When I was a boy we all believed that ANZAC commemorations would dwindle as there were fewer and fewer people still alive who had returned from fighting wars for us; we expected that by about now ANZAC day would have become a non-event. It’s heartening to see that this prediction was wrong, with more and more young people turning out for dawn services, often proudly wearing medals awarded to their ancestors. It is important to remember, and to celebrate our history, whether national history or our personal family history.

A shared national story is part of what it means to be a Kiwi, helping to impart shared values and our national vision. As time goes by the story evolves. In the 50’s and 60’s as a Pakeha middle-class boy I learnt how the British had brought civilization to this savage land, and although the Maori Wars were necessary to sort out a few problems New Zealand had developed the best race relations in the world where all were equal. Not totally true of course. Now we have a better understanding and our children learn more accurate stories of the NZ Land Wars. But if the story of a benign colonizer was mythical, so also is a counter narrative of rapacious colonists destroying a pre-European paradise. As always, the truth is nuanced, and there is good and bad on all sides.

Our military history too is better understood. I like the way that our ANZAC story emphasis the bravery and suffering of our men, while also recognizing that the Turks were also brave men fighting to repel an invader. It is good that the story ends with Ataturk’s words: -

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives ... You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours ... You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

In this issue we continue the April tradition of focussing on ANZAC day and military stories: -

1. Adele takes a tour of the Featherston WW1 Cemetery

2. Why we wear poppies – from John Hyde

3. BrightlingSea (a town in Essex) Museum are trying to find descendents of local women who married WW1 Anzacs

4. Richard Poole reflects on a visit to Gallipoli, and some who left from the West Coast to serve.

Of course not everything is Anzac related.

· From the Developer continues the series on telling your story. This month: combining existing family trees.

· The Nash Rambler: Peter has found a way to indulge is reading addiction at little cost

· We learn that Family Tree Maker is not destined for the scrapheap

Plus group news and a few other items. Enjoy!

If you think that FamNet is worthwhile, tell your friends. Especially if you’re involved with a genealogy group, local history society, or any other group of people with an interest in New Zealand history. And we welcome contributions: anything on the general themes of Family History, Local History, even just Life in New Zealand. Thank you to everybody who has contributed this time, especially first-time contributors.

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Regular Features

From the Developer

Telling your Story – Merging Trees. Part 3: Combining Existing Trees

The previous article showed you how to add records to another tree. In this third part we look at combining existing trees. The difficulty now is dealing with overlap: you and the other author may both have records of your great aunt Olive and many other records. How do you handle this duplication?

The 7th article in this series dealt with Comparing and Synchronizing Records. You should go back and re-read this article before continuing, as it is essential background to this one. The key takeaway from that earlier article is that FamNet has detected duplicate records, so that when you look at a record in page view the section “GDB Links” will include a list of duplicate records. There may be other kinds of links, although these are rare. If you need to refresh your understanding of GDB links have a look at article 6.

In article 7 you saw how to synchronize records, copying information and linking scrapbook documents into your record. But synchronizing is copying: there remain two copies of the record of your great aunt Olive. Here we want to end up with a merged tree, with a single record for her. For this we have to modify both trees, so merging is a cooperative activity: you and the owner of the other tree have to agree on what to do. The first thing is to agree where to merge the trees. There will be a discussion along the lines of: -

Robertb/Mirk562: “I propose that from Hannah OLD (married to John BARNES) down the records are mine, for her parents up they’re yours”.

Robertb/DBarnes: “Let’s replace my George BARNES (son of Hannah OLD/John BARNES) with your record”.

So, how do we do this? Once you’ve agreed on a merge, in theory it’s a reasonably simple 4-step process.

1. You agree with the other tree owner to merge your trees, and decide how to do this (e.g. “Link your George BARNES to my Hannah OLD”). Trees can be linked through a parent/child relationship or through a spouse relationship.

2. The other tree owner gives you permission to update the linking record in his tree. Tree merging can only occur by permission of both owners.

3. You find a GDB duplicate link from your linking record (if necessary you can create this by editing your record) and click the Compare link. This will open a page looking like this showing the two trees: -

4. Click one of the two replacement buttons – current record, or spouse. A [confirm] button appears: this is clicked.

That’s it! The program will change the record links to combine the trees, and set the unwanted duplicate records as “Discarded”.

