"Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living". That was Flaubert's opinion, and it is a fair expression of the way it feels if you choose to spend your working days putting words down on pieces of paper.

For most of the time, it's a solitary, monotonous business. There is the occasional reward of a good sentence - or rather, what you think is a good sentence, since there's nobody else to tell you. There are long, unproductive stretches when you consider taking up some form of regular and useful employment like chartered accountancy. There is constant doubt that anybody will want to read what you're writing , panic at missing deadlines that you have imposed on yourself, and the deflating realisation that those deadlines couldn't matter less to the rest of the world. A thousand words a day, or nothing; it makes no difference to anyone else but you. That part of writing is a dog's life.

What makes it worth living is the happy shock of discovering that you have managed to give a few hours of entertainment to people you've never met. And if some of them should write to tell you, the pleasure of receiving their letters is like applause. It makes up for all the grind.

I love that quote and decided to put it in again.

It must have resonated among my readers because two readers responded by writing articles for this newsletter. They are very welcome and very readable. One required no editing by me and the other required some fine tuning with punctuation etc. For obvious reasons the author of the second will be anonymous - at my insistence- because of the privacy concerns. I must congratulate both writers for their courage to step forward but also for the manner of their writing. I am very impressed. Hopefully they will continue to write. These columns could become the skeleton of the book they aspire to write.

I think that it is important they we put into words the thorough research we have undertaken so that future family members can appreciate their ancestry and the work you did in discovering it. Your writing does not need to be published as a book, although that is what we may aspire to. This newsletter and the FamNet website are vehicles to achieve publication.

If you want to join our team and contribute regular or occasional columns please contact us. We can make room for other columns written by nom de plumes so that you can remain in the background. This noble editor will "knock it into shape" if it is needed. Submit a sample to see if it fits - I can be very honest in my appraisals. If I can write an article you can too.

In this issue:-

· From the developer: Robert is taking a break this month.

· The Nash Rambler: I tried very hard to get another columnist to join our team so that he could tell you what a wonderful researcher I am but he refused. So I wrote his article for him. It is about an adoption.

· Jan Gow writes on putting your data on FamilySearch.

· Adele talks about the Featherston incident in which one NZ soldier was killed during a riot by Japanese soldiers.

· Tracey Bartlett introduces us to a couple of her ancestors in a new column. They are the sort of ancestors you need to brighten your family tree.

· I introduce another new contributor, the Anonymous Genealogist from West Auckland who talks about his mother.

· Auckland Libraries announce their upcoming lunch time lectures and also an afternoon session with Helen Smith, an Australian professional genealogist (maybe you should attend).

· I have included an article from the Legal Genealogist which discusses a practice that we should desist from doing - note to myself "smack smack"

· Included is an article on how to use TROVE, the Australian equivalent of our PapersPast and a note from FindMyPast regarding their collection of Victorian (Australia) wills.

· I have included an article on public trees on Ancestry

· One book review this time - I have been reading wierd books not worthy of reviewing.

Hopefully you will find something of interest among all that.

Regards

Peter Nash

Back to the Top

Regular Features

From the Developer .

Telling your story. Index: I’ve covered these topics.

1. Writing your story as notes, or with Word.

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

11. Merging Trees. Part3. Combining Existing Trees

12. Finding Your Way Around FamNet (Getting Help)

13. FamNet – a Resource for your Grandchildren

14. FamNet’s General Resource Databases
15. Updating General Resource Databases

Back to the Top

The Nash Rambler

A few Sundays ago it was pelting down with rain. I have never seen so much rain come down in such a small time. I was staring out the window thoroughly bored. Unbeknown to me, the neighbours were all getting flooded basements and garages - I didn't, probably because I don't have a basement or a garage. So I decided to sit at the computer and try and write a column. Inspiration was lacking. Boredom was increasing.

An email arrived from a troublemaker friend of mine - Bob. He was equally bored and was investigating a brick wall he had in his genealogy research. He had read my last few columns (and commented on them in a very humorous manner) and remembered that I repeatedly suggested that, if you have reached a brick wall, talk to some other genealogists. He decided that I must be tested. He would subject me to my own advice.

His email read:

Hi Pete,

I went trawling through Archway for my “THAXTER” relatives and came across 2 references for a Frank Thaxter McKinley.

He must have been a hard case as he was involved in both WW1 and WW2!!!

See: http://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE18771344 (File 13 in particular)

Also, he was living in the area where I know of a lot of my THAXTER relatives were.

As a first name of Thaxter is relatively uncommon (as is the surname), I was trying to see if he fitted in anywhere in my family.

On the NZ Index V5, there is an F T McKinley – 2 entries of his death in 1978 and there is an entry for Frank in 1928 for his marriage to Annie.

I can’t find his birth on NZ BDM but, his death in 1978 says he was born 26/11/1888 (see below):

File 10 states that his next of kin was Mr R S Fleming of Raglan (Cousin).

File 20 states that he was born 26/11/1890!!!

He married Annie Chappell in 1928:

File 15 states his date of death as 5/5/1978 in Matamata.

He is listed in the NZ BDM Deaths in 1978 :

1978/32866

McKinley

Frank Thaxter

26 November 1888

Hi Will was deposited with his cousin R S Fleming in Raglan (File 26).

I had a search on FreeBMD but can’t find his birth in UK.

I did a search on Ancestry but didn’t find anything.

I don’t know whether or not this might tell me anything:

Hamilton Miscellaneous files [first series]

BCDG 17481/101

1795

The Family Protection Act 1908 and the Estate of Catherine McKinley and re Frank Thaxter McKinley and Clarence Adolphus Arthur, Rebecca Ann Chappell, Catherine Galbraith, Charles McKinley, Gladys Chappell, Joseph Galbraith, Catherine Galbraith, Moses McKinley, David McKinley

ORDER DETAILS »

1934

I can’t find his Will on Archway.

Any suggestions where I head next?

