Wandering

Featherston had a Military Camp and Hospital for WW1,  and has a cemetery with 180 Soldiers, many of whom had served at Gallipoli, France, and Egypt, who then returned home but died of Influenza in 1918. 150 died of the disease, mostly New Zealanders, but some were from England or Raratonga.  If anyone has any ancestor buried from WW1 down here, please get in touch, I am researching into the history of the soldiers, their family information, etc. Among those found already

·         Pte Thomas Wm. Spence King, Gt. Grandson to John King one of the first missionaries to New Zealand with Rev Samuel Marsden in 1814. I found the original headstone, which also listed his brother who died overseas in WW1, this headstone is now at St John's Churchyard. Waimate North. 

·         Major Edric B. Williams, who died of Influenza.  His wife and his brother came down to nurse him, sadly they all died too and are buried at Featherston. He came from Hawkes Bay

·         Quartermaster Sergeant  Benson Henry Wyman was a Solicitor in Auckland. Married, but died of Influenza.  Sadly, like many soldiers, never got to meet the family. I know Benson's wife remarried and went over to USA to settle with the child, I am in touch with descendants over in Canada

·         Lt. Thomas A. Clark, married, died of Influenza. 

These are just a few of the soldiers I have more information on, and have met family members.   I shall be down at Featherston on Friday 24th April this year, the day before Anzac Day, laying a Wreath in memory of our soldiers.  All my research into these soldiers will be lodged with Masterton Archives so can be shown to visitors.  Also, FamNet has a database of the burials at this cemetery (see the General Resource Database section) that includes pictures of the headstones.

 

At the cemetery there is a pine tree that is a descendent of a tree from Lone Pine, Gallipoli.

 

 

Adele Pentony-Graham.

Neich’s Lane

Clareville.

Carterton.

Jan’s Jottings

The AFFHO Congress was held 26-30 March, 2015. Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations Inc. Established in 1978 to coordinate and assist the work of Australian and New Zealand groups with interests in family history, genealogy, heraldry and related subjects.

One way of doing this is to hold a Congress every three years.  In 2009 it was Auckland’s turn and I was lucky, privileged, to be the Education Chair. It was such fun! I still get a buzz thinking about it!! Was fun to be greeted in Canberra by a lady who had already checked in and had her very nice Congress bag.  “Still not as good as the one in Auckland”, she said to me.

The Congress is a chance to hear overseas speakers as well as those from around Australia and New Zealand. Two from NZ. I was not a speaker, but did introduce 4 speakers so was involved just a little.

Colleen Fitzpatrick, one of the US speakers, called in to Auckland on her way to Canberra and stayed a few days with me. So, Colleen, Lynne Blake and I were on the 7am flight to Sydney on Tues 24 March. We picked up a car at the airport, drove to Hornsby for a Cousin’s lunch for me and then onto Canberra.

I had organised a visit to National Library. Here I was to handed the journal my 3 x great grandmother wrote on her voyage to Australia in 1825. The Library had it ready for me to see, and provided a photo copy and an electronic copy.  So that was something special!

Thursday evening they offered after-hours research time at the National Library, or National Archives or the War Memorial. I had organised help at the War Memorial. My father was fighting on the Western Front in 1918. I had all his papers (
www.discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au both Australian & NZ and not just those who landed at Anzac Cove) but I could not tell just where he was when he was injured. But now I know! Villers-Bretonneux. I have links to read about this battle. Www.ww1westernfront.gov.au

The Congress started with a Welcome Function on Thursday night, with the first lecture 8.30am Friday. Four days of lectures, 4 concurrent sessions, KeyNote speakers, large trade hall, Dinner ($140!!) at Parliament House, lunch time lectures, around 600 people, 500 x A4 pages Proceedings book - earns the PDG award from me!!  (Petty damn good).

Gems!!  Trove
www.nla.gov.au. There is lots there for those without Australian Research. We learnt about using~!!! Which is long gone from Google.  “Mr Smith”~2 - this allows for 2 words in between Mr and Smith - eg Mr John Smith. Have a look at the web site ‘wordonthestreet’. “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.

