Part of the worldwide genealogy/family history community
FamNet eNewsletter February 2021
ISSN 2253-4040
Quote: “Hell has no fury like a genealogist (or family historian) who just found
their family info in a public tree with living kin listed as deceased” –
unknown
Contents
Do you want to receive this newsletter every month?
Has Technology Killed
Genealogy and Family History again?
Are the large web sites
sucking the money out of genealogy?
DNA Testing for Family History
Digging
Into Historical Records
Victor Low – the Chinese
Anzac who laid out the Bulford Kiwi
What clients need to know
about Professional Research.
More Famous New Zealanders You have Probably Never
Heard Of
Henry Edward KAVANAGH
(1892-1958)
An Underground Guide to Sewers
From our Libraries and
Museums
HeritageTalks - Waha
pū-taonga
Whangarei
Family History Computer Group.
Waitara
Districts History & Families Research Group
Kirk session records to be added to ScotlandsPeople in 2021
IrelandXO Insight - Irish Naming and Baptism Traditions
Guarding Against Presentism: How Historical Facts (Should) Affect Your
Research Strategy
Should you build your family tree online or offline?
Identifying
a wedding photograph
To Unsubscribe, Change your Email Address, or Manage your Personal Information
Editorial
Hello
fellow hermits.
Greetings and welcome to another issue of the FamNet newsletter.
Well Xmas came and went without any interference from Covid even though some international cricketers tried very hard to spread it. Who would have thought during last year that, by Xmas, we could attend concerts and sports matches, go to the beach and camp out, and all the other things we do in a normal NZ Xmas. That made it a very special time. BUT three cases in the community in the last week and all the dangerous “foreign” strains. It’s very easy to fear a little. Please take care out there. The newsletter needs readers so don’t take silly risks.
This issue is the first in 2021. Hopefully it is an interesting read.
Well my column is a moan about the big two websites and their negative effects on the average “poverty stricken” researcher and the repositories in NZ. I will try to be more positive for the rest of the year. Gail, in her regular column on DNA has submitted an article written by a friend. The article was a bit long, so we’ve had to cut it into two.
My friend, who shall be nameless has supplied me with many jokes and cartoons. I have had a problem with limiting them to the number that is here and I should mention that I have provoked the Trump supporters again because the result is some very humorous feedback. So thank you Trevor for the funnies and Ian you owe me a coffee – three days have passed. I don’t think he’ll be resurrected.
The rest of the articles are varied and interesting. I strongly suggest that you read the articles in the “News and Views” section and a visit to the Family Tree magazine and Who Do You Think You are magazine could be rewarding. The articles on their website are valuable.
I hope this month’s issue occupies some of your time and you find something valuable.
Peter Nash
Do you want to receive this newsletter every month?
This newsletter is free. There are not many free newsletters of this length in New Zealand. I am biased but it should be an interesting read.
To subscribe is easy too. Go on - don't misspell it as I have, twice already. https://www.famnet.org.nz/
The front page is lovely, but click on [Newsletters]. A page opens showing you a list of all the past newsletters, you can click the link to read one that you’re interested in.
Like the front page, the newsletters page has a place where you can log on or register. It’s in the top right-hand corner. Put your email here and click [Continue]. If you aren’t already on our mailing list, there will be a message “Email not in database” and a button [New User] appears. Click this and follow the dialog to register. It’s free and easy. You should receive a copy every month until you unsubscribe.
Robert has assured me that he will not send begging letters to your email - apparently, he has enough money at the moment. You will not have to put in your credit card number. You will not be charged a subscription.
Tell other genealogists so they can enjoy the newsletters too.
Regards
Regular Contributors
The Nash Rambler
Has
Technology Killed Genealogy and Family History again?
Well
thank god 2020 has gone. What a year!! Hopefully 2021 is going to be much
better.
I was having a coffee with three genealogists last week (early January) and we were talking about things genealogical. These three have been researching for years and have been members of the New Zealand Society for years. We were discussing how expensive our “addiction” was. I mentioned that I had just renewed my subscription to FindmyPast and that it had cost me about £150. This hurt a lot and caused some considerable heartburn to the Minister of Finance in my marriage – it is not me. I had quite a discussion about why I needed it and, to be honest, the need is diminishing by the year.