Bob

At last - something to do. After about half an hour I had verified everything he had written. I had found an article or two on PapersPast about a court case for attempted murder at Thames in which a Minnie Thaxter was a witness. Apparently she was a servant.

So Bob had two problems - Frank Thacker whose birth he could find and nothing else and Frank Thacker McKinley whose birth he couldn't find and everything else was easily found. Wouldn't it be easier if two problems became one and thus he should combine them, write it up, enter the data in his computer, shut the computer down, walk away whistling and nobody else would know what he had done. I needed to think of a plausible reason for this "union of problems".

I rang Bob and we had a discussion. I, in my infinite wisdom, suggested that maybe the Frank Thaxter, illegitimate son of Minnie Thaxter, and Frank Thaxter McKinley were one and the same. I suggested that McKinley was either the surname of his real father or that he was adopted and assumed McKinley as surname. There you are - problem solved. All loose ends are tied up. He was going to have difficulty proving all this because adoptions and paternity are very hard to prove in the late 1800s or early 1900s. But it was plausible. My advice to consult had been proved to be sound.

I also strongly suggested that he go to Archives and read the Family Protection Act case because some of the names Bob had talked about appeared in that case.

After further investigation by Bob, he sent another email which included the following:

Frank THAXTER (son of Minnie Jane THAXTER) b 26/11/1888 according to NZ BDM (or 26/11/1890 according to the Defence Force data) married Annie CHAPPELL in 1928.

As you mentioned on the phone, he had to have changed his surname BEFORE WW1 (he having enlisted as Frank Thaxter McKinley #13705).

According to File 8, he enlisted on 15-12-15 – aged 27.

Annies’ parents were William Charles CHAPPELL and Rebecca Annie FLEMING.

Gladys CHAPPELL b 1908, mentioned in Archway is Annies’ sister.

In File 26, dated 19^th April 1918, his Will is deposited with his so-called “cousin”, Mr R S Fleming of Raglan, who may be related to his future wife – 12 years before he married her!

In search for the birth of an R S Fleming born in NZ between 1880 and 1910, and sorting them into alphabetical order, the only one with the Initials “R S” is:

1880/6091

Fleming

Richard Spencer

Jane

Robert John

He died in 1950 aged 68 according to NZ BDM and there are 3 references about him on the NZSG V5 CD.

Charles McKinley, mentioned on Archway b 1889 appears to be the son of Moses McKinley born approx. 1850 in Ireland and died 1943.

Moses married Jane McKinley (a cousin perhaps?) who died 1945 aged 83.

About 10 minutes after receiving that email I received another:

I should have read this first!!!

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19350504.2.154.7?query=frank%20thaxter%20mckinley

He claims to have been legally adopted in 1893 by the McKinleys!

So I closed my computer down and wandered out to annoy my wife who was equally bored. I was basking in the fact of my magnificent advice and was sure that I had solved Bob's brick wall. My much mentioned recommendation to consult other genealogists had passed the test "imposed on me" by Bob.

Because I regularly solve such problems, (I lie), I promptly forgot about this magnificent success and became deeply ensconced in the practicalities of housework and the daily "to do list" imposed on retired males by their loving spouses. My column failed to materalise.

A week later I received the following e-mail:

I had a great morning at Archives.

My distant relative claimed in an Affidavit that he was a loving son to his adopted parents whereas, all the relatives, described as an utter lazy b.....d!!!

He is said to have stolen 5 pounds. Another person, who was not a beneficiary, said that he knew him at school and that he had put some dynamite in the school friend’s father’s mail box and blew a couple of his fingers off!!!

However, it is quite clear that he was the adopted son.

His mother said so, an elderly brother-in-law of the deceased living in Ireland recalls a letter stating that he had been adopted and a Solicitor said that the mother had been to see him 40+ years earlier about something but he no longer had the paperwork and that from the year 1894 “that a Minute Book was kept in which adoptions from that date onwards were entered …”. “I understand that in the year 1893 it was not customary for a solicitor to obtain a copy of the Adoption Order as is the case now, …” and:

“I am inclined to support the evidence of Minnie Jane Carrick, the natural mother as I have a faint recollection of such adoption taking place although I cannot recall the exact details, …”

So, it appears certain that he was adopted in 1893 at the age of about 4 or 5 but was unsuccessful at persuading the Judge that he should receive all of the 9,000 pound estate.

Vindication!!!!! What a genius I am!!!!

I tried to get Bob to write an article about how my advice to consult other genealogists was correct and a valuable method of smashing brick walls in research. I even insisted that he tell you all what an expert researcher I am. Unfortunately he refused!

So I wrote the article myself!

Now, in closing, I must inform you that I do not want to receive any communications from any of you in which you lay out your brick wall and my advice is sought. I want to keep my 100% record intact so, in the future, I can trundle it out in an attempt to tell you all how wonderful I am.

But I must repeat that working alone on your computer does not solve all your research problems. Contact with other researchers who may or may not be interested in your problems is helpful. If they are not interested you will get some pleasure in boring the hell out of them. It helps your brain to think of all possibilities.

Bob also added that if anyone reading your column is interested in McKinleys from Ireland, one of the Affidavits accompanied by a Notary Public’s statement written by David McKinley (brother of both Charles McKinley d 1926 aged 78 and Moses McKinley who was aged 84 in 1934) living in Ireland but who was not a beneficiary of the Will, lists a large number of names and dates of birth etc. That would be a gold mine for that family.

Regards to all

PANash@xtra.co.nz

Back to the Top

DNA Testing for Family History

Unfortunately Gail is totally immersed in the processes for the sale of her house and the purchase of a new one. Consequently she cannot write this month's column.