FamilySearch - have you had a look at Puzzilla??  Now have Hints on Trees!!! Works well too. Look for the FamilySearch Apps. FamilySearch Trees and FamilySearch Memories.

You might like to look at
www.milnergenealogy.com - Paul was one of the overseas speakers and lots of good stuff.

I started making notes on the Proceedings - but it was just too heavy to carry around!!

2018 AFFHO Congress will be in Sydney. With no NZSG Conference or Fair this year (though we will have the Auckland Expo in Auckland City Library weekend 7-9 August) and no signs of a Conference next year, it might be an idea to save the pennies and go to Sydney in 2018!!!

Jotting:
I have found the most marvellous folder. It is called FM A4 4 tab folder with pocket.  You should be able to find it in any good stationery store. Comes in red, blue, green, yellow and orange.  The front is a clear pocket just begging for a Pedigree Chart!!  I have my special “pedigree chart with sources” in the front pocket. A family I am working on, needing to find surnames etc. Inside are 4 tab pockets and another pocket.  In these 4 tab pockets,  I have the surnames of the families from the  Pedigree Chart. In the ‘another pocket’ I have relevant print outs on places etc, family info etc.
The other side of the folder has yet another pocket! Here I have a Pedigree print out showing the family and just where those on the Pedigree Chart fit.

Am using these folders as working folders, for families I need to be actively searching. So in each of the 4 tab pockets, I have a “Checking the Big 5" form, a “Have I Checked these Records” form and (yet to be designed!) a “Where did I file that” form.  You need one of these forms for each person, for your in-depth research. 

I do use TreePad to electronically record the When I searched, the Who I searched, the Way I searched and the What I found. But you could use whatever software you are familiar with - Excel, Word etc.

But can keep track of just which records I have searched eg census, civil registration etc, and what records are still to be searched, on the forms in the 4 tab folder.

If you can’t find the 4 Tab folders then we do have them at Beehive Books $10 for set of 4 plus $2 p&h. Just say if you would like a copy of the forms, with instructions. And, there is a comprehensive TreePad template too. These can be emailed. 

Jan
jangow@gmail.com

A Story from John

 (Sorry, couldn’t think of an alliterative title, Ed)

Tpr James Henry Noel Hyde – and his Gallipoli experience.

(Recalled by John Francis Hyde on 25 April 2015 – 100 years after the landings).

 

The following is my memory of several conversations with my Grandfather late in his life in a Rest Home in Hamilton.

 

James (Jim) was a member of the Wellington Mounted Rifles (WMR). His family had land in the area of present day Paraparaumu. The training area for the WMR was in Palmerston North. All troopers were required to provide their own horses, which were transported with them to Egypt.

 

Jim enlisted initially as a territorial, was called up, and sailed to Egypt via Hobart and Albany in Australia in mid October 2014, in a convoy of 10 troopships escorted by Japanese and British warships. (Yes, the Japanese were our allies in WW1). In Albany they joined with the 26 Australian troopships and headed north via Colombo, Aden and finally Alexandra in Egypt. They all thought they were heading for England, but were sent to a tented camp in Heliopolis close to Cairo for training. This soon became boring, and he spent time both in Cairo, and protecting the Suez Canal. By March he knew that they were heading for the Dardenelles. 

 

The Mounted Rifles did not land on Gallipoli until early May 2015. They boarded the TS Grantully Castle in Alexandra without their horses, and were landed at Anzac Cove on 12 May. Many of the Mounted Rifles were experienced hunters, so their skills were very effective.  Jim was also fortunate in that his Commanding Officer was Lieutenant Colonel Meldrum who shared the views of Malone and other NZ Officers, who were active in protecting the lives of their men from the more suicidal orders from the English superiors. Jim and many of his friends shared the same opinion and supported Meldrum, Malone and others.