This began a discussion about how the two major websites, FindmyPast and Ancestry.com, are sucking the cash from genealogists’ purses which has had dire consequences to genealogical societies and their branches, libraries, museums, archives and other research facilities. Less money in our pockets means less money to spend at these repositories. This eventually leads to less visits which means less need to staff, which leads to less opening hours etc. I cannot remember the last time I visited NZ Archives in Auckland and they charge like wounded bulls to get documents scanned. For example I “desperately wanted” to get a copy of a petition submitted to government in 1869 which “lives” in Wellington. I saved considerable money by asking my loving daughter, who lives in Wellington, to go and photograph that one page document. All it cost was a bottle of good wine and I still saved many dollars and enjoyed a sample of that wine.
I have to add a vote of appreciation to National Archives for all the documents they have put up on their website with free access. They have done a wonderful job and please don’t stop.
I wish that the government took notice of the good work Archives are doing. They should make their historical BDM records available for free. If Archives can do it so can DIA. It would not involve digitalisation work because that is already done. Government has also put the AJHRs on the internet for free access. Police Gazettes are up for free access. Historical newspapers are up for free access. Wills are up for free access. Damn near every cemetery has put their data up on the internet. Why not the birth, marriage and death printouts?
The conversation naturally led onto the NZ Society. This group is trying to compete with the big two by putting up a website that has data available for members only at an amazing subscription. To me, the last thing a Society with falling membership should do is rob existing members of an extra 50% of their annual subscription fee for access to an index of very varied value. When you find out that one of my favourite two NZ indexes, the Marriage CD and the Burial Locator CD, is not on that index that adds to the level of “varied value”. This discussion resulted in a very funny situation in that I ended up the only defender of that Society in this discussion – not a position I am comfortable in.
This then led into a discussion about all the indexes that genealogists compile during their research. There was a time that the old-time researchers created an index or two (or many in my case). During my employment with the NZSG I met many researchers with personal indexes of weird and wonderful resources. For example I have Hokianga Index of many publications of historic Hokianga material. I have written many articles on various aspects of Hokianga history. We wondered what happened to those indexes when the compilers went on to meet their own particularly elusive ancestors. I know of an elderly (he’ll hate this description) genealogist who has retired “up North” and does no research now. He has many indexes of unusual material. Every time I see him I ask for his work to be made available for access. The biggest problem about these “old-timers” is that, without exception, they have an intense disagreement with the actions of the NZSG both past and present, and they would rather let their work be lost rather than donate it to the society. I will say nothing more about that. But wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to access these, particularly at no cost. I should state that I’m working with some people who have the same thoughts as me and maybe my Hokianga Index will be available to access for FREE.
The big two websites have changed the genealogy world. Now new researchers lock themselves away in their computer rooms and compile their tree back to Adam. One of their basic beliefs becomes “If it isn’t on the web it doesn’t exist”. If a couple of pages of a particular parish records is missing due to an historical accident of some sort they will not know about it or even know how to circumvent this loss. They may, for example, become very unaware of the drivers for immigration, the reasons for movements from village to cities, particularly London, the peculiarities of immigration e.g. the gold rushes ie California to Australia to NZ to the Yukon etc. In my ancestry I have a Lincolnshire agricultural labourer who came to NZ. Ancestry.com doesn’t tell me that the Ag Lab union in Lincolnshire paid his fares out so that they manufactured a shortfall in available workers and thus won their battle to increase the wages of their members.
The conclusion we came to was that a researcher who was thorough and perceptive had to have a lot of money to pay for everything i.e. subscriptions. (Maybe I should ask for a pay rise, Robert).
Anyway I have started the year with a moan. I hope that is the last for the year.
Bugger!!!! The news today is another three cases of Covid in the community of Auckland and Northland. I feel the winds of lockdown whistling about my head. I’m off to the supermarket for stocks of those vital staple groceries – toilet paper and flour.
Please take care – the newsletter needs readers.
From the Developer
I was not going to write a column this month, but when I was
preparing the newsletter for publication I read Peter’s column and noted his
comments about several researchers (including himself) who have compiled
indexes of various types, but don’t want to give them to the society, and so
their research will likely be lost. But
FamNet has a solution. It has had a
solution for years. I don’t know why
people keep ignoring it, even by some (I’m thinking of you Peter) who have used
it then forgotten it’s there until I remind them.