The series is well worth re-reading. Previous articles in the series are:

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

19. DNA Testing – Getting into SNP testing on the Y chromosome to enhance your Family History
20. DNA Testing – Getting into SNP testing on the Y chromosome to enhance your Family History (Contd)

21. DNA Testing – Going over some frequently asked questions, plus, plus…

22. FTDNA Projects

Gail Riddell

Back to the Top

Jan’s Jottings

Have you entered some of your data into FamilySearch as per the instructions in the last newsletter? If not: Go to www.familysearch.org, Click on Family Tree, Click on person, then Enter the details for your first person. It can be you. (I feel quite OK about entering my data). Then add parents and keep working backwards. Once you have entered a few generations, then click on Tree (instead of person) and see what is displayed. You may find that there is family information there? Check it out!!

Remember it is to your benefit if you have registered on the site. Extra benefits all through. Look at the upper RH courner – click on Free Account. Yes, it is free to register

When looking at the Person page, look to the right hand side and you will see FamilySearch, ancestry, findmypast, MyHeritage. Click on each one separately and see what is displayed!! Includes newspapers cuttings and all sorts of information. You will be amazed at the resources there. It could take some time to look at everything.

Scroll further down to see how you can view the information. Pedigree etc. Do have a look at the Pedigree Chart. Wonderful to print, especially if there is information which is new to you and you want to verify it.

Keep scrolling down looking on the RH side and you will see the latest changes - this is where you can find others making changes to your data.

You can email - great way to check on different ‘facts’ and to ask for the source of the information.

I will leave the last set of choices for next time. Because I want to show you something you may not have discovered about FamilySearch!

Go to www.familysearch.org and scroll right down to the end of the page and click on App Gallery. All sorts of apps - mostly free - many of

which work with the data you have entered into FamilySearch. Note that there are more sideways, as well as further down. Twile is quite interesting. If there is a new baby due you could look at Baby Ancestry - will give you a list of the most popular names in your data base (from the data you have entered) and how many for each name. Click on the name and there is information about the person.

Billion Graves is another interesting place to visit!

But ... try this ..... type Relative in the search field and scroll down until you find Relative Finder (you can type the full name in the search box, but then you would miss seeing all the other interesting apps with relative in their name!! Login with FamilySearch (so your data can be accessed). Then you can see who you are related to!! You can choose the category - eg Prime Ministers of United Kingdom. You can sort on the columns, but can’t sort to show your closest rellies. My 6th cousin twice removed of Charles Darwin (we knew about this) seems the closest for me. 15th cousin to Jesse James!! Goes back 16 generations.

You can print charts, change colours and have lots of fun. And you just might find some information taking your families back several generations. Just waiting for you to check it!! And go back to the original records.

Jan

Back to the Top

Wairarapa Wandering. The Featherston Incident

$C:\Users\Nash\Documents\Peter\FAMNET\Newsletter\NewsletterFeb2017 (Autosaved)_files\image021.png$ This year, marked the 74^th Anniversary of the Featherston Incident which occurred on February 25 1943. A commemorative service was held and I attended. In attendance were the Japanese Ambassador and other dignitaries. After the service and laying of the wreaths we moved down into Featherston for speeches, to see the Heritage Museum and have afternoon tea.

Featherston had, during WW2, a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp which was in the area of the WW1 Camp, on Messines Way, SH2, north of Featherston.

In February 1943, Japanese prisoners took part in a sit-down protest which led to the riot where over 70 prisoners were injured, 48 prisoners and a NZ soldier were killed.

The NZ soldier who sadly lost his life was Private Walter PELVIN, of Geraldine, and he is buried there in his home town. He was married, with a daughter who only 4 years old at the time of his death. I met up with her for a discussion at the anniversary function and showed her a photograph of her father and family members which a friend, also a relative to her, had produced for me..

This photograph and a wreath were placed on his white cross marker in the layby in Messines Way, which was also part of the WW1 Camp area. There is a Japanese Garden and Memorials there.

Adele Pentony-Graham

12 Neich’s Lane

Clareville.

5713

Back to the Top

Tracey’s Contribution

From the Editor: It is with great pleasure that I introduce a new contributor, Tracey Bartlett. She was convinced by my wonderful "begging for contributions" to produce an article. I was impressed so much by her description of her ancestors that I asked if I might graft them onto my family tree to add more colour to "bag of misfits". Welcome aboard Tracey. May you enjoy writing for the newsletter and thus produce a collection of work that will become the basis of your book that all genealogists aspire to produce.

How James met Jane – a slice of New Zealand History

Hi, my name is Tracey and I am an amateur genealogy addict.

My interest in genealogy started when my mother mentioned she knew very little about her father’s mother – she only recalled mention made by her own mother. My nanna had thrown the family photographs from England away, thinking that no one would be interested in them (so sad!!). The few we have left are therefore treasured. My first discovery of this unknown world was interesting, frustrating as I grappled with online forums, and very rewarding. It has taken hours of my time - days and weeks - but I would rather spend my time doing this than surfing for nothing in particular!

There are still a couple of relations that I cannot find information about – my Mum’s Uncle Charlie is one. You can imagine my delight when I found his school registration and a photo of him as an 18 year old, suited up in his best, when he joined the merchant navy after WWI with his younger brother. Unfortunately Charles is buried deep amongst the hundreds of Charles Halls in England after 1918.

The other relative I cannot find is my father’s paternal gr-grandmother of Irish-Scottish descent; I am resigned that I will never know her early history. Other relatives on my father’s side however, began to surface, particularly those mentioned in relation to New Zealand history. James is one of those relatives and, by the sounds of it he was quite a character. I will introduce him as follows.

James WILLIAMS was born in London about 1808 and his father was, according to his oldest son from his second marriage, a Publican and Carrier. His parents were never listed on records and therefore his background remains a mystery. There are suggestions that he arrived in Australia as a “free carpenter” but again, we don’t really know. We do know that James arrived in New Zealand in either 1827 or 1829 as one of John ‘Jacky’ Guard’s crew. Guard has been attributed as running the first whaling station in New Zealand (I cringe at the thought, but oil was a necessity for burning lamps in the days before electricity). James was employed as carpenter and cooper, no doubt carrying out ship repairs and building barrels for the oil to be held and transported to Sydney and then London. James was therefore one of the first settlers to New Zealand; he arrived after the first missionaries (the missionary Rev Thomas Kendall was to become James’ step-grandfather via his second marriage) but well before the first New Zealand Company settlers’ arrival from 1840 – which included James’ bride-to-be. It was also a time of lawlessness and a lot of escaped and ex convicts worked as whalers. It was a tough and dirty business and the whalers were often ‘fuelled’ by alcohol. The whale station owners therefore had to be tough themselves.