Simple in theory, but not in practice! Behind the scenes, this process is actually quite complex, and there are some tricky permissions issues. This Help page explains what is actually happening, and some of the options that you have. We recommend that you contact us and let us guide you through a tree merge: this program has not been widely enough used, and may still have some rough edges.

Telling your story. Index so far

So far I’ve covered these topics.

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

5. Sharing your Story: Managing your Family Group

6. On Line Editing: More Facts, Family, GDB Links

7. Comparing and Synchronising Records

8. Producing and Using Charts

9. Merging Trees. Part 1: Why Bother?

10. Merging Trees. Part 2: Adding Records On-Line

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The Nash Rambler

You may recall, I hope, my last column about my fears of my degeneration into the description of being a mad genealogist. Thanks very much for your comments but you could have been a little more concerned with my oncoming and increasing madness rather than the uncaring, but funny, responses I received.

Therefore, I have decided to continue this vein of admitting my failings in an effort to, once and for all, take the necessary steps to correct my ways and become a fine and upstanding citizen of this country - no I will not salute the useless pommy flag we have and thanks very much for expressing your feelings in that referendum. Long live the republic when we get it, but a lot of you old voters may have to pass on before I can get that. Remember that I intend to lead a long life and be a thorough nuisance to my children.

Now that I am old, i.e. receiving a wage from the government to stay at home, I need to control the amount of money I am spending on books. I am told by my personal "Minister of Finance" that I can no longer afford to buy a book a week at the current cost of new books. She tells me that book buying is a habit I must lose and lose it quickly. Unfortunately I have a few habits that she intends I lose.

But I have found a way. This column should be titled "In praise of the $1 book".

The local Lions Club holds a monthly book sale at which all books cost $1.00. Man, is this an addict's paradise? It has become quite a salivating exercise, now, which I enjoy and await with eager anticipation each month. You see I take $5, or less, to the sale (definitely no wallet, no credit cards, and no banknotes). To make the game more exciting (very much in the mode of T20 cricket v test cricket) I limit myself to 15 minutes in the room. So the process is very much a lucky dip, or a blind wine tasting.

How can I go wrong? I am not wasting money because, at a cost of $1 each, the book has to be exceedingly bad to be deemed rubbish. Because I limit my time to choose my purchases I have to pick unusual books quickly. Like a good wine tasting, if the title or appearance doesn't grab you quickly it's ta ta and onto the next possibility. If somebody is in the way, an accidental bump is actioned and the selection process continued. Once 15 minutes is up I sidle to the check out. After this I visit the TAB which is another habit the Minister of Finance feels should be addressed but that is another story.

There is intense pleasure in reaching into the drawers of the bedside table and blindly picking a book to read. Then, without taking too much time to read the covers, I dive into the depths of the masterpiece. Suddenly I am in a world of pure randomness. I am reading something that has taken a couple of minutes to select and I would not have bought at full price when it was first released. The reading process is enhanced by the fact that very little of my valuable government wage was spent in the purchase of such masterpiece. So far all have been interesting and satisfying reads and some have even educated me which at my age is quite an achievement.

Let me give examples of such purchases:

Hanlon- A casebook - this is a short biography of Alfred Hanlon, a famous early 1900's Dunedin lawyer who handled many famous court cases that you would never have heard of (don't finish a sentence with a participle)(love the neat way you avoided that – Ed). It goes into some depth in the court cases - such as Minnie Deans, giving a full explanation of the prosecution and defence in the case. For $1 it was a magnificent read.

Sins of the Father - this is an exposure of Neville Cooper (Hopeful Christian) and the establishment of Gloriavale and the problems his son had when he left the community with his children. It showed how some people can be easily fooled by a clever bible-bashing, self-righteous liar and sexual pervert. It reinforced my beliefs, or should I say non-beliefs, of religion and christianity (despite spell check's recommendation I refuse to capitalise that word). The book was a sickening expose but, for $1, a good read.