Indexes
– Again
In June 2017 I wrote an
article about indexes, after I’d visited Albany to speak about FamNet and I
got talking to a member of the audience about an index that she was
preparing. The most important database
in FamNet is the Genealogy Database, containing family tree records, but
there’s also another aspect to FamNet, the General Resource Databases. I’ve described these previously in two
articles, #14
FamNet’s General Resource Databases, and #14
Updating General Resource Databases. As I described in the first-mentioned article
about indexes this is a general facility, making it very easy to put a new
index on line even if it has completely different columns to any other index
table. Features of our General Resource
Database facility are: -
·
All indexes are on line and
searchable, unless the index owner restricts access. So far nobody has, and FamNet is happy to
make the data available to all online for free.
·
Only the index owner and FamNet
admins (that’s me) can update the tables.
Others can look at them on line, but only the owner (and me) can
download them as spreadsheets.
·
Indexes may be completely
independent, like Peter’s index of New Zealand Hangings, or part of a larger
table like Cemeteries. Thus Adele is the
owner of the Featherston cemetery, other cemeteries have different owners.
·
Because all of these indexes are
managed within the FamNet site, it is possible to provide general searches that
will look up things in several different indexes. This can generally give you only an
indication of which ones might be worth looking at, but at least it’s a start,
and better than going to a large number of independent sites (even if you know
what they are).
So
Peter, why haven’t we got your Hokianga Index?
And have you suggested FamNet to those that you referred to in your
article?
Are
the large web sites sucking the money out of genealogy?
While
I’m having a gentle dig at Peter, I must take issue with his view that the
large sites are sucking the money out of genealogy, implying that this is a
major reason for the demise of genealogy societies. My view is different. The reason for the general demise of
genealogy societies is because they are no longer the gatekeepers of
information about our ancestry, just one of many sources. My parents learnt what they could about my
ancestry by writing letters to parish clerks in the U.K., and waiting a month
or more for a reply. They may have spent
more (adjusted for inflation) on postage than an Ancestry subscription,
certainly more than a FamilySearch subscription. Now all that they discovered and more is
available, often for free, on the internet, and it is far easier to discover
new facts. Of course, some are of
dubious veracity – but hasn’t this always been so? There remains a need for
expertise in interpreting the “facts”, and societies like the NZSG and the
Founders Society (of which my parents were keen members) remain relevant if
they can find a way to promote the value of this expertise and the social bonds
that they could foster.
I
don’t think that the money spent on Ancestry, Find My Past, etc has any effect
on the money that we’re prepared to spend on physical archives and society
memberships. On the contrary, the much
greater interest in genealogy because the internet has made it much easier
means that more people are potential members for groups offering fellowship,
advice and expertise. If they are not
attracting these potential members it’s not because there is no money left
because has already been spent elsewhere, it is because the potential member
doesn’t see value in paying a subscription to the group.
Telling your story: Index
1. Writing your story as notes, or with Word.
2. Embedding pictures in Word documents.
3. Saving Documents for Web Publication.
5. Sharing your Story: Managing your Family Group
6. On Line Editing: More Facts, Family, GDB Links
7. Comparing and Synchronising Records
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
16. Privacy
18. Linking trees
20. Uploading Objects to your Database
21. Bulk-uploading Objects. FamNet
resource: Useful Databases
22. Publishing Living Family on Family
Web Sites
23. Have YOU written your family story yet?
24. Editing and Re-arranging your Family Tree On-line.
25. It’s the Stories that Matter
26. Using QR Codes for your Family History
27. What happens to our Family History when we’re gone?
DNA Testing for Family History
From the editor: Gail has written quite a series on DNA Testing. You will see them all on the FAMNET website and they are a must-read, particularly if you are considering or have had a test done. They are easy to read and not too technical. Click Index so far to see these articles. This month Gail’s article is reproduced from DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy by kind permission from the author Roberta Estes. We’ve split the article in two, the 2nd part will come next month.
Genetic
Genealogy at 20 Years: Where Have We Been, Where Are We Going and
What’s Important? by Roberta Estes
Roberta
regularly writes and you can see many more topics by going to DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy
Genetic Genealogy at 20 Years: Where Have We Been, Where Are We Going and What’s Important?
Not only have we put 2020 in the rear-view mirror, thankfully, we’re at the 20-year, two-decade milestone. The point at which genetics was first added to the toolbox of genealogists.