After a number of years working for John Guard, James started to branch out into his own business of trading. He bought a schooner called the Shamrock, possibly from Sydney in 1831 when it was built, which he used to transport whalebone, flax and potatoes. It was around this time that he was probably known as “Cloudy Bay Williams,” the bay from which he traded – possibly to distinguish him from Peter Williams, who began whaling in Preservation Inlet around John Guard’s time. The seas off New Zealand’s coast however, can be perilous and in 1834 the Shamrock capsized and sank in Queen Charlotte’s sound. Newspapers reported that seven Maori and three European members of crew lost their lives. James, the Master, was one of the survivors. This was not the last shipwreck James survived. The next wreck, some years later, also involved his wife Jane.

Jane FLORANCE arrived at Port Nicholson, Wellington, New Zealand, from Gravesend, London, aboard the ship Bolton on 20 April 1840; she had not long turned 21 years of age. Jane, who was born in Surrey (she was baptised in Dulwich College Chapel), travelled with her father, mother, two sisters, paternal aunt and her brother and his wife. Her father, a gardener, decided to leave England to join his brother Thomas Florance, who had arrived in New Zealand in 1834, via Canada and Australia. Thomas, who married Rev Thomas Kendall’s daughter Elizabeth in Sydney, is noted as New Zealand’s first surveyor and Justice of Peace. (John and Thomas had planned to start a timber cutting business but due to land disputes, this did not occur and John, his wife Jane and their two youngest daughters ended up immigrating to Maine, USA where they remained).

The voyage on the ship Bolton was recorded by passenger Miss Hannah Butler, daughter of Rev John Gare Butler, who also recorded in her diary that her father “Married James Williams of Cloudy Bay, and Jane Florence. Mr. Smith, Saml. Florence and myself present.” (http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BarEarl-t1-body-d12-d2.html)

Jane married James, 10 years older, on 4 July 1840 on Petone Beach, Wellington, New Zealand, just two and-a-half months after she had stepped off the boat. While we don’t have an engraving of James, we are fortunate to have an account of him, as recorded by the young Edward Jerningham WAKEFIELD, son of Edward Gibbons Wakefield who started the New Zealand Association in London, to colonise New Zealand with free European settlers. Edward, a year younger than Jane, accompanied his Uncle Colonel William Hayward Wakefield on the colonizing expedition and recorded his experiences in a book called The Adventure In New Zealand 1839 – 1844; With Some Account of the Beginning of the British Colonization of the Islands”, published in 1845 (available as a free e-book). His account of James, who had piloted Wakefield along the coast of New Zealand on occasion, is as follows:

“I was just now about to proceed to Wanganui by sea, having chartered a decked schooner of twelve tons burthen for the purpose of keeping my engagement with E Kuru. The owner of the vessel was our old friend Williams, the carpenter of Te-awa-iti, who had suddenly sprung into great opulence and fame. He had been to Sydney and persuaded a merchant there to fit him out as the head of a whaling-station in Port Underwood [Tom Cane’s Bay]. Soon after his return he bought this craft off the man who built her in Cloudy Bay, for 330l. [named ‘Jane’]; and married one of the female immigrants from England [Jane Florance], with a very noisy wedding-feast at Pitone. He used now to speculate largely in all sorts of small trade, still more largely on all subjects, and astonish the quiet folks of Port Nicholson by his dress and swagger. He wore a cap ornamented with gold lace, a new suit of glossy black, and a gold watch and chain, the glitter of which might be distinguished from one end of the beach to the other. “Cloudy Bay Williams” however, as he was called, was very good humoured and harmless, and bore the name of being no less open-handed towards his whaling associates than in his poorer days; so that he was by no means disliked, even by those who laughed at the assumption of grand airs and the title of “Captain” by the ci-devant carpenter.” Chapter 14, page 397 (e-book)

And so Jane’s own adventures progressed with her colourful husband James, aka, Captain Cloudy Bay Williams.

Tracey Bartlett

Back to the Top

An Anonymous Genealogist from West Auckland

From the Editor: For some time I have been working with a fellow genealogist in West Auckland in an area of research that is "awkward" and hard to research. I have convinced him that he should write his family history because, due to his family circumstances, his research may be lost when "he shuffles off his mortal coil". He has struggled with this because he does not have much experience in writing. He produced the following article which I was impressed with. I convinced him to produce it as a column without any identification for very obvious reasons. Welcome aboard my anonymous genealogist from West Auckland - no, it is not me.

Family History Conundrums.

I have always believed in what we call today a good work life balance - always having had a pastime, an interest or hobby to fill in the hours outside of education or work.

In the late 80s as I began looking for my family ancestors' never did it cross my mind that I would be exploring pathways and avenues that were to become a revelation into the social mores and nuances of social and family history. I have no idea what triggered my interest, however I knew I was hooked, when I began attending night classes, going to conferences, joining societies and like-minded groups. There is no doubt I had become addicted to progonoplexia. For which there is no known cure.

Prior to the digital revolution that we are familiar with today it was a case of writing letters, waiting for a response, visiting libraries and research facilities in person. In keeping with the digital evolution from that time, my own evolution with family history has also grown exponentially, having progressed in tandem with the technology from being a relatively ignorant naïve granny hunter to what I believe to be a fairly competent and experienced researcher.

In those early days as I typed away on an old type writer, purchased certificates, filled out family group sheets and corresponded with other researchers, I did have cause to ponder briefly over some of the conundrums from the information gaps not found in the certificates. For example my parents were married five years before I was born which I thought somewhat unusual and did not give too much thought to at the time although it has always been in the back of my mind.