Cooking slow - this addresses another of my addictions, my long love affair with my crock pot. To read the cover, the book is supposed to let me take back my time and allows me to put beautiful, slow-cooked meals on the dinner table. Well, I can do that now, I think I am an expert, but, for a cost of $1, how could I leave it behind.

The ultimate book of heroic failures - sub titled "a triumphant celebration of epic incompetence". How could I not buy it for $1? I found many people who are far superior to me in the field of incompetence and reading about their magnificent efforts gave me many belly laughs.

An extraordinary land - subtitled discoveries and mysteries from wild New Zealand. This book explores how New Zealand wild life evolved throughout the isolation of the country from the rest of the world. This is a book full of beautiful photos of New Zealand wildlife and all for $1.

How mumbo jumbo conquered the world - subtitled "A short history of modern delusions". I have just started to read this and am thoroughly enjoying it; particularly at the purchase price (you guessed it, $1)

The Zen of cricket - this book explores the impact of psyche on cricket and how individual cricket players are bamboozled by their own minds or the "games" and tricks played on them by their opponents. This is an interesting book (pity I can't have the same effect on my Minister of Finance).

Since the last book sale I have discovered the Op Shops run by Hospices and Church Groups. They sometimes have good books available very cheaply. BUT I feel guilty when I buy them so cheaply and end up adding a donation (generally involving a bank note) which defeats the purpose of entering that shop.

Local school fairs are another fertile ground for cheap reads but I hate battling the crowds and falling over the school kids - maybe I should take my white cane and/or my Zimmer frame.

Well, maybe, I can stop buying new books at expensive prices. BUT there are important new books being released. For example, you may remember a few columns ago I talked about writing my autobiography and the difficulties I had in explaining the life and culture of the sixties. Well a new release is the history of the fifties and sixties, and is a history of the life and culture of those two decades. It looks an impressive work but at about $70 a copy it will require lengthy negotiations with my Minister of Finance before permission is given. I wonder how low I can stoop in the process.

Peter Nash

PANash@xtra.co.nz

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DNA Testing for Family History

April is always a particularly busy month for accountants, so Gail has had to defer the promised continuation of her series on Y DNA Testing.

Gail Riddell

Index so far

This is a complete list of the articles written by Gail over the last year or so.

Just click the link to go back to a previous article 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: DNA Testing Companies, Glossary.

13. DNA Websites, Blogs, and Forums

14. Commonly Asked Questions – Some Basic, Some Advanced

15. DNA – Something a little different…

16. Current Pricings for the Three Main Genealogical Testing Firms

17. DNA Testing for Family History

18. Starting a new series on Y DNA Testing

Gail Riddell

Wairarapa Wandering.

Featherston WW1 Cemetery Tour, Anzac Day 2016

I have been researching the Featherston WW1 soldiers graves for some years now, finding out the soldiers’ backgrounds where possible. I first became interested in soldiers when Clare Church came to New Zealand to research for her book on 98 Soldiers buried at St Nicholas Churchyard Brockenhurst, just near the New Forest: I met her and she gave us a talk with the Carterton District Historical Society. I then met her again in 2004 when I was at Brockenhurst for the 2004 Anzac Day. I hold a copy of the book as I also helped her with research, and I’m still in touch with her.

For Anzac Day this year I had the idea that I would have a cemetery tour for the soldiers at Featherston. There are 150 graves there of soldiers who died of Influenza in 1918. One only has to look at the headstones for the ages and dates of death there. Some served at Boer War and in WW1, some serving at Gallipoli, France, Egypt. So sad to return to NZ to die of influenza in 1918. The photographs of the headstones are on Cenotaph and FamNet, and I sent a CD of them to British War Graves and Commonwealth War Graves. Now these soldiers were from all around New Zealand and beyond, not just this area, there’s even one from Raratonga.