It seems both like yesterday and forever ago. And yes, I've been here the whole time, as a spectator, researcher, and active participant.
Let’s put this in perspective. On New Year’s Eve, right at midnight, in 2005, I was able to score kit number 50,000 at Family Tree DNA. I remember this because it seemed like such a bizarre thing to be doing at midnight on New Year’s Eve. But hey, we genealogists are what we are.
I knew that momentous kit number which seemed just HUGE at the time was on the threshold of being sold, because I had inadvertently purchased kit 49,997 a few minutes earlier.
Somehow kit 50,000 seemed like such a huge milestone, a landmark – so I quickly bought kits, 49,998, 49,999, and then…would I get it…YES…kit 50,000. Score!
That meant that in the 5 years FamilyTreeDNA had been in business, they had sold on an average of 10,000 kits per year, or 27 kits a day. Today, that’s a rounding error. Then it was momentous!
In reality, the sales were ramping up quickly, because very few kits were sold in 2000, and roughly 20,000 kits had been sold in 2005 alone. I know this because I purchased kit 28,429 during the holiday sale a year earlier.
Of course, I had no idea who I’d test with that momentous New Year’s Eve Y DNA kit, but I assuredly would find someone. A few months later, I embarked on a road trip to visit an elderly family member with that kit in tow. Thank goodness I did, and they agreed and swabbed on the spot, because they are gone today and with them, the story of the Y line and autosomal DNA of their branch.
In the past two decades, almost an entire generation has slipped away, and with them, an entire genealogical library held in their DNA.
Today, more than 40 million people have tested with the four major DNA testing companies, although we don’t know exactly how many.
Lots of people have had more time to focus on genealogy in 2020, so let’s take a look at what’s important? What’s going on and what matters beyond this month or year?
How has this industry changed in the last two decades, and where it is going?
Reflection
This seems like a good point to reflect a bit.
In the beginning - twenty years ago, there were two companies who stuck their toes in the consumer DNA testing water - Oxford Ancestors and Family Tree DNA. About the same time, Sorenson Genomics and GeneTree were also entering that space, although Sorenson was a nonprofit. Today, of those, only FamilyTreeDNA remains, having adapted with the changing times – adding more products, testing, and sophistication.
Bryan Sykes who founded Oxford Ancestors announced in 2018 that he was retiring to live abroad and subsequently passed away in 2020. The website still exists, but the company has announced that they have ceased sales and the database will remain open until Sept 30, 2021.
James Sorenson died in 2008 and the assets of Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, including the Sorenson database, were sold to Ancestry in 2012. Eventually, Ancestry removed the public database in 2015.
Ancestry dabbled in Y and mtDNA for a while, too, destroying that database in 2014.
Other companies, too many to remember or mention, have come and gone as well. Some of the various company names have been recycled or purchased, but aren’t the same companies today.
In the DNA space, it was keep up, change, die or be sold. Of course, there was the small matter of being able to sell enough DNA kits to make enough money to stay in business at all. DNA processing equipment and a lab are expensive. Not just the equipment, but also the expertise.
The Next Wave
As time moved forward, new players entered the landscape, comprising the “Big 4” testing companies that constitute the ponds where genealogists fish today.
23andMe was the first to introduce autosomal DNA testing and matching. Their goal and focus was always medical genetics, but they recognized the potential in genealogists before anyone else, and we flocked to purchase tests.
Ancestry settled on autosomal only and relies on the size of their database, a large body of genealogy subscribers, and a widespread "feel-good" marketing campaign to sell DNA kits as the gateway to “discover who you are.”
FamilyTreeDNA did and still does offer all 3 kinds of tests. Over the years, they have enhanced both the Y DNA and mitochondrial product offerings significantly and are still known as “the science company.” They are the only company to offer the full range of Y DNA tests, including their flagship Big Y-700, full sequence mitochondrial testing along with matching for both products. Their autosomal product is called Family Finder.
MyHeritage entered the DNA testing space a few years after the others as the dark horse that few expected to be successful – but they fooled everyone. They have acquired companies and partnered along the way which allowed them to add customers (Promethease) and tools (such as AutoCluster by Genetic Affairs), boosting their number of users. Of course, MyHeritage also offers users a records research subscription service that you can try for free.