As I was doing the research my cousins got to know about my endeavours to trace our families. One day, during a quiet tete-á-tete conversation with one of my cousins, in hushed tones, I was told that my mother had had a child out of wedlock. This was more of a revelation than a shock. After all there is nothing new in family history. So I kept an open mind about this piece of family information. My mother was also still alive at this time, so the information needed to be considered thoughtfully and dealt with sensitively. I was further reminded of this birth event some time later by the same cousin and a sibling.

Ordering certificates was a much easier process than at present, with very strict protocols now in place to prevent ID theft. In my naivety, I sent off a letter to the Department of Justice, now the DIA (Department of Internal Affairs.) requesting them to do a search for a four year period in the mid 1930s for an unnamed male child, giving a possible surname. Of course the response was a negative one. I still have copies of some of the relative correspondence. So It is not without good reason that I was given the appellation of a hoarder by my wife. The search for an unnamed male child was then placed in the too hard basket. But never forgotten until quite recently when the file was re-opened.

Let’s take a cursory look at the circumstances surrounding this point in time! New Zealand was just coming out of the depression. The Second World War was on the horizon. There were no Social Security or benefit payments for single parents. If you were a single or solo parent life could be harsh and unforgiving.

When my maternal grandparents separated, my Grandfather was unable to support the four children. My mother and her three elder siblings were placed into two separate Orphanage/Children's home. When my mother left the Children's Home she was entrusted to a family who lived in what is now South Auckland. Although now an adult, at what age or why she moved to the Western Suburbs in Auckland is pure speculation. Probably, she moved with the family she was entrusted with who may have decided to move to the Western Suburbs. Anyway it was in a lightly populated Western Suburb “village” where everybody knew everybody else. The type of community where you could go out shopping leaving the door open and return to find a plate of fresh baked scones on the table. It was in this “village” that she met and married her first husband, my father, and began to really make the community and neighbourhood her home.

My paternal grandfather had acquired a block of land and subdivided it. The story goes that my father's sister was offered an overseas trip and my father was offered part of the land lot that my grandfather had obtained. The house my parents lived in was built by my grandfather and father. Consequently my parents were living with her in-laws as close neighbours, right next door.

Two years before my mother married my father, my mother had a child out of wedlock. Probably as a result of this birth the relationship between my mother's father and her eldest brother was less than harmonious. After all at that time women usually bore the brickbats of any immoral impropriety. Unfortunately they both passed away without any form of reconciliation taking place leaving a mark on my Mothers psyche for the rest of her life.

Not only is the paternity of this unknown male child in question, but, if we join the dots between the marriage date, date of birth and the close proximity of her in-laws, even my own paternity could also be bought into question.

In spite of these somewhat difficult trying times my mother overcame them to become a popular and well-known minor celebrity in the local community.

I also now know that there were several friends of my mothers and an aunt who almost certainly knew of the unknown male child. They too have since passed on leaving many questions unanswered.

The conundrum is however inching towards a conclusion. The next instalment will pick up the cudgels at a much later point, with a focus more on the methodology. In anticipation of a resolution of the conundrum to reveal the paternity of the un-named male child.

Regards

The mysterious genealogist from West Auckland.
genealogist1480@gmail.com.

Back to the Top

From our Libraries and Museums

Triggered by an email from Seonaid (Shona) Lewis, we are 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. Auckland Libraries is starting to make good use of this free service, 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

HeritageTalks 2017

When: Fortnightly on Wednesdays from February to November, 12pm - 1pm unless otherwise stated
Where: Whare Wānanga, Level 2, Central City Library, Lorne St, Auckland
Cost: Free
Booking: All welcome.

To ensure your place, please contact the Central Auckland Research Centre on 09 8902412, or complete our online booking form.

www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/HeritageTalks

Interested in family and local history? The history of this country, as well as the rest of the world?

Then why not come along to one of our fortnightly HeritageTalks and hear more about both our personal and our shared heritage.

Coming up in HeritageTalks:

April

The Devonport Steam Ferry Company and Auckland with David Verran

Wednesday 5 April, 12pm - 1pm

The regular service offered to Devonport area residents by the Devonport Steam Ferry Company from 1881 was a vital factor in the growth of the North Shore. Nevertheless for those who wished to remain on the city side the ferry service also offered opportunities, including visiting friends and relations in the Devonport and North Shore area, work at the Chelsea sugar works or the naval docks and recreational day trips including those to the Takapuna Races, the ‘strawberry and cream’ outlets and into the 20th century to the ‘Pirate Shippe’ at Milford.

La Basse-Ville 1917: New Zealand Voices from Flanders Fields with Dominique Cooreman

Wednesday 12 April, 12pm - 1pm (extra event)

Retired Belgian judge Dominique Cooreman unearthed an almost forgotten battle in a 12-year quest to bring understanding and closure to the families of the more than 1000 Kiwi men killed in a small hamlet called La Basse-Ville in 1917.

Her unique book sheds light on how the war affected all people.

A romance novel illustration. You read that trash? The enduring attraction of the world’s most hated and most loved genre with Joanne Graves

Wednesday 19 April, 12pm - 1pm

Romance is one of the most appealing literary genres in the world, and New Zealand boasts some of its most popular authors, from paranormal writer Nalini Singh to the late Mills & Boon novelist Essie Summers. Joanne Graves discusses the history of this ever-changing genre, and looks at the iconic pop-culture cover art of romance novels throughout the decades.

May

An Irish harp. A doomed battle: the Easter Rising, Dublin, Ireland, 24-29 April 1916 with Raewynn Robertson

Wednesday 3 May, 12pm - 1pm

The Easter Rising was a doomed battle for Irish independence from Britain. This battle, which lasted six days over Easter 1916, was planned by the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and had support from the Irish Citizens Army (ICA) and other volunteers. Although ultimately a disaster, as the Volunteers were completely outnumbered ten to one by British troops, the Easter Rising proved to be one of the decisive turning points in Irish history.