When you get a CWCG headstone you do not get any family information at all as our headstones would have, you just get the service number, names and age. I have been trying to fill in this background. When I first went down to Featherston in 2003, I was shown by a friend piles and piles off broken headstones from these soldiers. A list was sent to NZSG, through this a friend of Pamela Berry was able to learn that her relation’s headstone had been uncovered, Private Thomas William Spence King, Gt Grandson of John King. This lovely old headstone, what I call the original, had his brother’s details on as well, he was shot overseas and died. This headstone has been restored and is now in St Johns Churchyard, Waimate North, I was there for the ceremony. I had arranged that it was restored and sent up to Kamo with the local stonemason in Masterton. As Thomas died of illness in 1916, will be 100 years in September, his headstone could not be put with the soldiers whose headstones were put in a special Wall at the cemetery as the Mayor only wanted to include the Influenza ones. I do not think that is fair at all, Thomas was not the only one with an original headstone, or a soldier who died before 1918, but they were just left disappeared, sad to say.

I have met so many lovely interesting people by doing this research. This came up yesterday in the tour, a lady said that she had bought a photograph to show me of her ancestor who died 21st November 1918, Medical Corps, young man, good looking, Private J. O. AMBROSE. now if I hadn’t organised this tour I wouldn’t have known what this young soldier looked like

With the Tour we had a couple of ladies related to the Williams family so I let them explain about Edric Beetham Williams, and word for word I had the same on my notes. Edric from Hawkes Bay, was nursed by Christina his very pregnant wife, and his brother, sadly all three died, but not before Christina gave birth to another little daughter, so they had two daughters orphaned. They went to England to be cared for by an aunt in Sussex, and one married Sidney James the Comedian who worked with Tony Hancock. The Williams family is very interesting, going back to Rev Henry Williams who came out here in 1820s, and I have met a few of them.

I have just heard that our local MP who couldn’t make yesterday will join me 17th May for his own tour of the cemetery.

I placed a lovely wreath down on the obelisk which has all the names of the soldiers who had died at Camp. They are not necessarily buried at Featherston, I know of one soldier who is with his family in Karori Cemetery.

Some months ago Featherston Camp Sculpture Group was doing a Fund Raiser, a luncheon in the almost 100 year old Restored Anzac Hall, so I bought a ticket as am sharing my research with them and support them. One important guest was Maggie Barry MP, so I was able to meet her after the luncheon and have a lovely talk with her. She thanked me for what I am doing for New Zealand and for Featherston. I said that I love helping anyone, and it’s important that we learn more about these soldiers, and mentioned Brockenhurst ones. She, like me, had been there! What I am trying to get now for Featherston is signage for the Cemetery, there is nothing at all approaching from South or North about Commonwealth War Graves in Featherston. We must get more visitors to the area, show what we have and where it is.

IF anyone has any information about a soldier buried here, or who trained at Featherston, please get in touch. Often people say, “Oh he is buried at Trentham”, sorry no burials there at all..

Adele Pentony-Graham
Carterton Early Settlers Researcher.

News and Views

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

Why We Wear Red Poppies

In the summer of 1914 the First World War broke out. Soldiers, sailors and airmen went from many countries around the world to take part. New Zealand was one of these countries.

One of many men who went to the First World War in France was a Canadian soldier by the name of John McCrae. He was in charge of a forward first aid post. During a quiet time in battle he ripped a page from his dispatch book and wrote a poem. He called it “In Flanders Fields” and describes the red poppies that grew on the battle field. This is the poem he wrote:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow,

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up quarrel with the foe.

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields

Near the end of the war in 1918, John McCrae was badly wounded in battle and was taken to a hospital where he died. The poem he had written was published and quickly became famous.

At the end of the First World War an American woman named Moira Michael replied to John McCrae’s poem with one of her own. She called this poem “The Victory Emblem”. It talks about people wearing poppies in honour of the dead soldiers:

Oh! You who sleep in Flanders fields

Sleep sweet – to rise anew.

And now the torch and Poppy red

Wear in honour of our dead

Moira Michael, who worked for the YMCA, bought 25 poppies two days before the end of the war. She wore one herself and sold the remainder to raise money for wounded servicemen from the war.

One of her friend suggested she make paper poppies and sell them to help the families of men who had died in the war. This idea was picked up by a French YMCA worker, who visited various countries suggesting that artificial poppies be made and sold to help ex-servicemen and needy dependants. The tradition of poppies was born.

The poppies that we wear on Anzac Day are worn in remembrance and honour of all the New Zealand men and women who have fought and died in the service of their country in the many wars and conflicts since the original Anzac Day, when New Zealand and Australian troops landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 2015.