In summary:
FamilyTreeDNA (Y DNA, mitochondrial DNA, and autosomal DNA testing) launched in 2000 with Y DNA and mitochondrial. Their Family Finder autosomal test launched in 2010.
23andMe (autosomal only) launched in 2007.
Ancestry (autosomal only) launched in 2011.
MyHeritage (autosomal only) launched in 2016.
One of the wonderful things that happened was that some vendors began to accept compatible raw DNA autosomal data transfer files from other vendors. Today, FamilyTreeDNA, MyHeritage, and GEDmatch DO accept transfer files, while Ancestry and 23andMe do not.
DNA File Upload-Download and Transfer Instructions to and from DNA Testing Companies
The transfers and matching are free, but there are either minimal unlock or subscription plans for advanced features.
There are other testing companies, some with niche markets and others not so reputable. For this article, I’m focusing on the primary DNA testing companies that are useful for genealogy and mainstream companion third-party tools that complement and enhance those services.
The Single Biggest Change
As I look back, the single biggest change is that genetic genealogy evolved from the pariah of genealogy where DNA discussion was banned from the (now defunct) Rootsweb lists and summarily deleted for the first few years after introduction. I know, that’s hard to believe today.
Why, you ask?
Reasons varied from “just because” to “DNA is cheating” and then morphed into “because DNA might do terrible things like, maybe, suggest that a person really wasn’t related to an ancestor in a lineage society.”
Bottom line - fear and misunderstanding. Change is exceedingly difficult for humans, and DNA definitely moved the genealogy cheese.
From that awkward beginning, genetic genealogy organically became a “thing,” a specific application of genealogy. There was paper-trail traditional genealogy and then the genetic aspect. Today, for almost everyone, genealogy is “just another tool” in the genealogist’s toolbox, although it does require focused learning, just like any other tool.
DNA isn’t separate anymore, but is now an integral part of the genealogical whole. Having said that, DNA can’t solve all problems or answer all questions, but neither can traditional paper-trail genealogy. Together, each makes the other stronger and solves mysteries that neither can resolve alone.
Synergy.
I fully believe that we have still only scratched the surface of what’s possible.
Inheritance
As we talk about the various types of DNA testing and tools, here’s a quick graphic to remind you of how the different types of DNA are inherited.
Y DNA is inherited paternally for males only and informs us of the direct patrilineal (surname) line.
Mitochondrial DNA is inherited by everyone from their mothers and informs us of the mother’s matrilineal (mother’s mother’s mother’s) line.
Autosomal DNA can be inherited from potentially any ancestor in random but somewhat predictable amounts through both parents. The further back in time, the less identifiable DNA you’ll inherit from any specific ancestor. I wrote about that, here.
What’s Hot and What’s Not
Where should we be focused today and where is this industry going? What tools and articles popped up in 2020 to help further our genealogy addiction? I already published the most popular articles of 2020, here.
This industry started two decades ago with testing a few Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA markers, and we were utterly thrilled at the time. Both tests have advanced significantly and the prices have dropped like a stone. My first mitochondrial DNA test that tested only 400 locations cost more than $800 - back then.
Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA are still critically important to genetic genealogy. Both play unique roles and provide information that cannot be obtained through autosomal DNA testing. Today, relative to Y DNA and mitochondrial DNA, the biggest challenge, ironically, is educating newer genealogists about their potential who have never heard about anything other than autosomal, often ethnicity, testing.
We have to educate in order to overcome the cacophony of “don’t bother because you don’t get as many matches.”
That’s like saying “don’t use the right size wrench because the last one didn’t fit and it’s a bother to reach into the toolbox.” Not to mention that if everyone tested, there would be a lot more matches, but I digress.
If you don’t use the right tool, and all of the tools at your disposal, you’re not going to get the best result possible.
To be continued.
Digging Into Historical
Records
Dawn
is taking a break this month – she is a very busy lady.