Family history magazines. It's all about audience - writing the articles with Bruce Ralston

Wednesday 17 May, 12pm - 1pm

Be inspired to put pen to paper and tell stories from your family history or research expertise. Let go of your inhibitions about writing and let the world know what you have discovered, even if it is really just stories you want to record for your family.

Bruce Ralston is editor of the New Zealand Genealogist. In previous lives he has been a librarian, helping to establish family history centres in Wellington and Auckland Libraries, a library manager, an archivist, and a metadata manipulator.

Your British Ancestry – an afternoon with Helen Smith

Wednesday, 31 May 1pm - 5pm

Visiting Australian Helen Smith is a professional family historian lecturing, teaching, writing and client research. She has been researching her own family history since 1986, and is researching the surname “Quested” anywhere, anytime and has registered the name with the Guild of One-Name Studies and with the Surname Society.

We’re lucky enough to have her give us a series of three British family history talks:

· 1pm - 2pm: The Parish Chest: More than baptisms, marriages and burials. Treasures hidden within the Parish Chest include Bastardry bonds, settlement certificates, removal orders and so much more.

· 2.30pm - 3.30pm: The workhouse. The 1834 New Poor Law resulted in many changes and the dreaded Union Workhouse. Hear about life in the Workhouse, the records and more.

· 4pm - 5pm: The English Apprentice. The industrial revolution caused changes to the long history and records of English Apprenticeships.

www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/HeritageTalks

Ngā mihi | Kind regards

SEONAID

Seonaid (Shona) Lewis RLIANZA | Family History Librarian
Central Auckland Research Centre, Central City Library
Heritage and Research
Auckland Libraries - Nga Whare Matauranga o Tamaki Makarau
Ph 09 890 2411| Extn (46) 2411 | Fax 09 307 7741
Auckland Libraries, Level 2, Central City Library, 44 - 46 Lorne Street, Auckland
Visit our website: www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz

@Kintalk on Twitter / Auckland Research Centre on Facebook

Back to the Top

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: at the Waikanae Public Library, 10am to 12 noon on second Wednesday of each month.

How family conflicts resurface through a family history

I have just celebrated my 80^th birthday, and over lunch Lorna, my only sister was here from Australia helping me celebrate, she said “Uncle John would not come into my house once when he came with wife Connie to visit a new born neice, Lorna’s first female child – this was 1977. He sat in his car and waited outside because Connie’s eldest sister Esme was already inside. Esme was the reason for the “stand off” but neither of us know why.

My sequel to the story does not bring on any explanation, because I need to find a video of my mother – an aural history I did some twenty five years ago – my mother, Frances, Connie and Esme are sisters. In their childhood days they lived on neighboring farms in a district called Yannawah, just 20 miles west of Young in NSW. Both families, John Hoffmann and his brother, my father Bernie lived next door to this O’Reilly family of girls and succeeded in scoring two of them as wives.

Both families attended the little local country school and on the way home from school on one occasion, John unceremoniously pushed Esme into the creek. Why the animosity which brought this on we will never know, certainly bad boy behavior on Uncle John’s part, Esme would have had to trudge another mile home in a very wet state – and what would her mother say?

Then for my sister to suddenly relate another incident which points to probably a life long enmity which had been simmering there for years?

Hanley Hoffmann

Waikanae Family History Group

Waitara Districts History & Families Research Group

The contact details of this group are:

Waitara Districts History & Families Research Group

Rose Cottage 33 Memorial Place

WAITARA 4320

Tel: 06 – 754 – 3212

www.waitarahistory.org.nz

waitarahistory.genealogy@xtra.co.nz

From the editor: It is with great sadness that I must report that Marion Wellington died suddenly on 22 March 2017. Marion was a passionate genealogist and historian. She was a treasure in the Waitara district for these fields of research. She was a mainstay of the Waitara Districts History & Families Research Group.

She was a very valuable personal friend who never stopped encouraging me to continue my involvement in genealogy. She was always in contact and when I visited her group I enjoyed her advice, her wit and general "maternal chastisement". I will miss her.

Back to the Top

News and Views

From the Editor: Here is a copy of a recent blog from the Legal Genealogist that raises a very important point. When I read this I was a embarrassed because I have been guilty of such a crime - not often, but guilty none the less. Please read it.

Just Say No

by Judy G. Russell | Nov 14, 2013

Say, would you mind…?

You see it all the time, out here on the internet.

It seems perfectly innocent.

It’s just a request for help, and helping is something we do here in the genealogical community.

It goes like this:

I don’t subscribe to Big-Pay-Website but I understand that Important Document For My Family is available there. Would someone who is a Big-Pay-Website subscriber please get me a copy of Important Document? I’d sure appreciate it.

There’s only one honest and ethical answer that can be given to that question:

No.

The simple fact is, it’s wrong.

Just plain wrong.

For the person asking for that Important Document, it’s freeloading.

It’s like asking your neighbor who has high speed cable internet service if you can run your wire to his modem so you can use his service. Or if he’d mind sharing the password to his router so you can use his wireless system.

Pure and simple, it’s taking something without paying for it.

And for the person who subscribes to Big-Pay-Website, it’s no different from taking a pencil from your employer’s stockroom for your friend to use — when you’d never dream of taking a pencil from your employer for yourself.

The fact is, it costs money to provide easy online access to a wide variety of documents. Somebody has to pay for acquiring the documents, scanning them, digitizing them, making the equipment and software available to serve them up online.

Big-Pay-Website can only pay for those things if people pay it — fairly and squarely — for the information it provides. To stay in business, it sets terms and conditions for our use of the website.

And that’s what those of us who are subscribers agree to when we sign up. We may not like the terms and conditions; we may whine and moan about the costs.

But that’s the deal, and we’ve agreed to it. Big-Pay-Website is keeping its end of the bargain by making the documents available. We need to keep our end by using the access under the limits set in the terms and conditions.