 

Conditions on Gallipoli were very primitive, so illnesses such as dysentery were rampant, and soon Jim got a bad dose, and was evacuated to a Hospital Ship offshore. The attached newspaper article records his recovery, and desire to return to his mates, and his actions which led to the award of a King George V medal. Jim respected the discipline of the English soldiers and NCO’s but had no time for English officers.

 

The article does not tell the full story of how he died, and was “reborn.” It started on August 7, when the WMR part of a major breakout offensive, with its eventual objective being to capture Chunuk Bair. The final assault by Wellington Infantry early on August 8 was relatively unopposed, and they captured the position and saw the Turkish straits below.  The planned ANZAC and English reinforcements had not arrived so the Wellingtonians had to fight off the many fierce counter attacks from very large Turkish forces. 297 Wellingtonians were killed that day.

 

Jim was part of WMR who finally replaced the Infantry during the night of the 8th / 9th. The Turks were very close and he found a shallow trench with his mates when a shell exploded nearby, killing them. Jim was badly wounded with shell fragments and lost consciousness. A medical orderly came by, thought he was dead, and removed all of the dog tags. These record ones name, and army serial number. The shell could have come from a Turkish battery which was targeting Chunuk Bair, or a shell aimed at the Turks but dropped short by a British warship – Jim thought it was the latter.

 

During the 9th / 10th there were many Turkish attacks, and Jim’s trench was temporarily occupied by Turks. He was found alive and given water, but was again left when the Turks were driven off.  He could not remember much else, except he believes he was found by English soldiers and carried off the position to a hospital ship. He remembers waking up “reborn” in Cairo days later, and telling the medical orderly who he was.  Fortunately his letter arrived back in NZ before the official announcement of his death. The authorities were deliberately slow in releasing bad news, and this worked in his favour.

 

Jim, my grandfather came back from Egypt in a wheelchair, and was told he would not walk again. Approximately 10 years later he leased a block of Maori land at Orungapunga, and became a farmer. Jim also served in WW2 and retired as a Lt Col.  Jim had his first heart attack at age 52, and retired. He had many more before he died aged 89. He still had several shell fragments, in his body, which were never removed.

 

Gallipoli was a national tragedy. The character, courage and independent spirit displayed, particularly at Chunuk Bair, was the beginning of our nationhood. 

 

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Book Reviews

Voices of Gallipoli

Voices of Gallipoli by Maurice Shadbolt 1988

          100th Anniversary Edition 2014

          Published by David Ling

          ISBN 978-1-877378-97-3

         

          Reviewed by Janice Louise Wilson

 

To many New Zealanders, Gallipoli is a name as well known as Auckland and Christchurch. April 25th has become an established remembrance day, a day when we delve back into our family histories for stories of relatives who embarked somewhat joyously onto troop ships to support the British Empire and to take advantage of the opportunity to see the world.

 

As a child, I shared a home with Nuncs, my mother’s stepfather, her father having died during the influenza pandemic in December 1918 after his return from duty at Number 4 Veterinary Hospital at Penplingue near Calais in France. It was not until much later when I began to take an interest in my family history that I discovered Nuncs had joined the Canterbury Mounted Rifles along with two of my mother’s uncles, Colin and Alan in August 1914 along with several other young men from our district. After leaving Trentham, they went via Cairo to the Dardanelles to face the Turks, landing on May 12th 1915. Nuncs was with Colin on duty at Outpost No 1 on Walkers Ridge on May 30th when a party of Turks attacked them. There are several conflicting stories about what happened next but a letter home from Alan to his mother states “poor old Col was shot through the head … they put him on a stretcher to carry him down to the beach but he got off it and walked and let them carry down a man who was shot through the hip. The boys thought he was going to get alright but he bled inwardly, he was in no pain and was talking to the boys about the hard luck to be hit at the start of things”. His gravestone is in the Canterbury Cemetery at Gallipoli. Despite living in the same household as Nuncs and although I attended annual ANZAC day services as a Girl Guide, I never heard any talk in our home about our family’s experiences in the war so I guess my mother never heard them either. In retrospect, how I wish I had had the opportunity to record Nuncs’ story.