Pandora Research
Chinese Corner
Victor
Low – the Chinese Anzac who laid out the Bulford Kiwi
On 14-15 March 1919, New Zealand troops based at Sling Camp in England rioted. As a way of keeping the soldiers occupied after the riot, a massive kiwi surveyed by Sergeant Major Victor Low was carved into the hillside above the camp. Victor Lo Keong was born in Dunedin on 3 July 1894. He was one of the six children of Matilda and Joseph Lo Keong, who are widely regarded as New Zealand’s first Chinese family. The Lo Keongs ran a fancy-goods store and raised their children to be part of wider New Zealand society, speaking English and attending public schools. Victor had two brothers: William became a dentist, while Norman was New Zealand’s first Chinese university graduate (BE from Canterbury University College) and became an electrical engineer. Victor followed Norman to Canterbury but there is no record of him completing his engineering degree. Both Norman and Victor served in the First World War. Norman enlisted as Norman Low in September 1914, put his engineering training to use as a sapper, and served right through the war. Twenty-two-year-old Victor Low enlisted on 9 January 1917. Called up on 20 March 1917, he was attached to the 5th Tunnelling Reinforcements, who were bound for France. His mother Matilda had died in 1915, his father some ten years earlier, and the next of kin noted on his form was his sister Estelle, who lived at the family home, 13 Scotland Street, Dunedin. Victor was either a self-employed civil engineer or an engineering student. He had been a member of the Civil Service Rifles in Christchurch. Victor arrived in the United Kingdom on 20 July 1917 and marched into Sling Camp in Wiltshire on the same day. Less than a month later he was bound for the British Expeditionary Force’s base camp at Étaples in France. As a member of the New Zealand Engineers Tunnelling Corps, Victor was attached to the Third Army, which defended Arras during the German Spring offensive and then fought in the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918. He was hospitalised with influenza towards the end of 1918. Whilst the main group of New Zealand Engineers tunnellers were repatriated as a complete section, Victor remained in the United Kingdom in the Army Education Unit until he was demobilised in August 1919. While Victor was in the Education Unit as a sergeant, New Zealand troops rioted at Sling Camp on 14 and 15 March 1919. The instigators were a small group of soldiers, mainly from the South Island, who had been waiting for months to board a ship for the six-week voyage to New Zealand. Designed for 4000 troops, Sling Camp was overflowing with 6000 restless men. Soldiers’ deaths from influenza, a lack of money and leave, and the continuation of military routines and compulsory education classes created a toxic mix. The fuse was lit when officers announced that the departure of a ship for the South Island had been postponed. Whilst only a few hundred men rioted, thousands refused to obey orders. Just over £10,000 ($1 million) worth of damage was done, mostly to NZEF equipment and stores. Eight soldiers were charged with mutiny, with six convicted and punished. The idea of constructing a lasting memento of the New Zealanders’ occupation of Sling Camp was put forward by Brigadier-General Alexander Stewart, the camp’s commandant. After the riots in March 1919, the British Army gave permission for the construction of a kiwi on military land on nearby Beacon Hill. The work would keep soldiers occupied while they waited to go home. Victor Low surveyed the Bulford Kiwi. It was a difficult job, as the hill had a 10-degree slope and there was an irregularity in the centre. The chalky soil was similar to that at Arras, with which Victor was familiar. Once the kiwi had been drawn by Sergeant-Major Percy Blenkarne, the image had to be redrawn to fit onto Beacon Hill. Victor surveyed the kiwi from ‘YMCA Corner’. Once he was certain he had it absolutely correct, the soldiers cut the kiwi by hand under the direction of Captain Harry Clark. The soil was dug out to a depth of 30 centimetres, exposing the chalk beneath. The kiwi is 128 metres long, with its beak extending 45.7 metres and the ‘NZ’ letters standing 20 metres high. The work was completed on 28 June 1919, the day the Treaty of Versailles with Germany was signed. When Victor was demobilised from the army he travelled to Hong Kong, where he worked for many years for the architectural firm Palmer and Turner. Victor and his wife Emily left Hong Kong in 1941 shortly before the Japanese attacked the island, travelling through China to Chungking and into India before returning to New Zealand in 1943. Back in New Zealand, Victor worked for the Ministry of Works in Wellington, where he died on 11 May 1953, aged 59. Colleen Brown is author of The
Bulford Kiwi: The kiwi we left behind, and would like
to acknowledge the research by Dr James Ng on the Lo Keong family The video for this story about New Zealand Chinese tunneller Victor Low screened on Newshub on 24 April 2017. https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/video/victor-low-great-war-story Produced and directed by Anna Cottrell, AC Productions for MediaWorks Newshub. Made with the support of NZ On Air https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/great-war-stories-victor-low-2017 |
Anne
Sherman
What
clients need to know about Professional Research.