Mad About Genealogy

Here’s a site that I’ve come across: -

http://www.madaboutgenealogy.com

“History, particularly Family History is my passion. I have worked in libraries & archives, I teach family history, conduct workshops and give genealogy presentations. It seemed a shame to have all this knowledge & experience and not share it with others, so this website was born. – Linda”

This site has a number of family history lessons worth looking at.

Wayne

Anzacs in Brightlingsea

The NZ Herald of 31st March carried a brief article “Tracing Lovers”: -

"An English town is trying to trace descendents of local women who married NZ Soldiers after meeting in World War 1. The costal Essex town of Brightlingsea was used as a training base for thousands of NZ and Australian troops who left behind a major sporting and social legacy. Brightlingsea Town Council and Brightlingsea Museum are holding a series of centenary commemoration events in June. Organizers are tying to trace the families of Brightlingsea women who married and moved downunder. "

Those with information were asked to contact Margaret Stone at Margaret@bright97.freeserve.co.uk so I did this with an offer to publicise their search through FamNet. I got this reply from Ann Berry (hedgethorne68@yahoo.co.uk): -

“Along with the text that I put up in the first place, you can get more information from the website:

http://www.brightlingseaanzaccentenary.org./ and go to "Are You A Descendant" which lists the NZ connections.

“Of the three New Zealanders who married local girls, Paget was killed in action two months after his marriage, the Chesswas family is still in Brightlingsea and the descendants of Body have recently been in touch with the Museum.

“However, there are still some who signed autograph books for local people that were donated to in the Museum. On the same "Are You A Descendant" page you'll see a list of them. We'd love to send their descendants the verse, signature or sketch that they made. Especially Arthur Beveridge for whom we have two photos.

“Please come back to me if you need more info.

All the best, Ann”

So if your families passed through Essex this may be of interest.

Gallipoli Findings

From Richard Poole

Last year I went to Gallipoli to photograph my great uncle's Lone Pine inscription, plus a few others including Wm George Malone, the Wgton commander who took Chunuk Bair. While there, I took many more, including the 10 placards built into the wall at the ANZAC Commemorative Site describing the Gallipoli history.

Of the ten West Coast Cobden boys killed during WW1, I only found two killed at Gallipoli, GILLINGHAM and ROSS. The rest were supposedly killed in France and Belgium.

Richard Allan Gillingham (he preferred to be called Allan), born in Greymouth 9 Sept 1891, was the son of George Gillingham the postmaster and storekeeper of Cobden. Allan was keen on athletic sports and went to work for Herbert Haines and Co., Clyde Street, Invercargill. Army records 8/390, state that he was an athlete. He was in the 8th Southland Co, part of the Otago Infantry Battalion. He was at sea from 15 Oct 1914, arriving Alexandria 3 Dec 1814. Allan was aboard the ship TS Annaberg that was the first of the O.I.B. to land about 2.30pm on Anzac day April 25 1915. He was killed storming the beach, of shrapnel wounds to the head. His Gallipoli memorial is inscribed at Lone Pine (no. 75). R.A.G. is my great uncle.

Winston Churchill, the British First Lord of the Admiralty, in his wisdom or lack of it, withdrew naval cover of landing troops, causing Anzac troops to be slaughtered while attempting to climb the impenetrable cliffs. In the Boer War there are many unanswered questions relating to how this Churchill fellow miraculously managed to escape from the Boers.

A fortnight after arriving at Anzac Cove, some troops were shifted to the South Western tip of the Gallipoli peninsula to reinforce the foothold that was gained there on Anzac day. Until then they couldn't progress further north than a mile from Cape Helles. With reinforcements, the Brits gave orders on 8 May to attack towards Krithia through a field of beautiful flowers that was later named 'Daisy Patch'. The field was likened to a golf fairway, devoid of cover, except for lines of fir trees on each side, where the Turks were firing from. As with most of the British orders, the attack was lacking in common sense and organisation. They could've attacked at night, with a lot less fatalities. It was an unnecessary slaughter of our troops.

Frank George Ross 12/844 died in this attack. He was part of the 16th Waikato Company. He was 23 years of age, son of George Ross of Hillside, Cobden. His memorial is at Twelve Tree Copse (no. 11.1.18).