 

Through a set of opportune circumstances, Maurice Shadbolt did just that, recording his first interview in June 1982. Twelve of these poignant interviews have been printed for posterity in Voices of Galipoli. Importantly, these previously untold stories have now been shared with their families.

 

Maurice Shadbolt is one of New Zealand’s most distinguished writers winning almost every major literary prize as well as several fellowships. He was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1989 New Years Honours. His death in 2004 has deprived us of a great storytelling talent.  This talent for storytelling is evident in the thoughtfully orchestrated layout of Voices of Gallipoli which gives just enough background information without taking away from the main thrust of the book, the stories of the veterans.

 

His introduction sets the scene through his use of explicit language which conjures up stark vivid images: emotional ambush, extravagantly haunted, melancholy terrain, ragged and skeletal New Zealanders.

 

His twelve interviews have been faithfully reproduced. The brief introduction to each one sets the scene from the perspective of the onlooker before the undertaker called: old man twitching with sorrow and anger, by far the most bitter, his face crumpled and tears dripped, protesting that he never wept … twice gave in to tears as he talked, visibly sorrowed … for the loss of friends or for what he called the betrayal which took their lives, indignation began to come quickly, choked again and again on words like “frightful” and “terrible” and shook his head helplessly when he talked of Chunuk Bair … he still had Turks in his sights, he often shook with anguish, recall became too painful and at times too tearful for him to continue.

 

In his summary of the Gallipoli campaign, it is evident that Maurice has dared to tell this story from a New Zealand perspective, a war that was never New Zealand’s and at odds with formal histories. This perspective is backed up by the stories of the interviewees: he had precious and piquant detail of the Wellington Battalion’s hours on Chunuk Bair which no military historian has recorded, the final futile assault on Hill 60 – an especially lethal act of martial housekeeping, to make the British line look better in the stalemate after the August offensive.

 

If there is a criticism of the 100th Anniversary Edition, it is the unpretentious production of the book, no doubt designed to copy the original edition as near as possible. But as there have been slight alterations to this reproduction of national importance, it would not have been remiss to produce a book that would stand out among any collection. Jane Tolerton’s An Awfully Big Adventure is one example, bigger in size with an imposing cover.

 

Published in 2013, An Awfully Big Adventure could be seen as a companion to Voices of Galipoli as this resource documents First World War veterans stories also told in their own words after the setting up of the World War 1 Oral History Archive (WWIOHA) in 1987, Three of the interviewees add further insights to their earlier interview with Maurice Shadbolt.

 

Complementing both these books is Michael King’s New Zealanders at War. As a social historian, his focus as stated in his Author’s note is neither comprehensive nor definitive but rather, selective and suggestive: it sets out to establish the general contexts in which New Zealanders have taken up arms and to evoke some of the texture of war as they were experienced by ordinary people. In order to do this, he has made extensive use of the intimacy and descriptive power of detailed letters written home as well as from well kept diaries. The many pages of large photographs supplied by courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library add a valuable dimension to our understanding of the way warfare touches individuals.

 

Happy reading.

 

An Awfully Big Adventure - New Zealand World War One veterans tell their stories.

Jane Tolerton

Published by Penguin Books 2013

ISBN 978-0-143-56849-0

 

New Zealanders AT WAR

            Michael King

            Published by Heinemann 1981

            ISBN 0 86863 399 2

 

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Community

Information Wanted etc.

Remember that you can post photos for identification, and information wanted requests:-

Click here to post a photo

Click here to request help with some information

We’ll post the photos and information requests in the next newsletter, and they’ll remain on display for at least a year.

 

There were no new photos at the time of sending the newsletter.

Have Your Say – Letters to the Editor

Just click here and then click the [Letters to the editor] button, then follow the on-screen instructions.

 

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In conclusion

A Bit of Light Relief

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Feel free to redistribute this newsletter. If you publish a newsletter yourself you may include material from this newsletter in yours provided that you acknowledge its source and include the FamNet URL, www.famnet.org.nz

 

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