And those terms often say we can only use Big-Pay-Website for our own research. Sometimes that includes research we’re hired to do for others, but particularly with some of the online newspaper sites, it’s our own personal research only.

Reader Jerry Kocis ran across a variation on this recently in a genealogy group on Yahoo.com. The message there focused on a newspaper article about the death of a member of the inquirer’s family in a train accident in 1890, and the newspaper website at issue has terms that limit its use to our own personal research only.

Jerry posted it on Google+ as an ethics question:

Is it right (ethical) to avoid paying for a subscription to a site’s content by asking for a subscriber to locate the content for you?

Just asking the question gives the answer. No. It’s not right.

Now there is a difference between verifying that the document exists and actually getting a copy of the document. Knowing for sure that the newspaper is available on a particular pay website and that the article is in the paper may be the incentive that pushes me over into subscribing to the site to get that article.

But if I ask you to use your subscription to get me a copy of the article itself?

You know what to tell me. You know I really do have other options. You know I can write to the newspaper. I can go to a library that has the newspaper on microfilm. I can hire someone in that area to track down a physical copy. I can do all the things we as genealogists used to do before there were Big-Pay-Websites, before there was an internet.

So if I ask, just say no, okay? It’s wrong.

Back to the Top

13 Tips For Searching Trove’s Historical Newspapers

From the Editor: I have had a lot of success with the NZ newspaper website Paperspast. Here is an article about the Australian equivalent. Remember that our NZ ancestors moved quite freely between Australia & NZ. Maybe you lost a NZ relative on your family tree. Explore this site - you may find the lost ones appearing in Australia.

Australian’s are spoilt by having Australian historical newspapers available at their fingertips and online through Trove. Not also forgetting that it’s all totally free as well. Can you believe that there are over 200 million articles already on the National Library of Australia’s Trove Newspapers site, and that figure grows every month, with new papers being added? It is a vast resource which is used not only by tens of thousands of Australian genealogists, historians, students and academics on a daily basis, but also by many overseas who are researching something about Australia, or someone who was in Australia.

But how do you search? Type in a name and see what comes up? Well, there’s more to it than that. When searching newspapers you have to think of how things would be written in the newspaper at the time, which can be quite different to general search websites. So here are some tips for you.

· When searching for a birth, don’t just look for the person’s name, as they often aren’t mentioned. (i.e. On the 23rd June, at Hobart, Mr and Mrs E. Smith of a daughter)

· When searching use initials, not just their full name – or an abbreviation (ie. Wm instead of William)

· When looking for a wife, look for “Mrs W. Baker” (as in wife of Mr William Baker) rather than her own name of Elizabeth

· Use place name together with a surname to help narrow down your search

· Or as an alternative to using a place name, use an occupation and surname

· Remember to use different spellings of names, as every name has variants

· Remember some places changed name, so look for a previous place name (ie. Friezland in Brisbane was renamed to Kuridala in 1916; or Tweedvale in South Australia became Lobethal etc)

· If you are looking for immigration details and can’t find a shipping list, look for an obituary. Many say when they arrived, and often what ship they came in on

· When looking at newspapers don’t dismiss newspapers from other states, because the news may well have been reported elsewhere (and sometimes has better information) than the ones you’re looking at

· When looking for a death, don’t dismiss papers that occur years after the death as they may be mentioned in a “In Memoriam” entry

· You’ve done a search, and it’s come up with 1000s of entries, too many to go through every one, use the “Refine Your Results” options on the left hand side of the page. So you can choose a state, choose a paper, choose an entry type, narrow down by decade

· When looking at the paper and date range, it doesn’t mean that ‘every’ issue between that range has been scanned yet. So check what’s actually covered by browsing

· Also one more point is that the text of the newspapers has been scanned and OCRd (Optical Character Recognition). So how well it reads (and can be found by searching), depends on the quality of the original. Sometimes it’s best to browse, rather than simply rely on searching as you will pick things up that the search didn’t

Back to the Top

1.3 Million Victorian Probate and Wills Online

From the editor: Following on from the previous news item here is another source for Australian research.

The Victoria Wills and Probate collection on Findmypast is a vast index that now contains over 1,364,000 records. These list the names of deceased persons whose estates passed probate through the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne between 1841 and 1989.

Wills and probate records are invaluable in family research, as these kind of documents can provide details of next of kin, property owned and significant dates. Each record includes a transcript and a number also include image of original probate documents. Transcripts will reveal your ancestor’s death date, occupation, residence, the date of the grant, the nature of the grant, and to whom it was committed. They also include the file number and a link to order a copy of the original from Public Records Office Victoria.

Images may provide the last will and testament of your ancestor and an inventory of your ancestor’s estate (which may include an itemised list of assets and liabilities). These would provide not only insight into your ancestor’s economic standing, but also into your ancestor’s relationships with other family members, friends and institutions. If you have a family heirloom, inventories can provide details of its acquisition and worth.

If you’re eager to get searching, here’s the direct link to the Victoria Wills and Probate collection

Back to the Top

The Family History Guide-Mar 2017

FamilySearch is now pairing with third-parties who produce training on several topics for individuals wanting to learn more about FamilySearch features and research strategies.

This training also includes geography-specific research strategies.

The Family History Guide is a website that represents a best-in-class learning environment for family history. Its scope is broad, but its focus is narrow enough to help you achieve your goals, systematically.

Whether you are brand new to family history or a seasoned researcher – or somewhere in between – The Family History Guide can be your difference maker.

Introduction Page - The Family History Guide

thefhguide.com

About The Family History Guide. The Family History Guide is a website that represents a best-in-class learning environment for family history. Its scope is broad, but ...

Computer Basics http://thefhguide.com/introduction.html#cb

Introduction Page - The Family History Guide

thefhguide.com

About The Family History Guide. The Family History Guide is a website that represents a best-in-class learning environment for family history. Its scope is broad, but ...

Family History Basics http://thefhguide.com/introduction.html#fhb

Introduction Page - The Family History Guide

thefhguide.com

About The Family History Guide. The Family History Guide is a website that represents a best-in-class learning environment for family history. Its scope is broad, but ...