Especially following Gallipoli there was a continuous NZ push to have New Zealanders leading New Zealanders in battle. In WW2 another Westcoaster, John Daniel Hinton, was such a leader. Although born in Southland, Jack spent a lot of his life on the Coast. He played for the Inangahua Valley rugby team during the depression and ran the hotel nearest the Cobden bridge on Bright Street, Cobden, after WW2. It was known as the Kells or Hinton pub. On enlisting for war service in Greymouth on 13 Sept 1939, aged 30, Jack's enlistment address was 21 Herbert Street, Greymouth. He embarked from Wellington on 5 Jan 1940, bound for Egypt. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for the defence of Kalamata, Greece in 1941.

It is not surprising that in Desmond Young's book called 'Rommel', Rommel commented about New Zealanders:

"For the New Zealanders he had a great and lasting admiration. They were, he maintained to Manfred, Aldringer and others, the finest troops on our (British) side.... He certainly did not hate or even dislike them: for New Zealanders individually and collectively he had almost an affection....He asked "Why are you New Zealanders fighting? This is a European war, not yours. Are you here for the sport?"

New Zealand's unheralded WW1 hero was Lt. Col. William George MALONE 10/1039, a London born, barrister from Stratford, Taranaki, leading the Wellington batallion. He was ordered to take the hill at Chunuk Bair during daylight hours by his English commander but he refused these orders, realising that it was pure suicide. He convinced his superiors that he could take the hill at night, which he did. The English took over control of Chunuk Bair from the Wgton command and duly lost it soon after. Malone's body was never found, but reported to have died 8 Aug 1915 and his inscription is shown at the 'memorial to missing NZers' below the main Chunuk Bair memorial, refer photos. A few feet away from Malone's inscription was Edmund Robinson JACK 12/1014. He was a lad from Whangarei. His reported date of death was 5 Sept 1915, 100yr to the day before this photo was taken. His, and all bodies that I investigated, were never found, so inscriptions were to 'Missing New Zealanders'.

The two beach photos taken from the ANZAC Commemorative Site (south end of North Beach) are the view along the foreshore looking south towards Helles, and a view looking east across the ANZAC Commemorative retaining wall, and the Sphinx, the impenetrable point that Anzacs were forced to climb. The photos of the ten placards, which are on the face of the retaining wall at the Anzac Commemorative Site, describe the battle.

Here are my photos. Click the thumbnail to see the full-size photo.


12 Tree Copse Entrance	12 Tree Copse Memorial	ANZAC Commemorative Site, looking East	ANZAC Commemorative Site, Looking North.

ANZAC Commemorative Site, looking South	Cobden WW1 Killed	Wall placards, #1	Wall placards #2

Wall placards, #3	Wall placards, #4	Wall placards, #5	Wall placards, #6

Wall placards, #7	Wall placards, #8	Wall placards, #9	Wall placards, #10

Lone Pine	From Lone Pine Memorial	R.A.Gillingham – born Greymouth 9 Sept 1891	Anzac Cove looking towards ANZAC Commemorative Site

Edmund Robinson JACK - born Whangarei 7 December 1894	Frank George ROSS - born Greymouth 4 Feb 1892	William George MALONE – born Lewisham (London, UK) 24 January 1859

Family Tree Maker is Back

In January’s newsletter we reported concerns that Family Tree Maker might be terminated. I’m happy to relay this email from Diane Smith of Armidale, NSW: -

All of us here at Software MacKiev are happy to be taking up where Ancestry left off with Family Tree Maker, the most widely used family history software of all time. We have completed a small update to get the product back on the market and are pleased to let you know its available RIGHT NOW.

About our new FTM updates
We have started with Ancestry’s FTM 2014 and FTM Mac 3 and, as a company of engineers, we set our focus on stability and performance improvements. So we swatted down some bugs. And we made the application more responsive – you will find some actions that previously took minutes now take seconds.

New features
We managed to sneak in just a few surprises, like 100 beautiful new backgrounds you can use to make professional looking charts and reports. And we’ve integrated a service for printing high resolution genealogy charts through the good folks at Family ChartMasters. It’s a modest start, but we hope you will be happy with our new updates.