Using Family Tree in FamilySearch http://thefhguide.com/project-1-family-tree.html

Project 1: Family Tree - The Family History Guide

thefhguide.com

Project 1: Family Tree Navigate your family tree, add ancestors, and update ancestor information in FamilySearch.

Finding Names When “All Your Work is Done” (Descendancy Research) http://thefhguide.com/project-3-descendants.html

Project 3: Descendants - The Family History Guide

thefhguide.com

B Based on what you learned in the article and video, choose a Descendancy ancestor. The basic steps are: In Landscape view, find an ancestor several generations back ...

Research Strategies for Specific Countries http://thefhguide.com/project-9-countries.html

Indexing http://thefhguide.com/project-5-indexing.html

Viewing and Adding Memories (Stories, Photos, Audio) in FamilySearch http://thefhguide.com/project-2-memories.html

This information is up to date and very beneficial. It includes videos and all kinds of information to help you learn all aspects of family history.

Back to the Top

The sad day most of my Ancestry.com trees went Private/Unsearchable

Source: Senior Sampler. Genealogy Corner, Shanna Jones, Mar 20, 2017, Issue 11.17

From the editor: I found this blog somewhere. It puts into words what I have experienced lately with respect to my research on Joseph Nash. For years I have been abused publicly for my practice of putting a deliberate small error in my trees that are posted on public sites. But when I found my Joseph Nash in a few trees on Ancestry I was able to eliminate all bar one as "copiers" and paid particular attention to the one that did not have my marker. This showed that, if this submitter had copied my data, they had checked it out and eliminated my marker error. That is, they had verified my submission. It saved some time. I must say that I contacted the other submitters and told them that I had verified (including evidence) the parents of Joseph Nash and explained my error. Continued abuse on this practice will not be accepted.

Share the journey to document one family's history, as well as tips, tricks, and lessons learned along the way!

The sad day most of my Ancestry.com trees went Private/Unsearchable…

I’m a huge advocate for Public trees in Ancestry.com. Private trees have often been the bane of my existence. I still plan on a post about why I feel we all have a duty to share our research publicly. But, as of today, most of my trees are now private and unsearchable, and it was the right choice.

I wrestled with this for a couple of weeks, but once I found that my trees were getting picked up in Ancestry’s predictive tools (Ben Franklin, and how We’re Related took me from chasing my white whale, to chasing my tail) which ignore all of my warnings about how unreliable my “Working” trees are, I started to understand I probably had to bring these tress undercover.

It’s easy for others to filter out weak research on well documented lines, but on lines with little data, it naturally more likely for undocumented “facts” to get attached to other trees.

This week, I found a new Ancestry tree that contained a bunch of GREAT information on my Leonard line. The user even found my 3x GGF headstone in a little catholic cemetery that my wife and I have been to 3-5 times but we couldn’t find it. It looks like the headstone was dug out of the earth! There was a ton of original research I’d never seen, or had index of, and I was so happy we had a new research expert on this line. Then, I saw that he had relatives past my 2x GGM, who is a major brick wall for me!! This is a well researched tree, great original work…and one of my Working/Uncertified trees was the source of this “breakthrough”. Later, I found that another of my wildly speculative ancestry guesses was in his tree, looking very definitive. One of the comments on my previous post talked about how a reader had their work republished over and over until it became “fact”, and here I could see that happening to mine.

Screen Shot 2017-04-01 at 11.37.57 AM

My warnings/qualifiers on my speculative trees aren’t enough for humans, and useless for automated algorithms

It’s just too easy for my speculative work to get pulled into trees, that feed other trees, that get repeated so often it’s impossible to determine the source. This is especially true for lines where there’s little to no other data…which is why I’m building a speculative tree in the first place. Very quickly my tree becomes the only reference to these undocumented ancestors, which means it gets found as a “breakthrough” by others who are stuck, which makes it more likely to become authoritative. It’s easy for others to filter out weak research on well documented lines, but on lines with little data, it naturally more likely for undocumented “facts” to get attached to other trees.

So, for now, I’ve taken most of my trees out of the mix on Ancestry.com. It’s hard, and I’m not entirely comfortable with this, but for now I think it’s best.

Back to the Top

Book Reviews

Ghost Empire by Richard Fidler

Kindle edition available from Amazon.com, $US12.96.

Ghost Empire by [Fidler, Richard] From the height of its power in about 100AD Rome fell into decline, and we in the West usually regard 476AD as the end of the Roman Empire. Yet in 330AD the emperor Constantine had moved the empire’s capital to a location in the East where a new city, Constantinople, was built: here the Roman Empire persisted for another thousand years. Can we call it Roman without Latin, without temples, togas, or Rome? Certainly its citizens thought so.

Richard Fidler describes himself as a “History enthusiast, not a historian”, and this idiosyncratic book, which relates the history of Constantinople from its establishment in 330AD to its fall in 1473 as the author tours Rome and Istanbul with his son, is not the most thorough or authoritative book on the subject. It is however extremely readable, perfect for those of us who want a general understanding of a time and place that we know little about. Especially recommended for anybody who may be considering a visit to Istanbul.

Robert Barnes

Back to the Top

In conclusion

A Bit of Light Relief

From the editor: I read this in a Gardening Club newsletter and interrupted proceedings with my usual "quiet" laughter.

Advertising with FamNet

If your organisation is not a group subscriber then there will be a charge for advertising events and services, which must be paid for before publication. Charges start at $NZ25 for a basic flier, and increase for more elaborate presentations. Like everyone else we need funds to help keep FamNet going. Fees are very minimal. If your organisation paid a yearly subscription you can have all the advertising you want all year round in the Group News section. Your group could be anywhere in the world, not just in New Zealand. The editor will continue to exercise discretion for free events.

To Unsubscribe, Change your Email Address, or Manage your Personal Information

If you have problems with this page you can email us directly but the page is self-explanatory.

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

Back to the Top