Compatibility
We made sure that our new updates are completely compatible with the latest operating systems (Windows 10 and El Capitan). We’ve also made sure that your old trees will open seamlessly. That there is nothing to move. That your Ancestry account if you have one will continue to work with the new versions. And that TreeSync and all the other things you have come to like about FTM are still there for you.

Where to Buy... and more
See below how to get the updated editions, and some other information you may find useful.

Thanks to all of you who have welcomed us so warmly. It means a lot to us. A new chapter in Family Tree Maker’s long and proud history begins today!

JACK

Jan’s Jottings

Researching in Ireland

www.crestleaf.com/blog/70-resources-finding-Irish-ancestors Just might pick up something new for your Irish Research

www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com I enjoy this newsletter and had the pleasure of having a coffee with Claire last year. Her Top 10 free Irish genealogy websites are well worth a look.

As someone who loves forms, it is interesting to see her selection. Many years ago I designed a Pedigree Chart for the people coming on my Hooked on Genealogy Tours. On this form, as you fill in names and dates and places, you also record how you know this information. Just such a help for me, as a facilitator, and for the compiler, to see at a glance if you have a certificate etc. If you would like to try this Chart, just email jangow@genealogy.net.nz and ask for Pedigree Chart with Sources and I will email to you with the instructions for filling in the info.

SLC2NZ

Salt Lake City 2 NZ. Bringing just a little taste of what it is like in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City to a motel in Auckland, New Zealand. The chance to have a Research Retreat Weekend. Just steady, in depth research. With guidance from our facilitators.

Not quite 24/7 but pretty close!! Collaboration (we all work together on one family at a time - we all have a turn at being THE family); Corroboration (learn how to verify and source); Coordination - bringing it all together.

The long weekend in October - from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon. Limited numbers, chance to win a weeks accommodation in SLC and other spot prizes. Learn to use the pay2view sites. Webinar direct from SLC.

Any questions? To book a seat SLC2NZ@gmail.com

From our Libraries and Museums

Triggered by an email from Seonaid (Shona) Lewis, I am offering a forum to our libraries and museums to publicise their events, and to contribute articles to this newsletter that may be of interest to our readers and by publicising what’s available at their library/museum increase their visitor numbers. Let’s see if other libraries and museums take up this offer.

For readers of this newsletter: please bring this to the attention of your local libraries etc, and encourage them to participate.

Auckland Libraries

Planning for the Auckland Family History Expo is well under way. The venue is the Fickling Centre Cnr Mt Albert and Mt Eden Roads, Three Kings. 12-14 August 2016. This is an Auckland Libraries event with sponsorship and help from the GCG (Genealogical Computing Croup) of the NZSG.

Dick Eastman (USA) and Shauna Hicks (Australia) are our overseas speakers.

The programme will be on the Auckland Libraries web site just as soon as we can ‘get-round-to’ this! We have 30 Main Lectures, 4 Computer Workshops, 4 Specialised Workshops and 5 Ask-an-Expert sessions.

These Ask-an-Expert sessions are similar to what the Society of Genealogists offers at the Who Do You Think You Are Show in England. People will book in for a 20 minute session with an Expert of their choice - covering their particular ‘brick wall’ or area/site/item of interest.

The Computer Workshops will be held in the Mt Roskill Library (upstairs from the Fickling Centre) and we will use the Library computers. There will be just 13 computers, but anyone can bring their own computer, find a seat, and be part of the workshop. We will look at Ancestry, findmypast, The Genealogist and FamilySearch.

The Specialised Lectures will be in a small room, with around 12 people attending. So almost one-on-one with the lecturer. Two of these will be for Beginners and two for Maori Whakapapa.

The Main Lectures cover topics such as:
Researching Indian, Chinese and Pacific Island families. Being organised, Brick Walls, The Cloud, Newspapers, Libraries, Archives and lots of lectures for NZ research.

We plan an Opening Function on the Friday Night, with special lectures from our overseas speakers. With some fun time on Saturday evening.

Entry is free, but, there will be a selection of Spot Prizes and the tickets for these will be $2. Buy more tickets for more chances to win!!

The lectures and/or handouts for most sessions will be available on a flash drive.

Mark this as a MUST ATTEND weekend in your Diary - 12-14 August.

Anything you would like to see (or not to see) at the Expo?? Let us know afhexpo@gmail.com

PS This is a special News Broadcast just for FamNet readers! Please tell others about the Expo.Group News.

Group News

Whangarei Family History Computer Group

Contacts:

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 or Pat or;

email Whangareifamilyhistorygroup@gmail.com, if you need directions.

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 till finished before 1.30pm.

Waikanae Family History Group

Contacts:

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

Venue: Meets every 4^th 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 2^nd or 3^rd Thursdays at 9.30am approximately four times a year.

Here is Waikanae’s latest newsletter.

The Y Can Eye Way

The Waikanae Group has developed a unique system where members at a monthly “meeting” get to share what they are researching with seven other members. All twenty five or so members who attend separate into circles of no more than eight and one of their number leads the round the table reporting by each member. Theoretically each person gets three minutes to report where they are at, or where they are researching. Once each has had their turn their leader turns to problem solving or guiding those who raised problems the first time round. The system is flexible but each person must have an opportunity to present their story. The listeners all get to hear and learn from what their colleagues are doing or are finding or how they have found it.

This has proven the fastest way for new members, or even long term ones, to grasp new ways of researching or learn more efficient ways of bringing accuracy into the data they are bringing together. In its fifth year of operation we regularly have members tell us for example ‘I have only been to two meetings and my research is going like a house on fire”, and they are smiling.

Social interaction and sharing during the sessions brings a great environment of getting to know that other member and his or her family ties, sometimes leading to two people searching for the same relative, in fact a common one, and in a neighbouring town.

So my advice to existing groups or new ones starting up, is go the “Y Can Eye” way, sorry that is the phonetics for our town of Waikanae. You will not be disappointed, when you compare the results or reactions of members when you trial this system, against their reaction of having sat through maybe a not so good guest speaker for 45 minutes, and ho hum where did that talk help my research?

My advice to readers or convenors or presidents or committees of family history groups is that you owe it to your members to trial this system not just once but at several monthly meetings consecutively, then do a quick survey where you simply ask the question did you enjoy the sessions this way, and I will put my money on the ayes – there is just no going back – the ayes have it.

Hanley Hoffmann, Waikanae Family History Group.

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Community

Letters to the Editor

Nothing new this issue. If you want a letter published, just email editor@FamNet.org.nz

Information Wanted/Offered.

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.

We have nothing new for this issue.

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Book Reviews

Maritime Tauranga 1826-1970

“An informal history of people and little ships of the Tauranga harbour”

$C:\Users\KEN MORRIS\Documents\2 KRM TEMP FLDR FROM 20160221\1 KRM\MARITIME TAURANGA BOOK REVIEW\MARITIME TAURANGA.jpg$ by Max Avery. ISBN: 978-0-473-25342-4 (272 pages)

This excellently presented book is published by the author, 1st Edition 2013 and 7^th edition in 2015 and is available from the author c/o PO Box 14 Waihi Beach 3611 New Zealand, phone 07 863 4388 or 027 260 9068. $75 + pp. Max is also the author of other books dealing with the history and identities of the Bay of Plenty.

I was born & grew up in Tauranga and lived there from 1941-1959 and albeit my time period only covers part of the period Max has covered, I recognised many names, and personally knew some of the people and boats whose details with many photographs are recorded in the book.

In Feb 2015 I was one of a group of former students who were visiting Peter Densem, our Standard 6 teacher in 1954 (PD was 98 in 2015). Peter was very much part of both the teaching and boating fraternities in Tauranga and had a copy of the book for which he had written the Foreword. (We all remember Peter as one of the most influential teachers we had in all our time as students).

The researched details of the boats, their owners, Tauranga history, and the “town identities” is a treasure trove of information and includes over 1,250 names, with extended narratives on the long term boating families and organisations. In addition there are some 500+ boat names referenced with extensive history of the craft (including transformations & rebuilds), their owners and life on Tauranga Harbour and beyond.

Review by Ken Morris

In conclusion

A Bit of Light Relief

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