Perhaps
one of the hardest concepts I have had to explain to amateur researchers is the
difference between private and professional research. With many records
now being available online and indexed for us, some clients do not fully appreciate
how long trawling through non indexed records can actually take.
Added to that, professional researchers have a set timescale and a duty to try
to prove relationships rather than rely on assumptions and best
guesses. For these reasons this article will look at three areas
that I have commonly found that clients may not fully appreciate – research
time, report writing and the records available.
Research Time online ‘v’ offline
With the advent of genealogical research in the digital age it is understandable that some clients may not fully appreciate how long offline research can take. Unlike online research using search engines and databases, offline research takes place in archive offices and libraries and will necessitate taking time to travel there. The furthest office I access takes 45 minutes to drive to, and this time and motoring costs needs to be factored into the charges made to the client in some way. There is no one accepted way and all professionals will cover this cost in different ways either by separate travel charges or within the overall research cost.
Apart from the time spent traveling, most archive offices have set times when they collect requested records. In my experience this can take between 10 to 30 minutes. Therefore it is inevitable, regardless of how much planning is done prior to the visit, that some time may be ‘wasted’ sitting around waiting for the necessary record to arrive from the storage shelves. Covid19 has made this even harder. In the UK, when archives are open, visits are generally by appointment only. You can no longer just drop in to look something up. Researchers must also pre book the documents they wish to see. This means knowing exactly which records they wish to view several days in advance. Not an easy task, as on many occasions the results in a viewed record will determine which document they look at next.
Most of the research time is spent reading the actual record. These can be quite fragile books or documents that need to be handled with care. They are usually handwritten, and rarely contain an index. It is amazing how time flies by when you are reading through such records. Quite often we have been asked to find all the references to one named person – who may or may not even appear in that record. To save time we have to quickly scan every page in search of that name, and then accurately record every instance so it can be given to the client. Imagine that you are reading a thick paperback book from your local bookshop or library – how long would it take for you to read it? Now imagine having to search for just one name and write down word for word exactly what is said about that person. Most historical books in archives offices are several times larger than a standard paperback book, and being handwritten, and sometimes faded with age, they are harder to read quickly.
It is always disappointing when a researcher has found very little (if any) information in the several hours the client has paid for, but even if the record exists it takes time and patience to search for it. It is the research time, and the researcher’s skills and expertise, clients are paying for, not the amount of information they find.
Report Writing:
All professional researchers write some kind of report for clients and often the report writing can take longer than the actual research. Some let the client know how much time (and money) the report writing is likely to take, others just include it in the price, and a few do not charge for this, but then they can spend hours working without being paid.
Not all clients appreciate the need for a report and may ask for just the research. One of my clients insisted that I simply type the results into an email. Reluctantly I tried this approach and found that even simply listing the results took 20 minutes. Once the client had read the email, I was then inundated with questions and my answers look the best part of 2 days to cover – time for which I had not been paid. Had I written my usual report all of these questions would have been answered. Fortunately for the client I do not (currently) charge for writing email replies.
Reports are not just a list of what has/has not been found, but they should contain an analysis of the research and answer the ‘how, when and why’ questions they were intended to answer.
Report writing is a necessary part of professional research and just as time consuming, so it needs to be paid for.
Record Availability:
Sometimes it is difficult for clients to understand why certain records about their ancestors cannot be found, or why their ancestry search has come to an end. I frequently come across potential clients who will not accept that their family history cannot be traced further back than the mid/late 18th century.
Today our lives are dominated by paperwork, but written records were not as common pre Victorian times, and what records they did have may have been destroyed once they were no longer required. We are lucky to have the 1851 & 1861 UK census returns as in 1891 permission was requested to destroy the enumeration books for those years, as they were taking up too much space in the Houses of Parliament. Fortunately the Registrar General at the time recognised the potential historical value and so permission was refused.
Generally, if your ancestor was working class, honest and did not need financial support, there may be little information about them. Sometimes not even a baptism or marriage record can be found. Pre 1840’s the main records used in family history research were the church registers listing baptisms, marriages and burials, but these were originally very basic and did not give family details. It is therefore impossible to be sure who the direct ancestor was, especially as the extended family used the same Christian names. The trail will also run cold if the family moved into or out of an area as there is often nothing to indicate the other location.
In an age of illiteracy and when writing paper was expensive finding your ancestors amongst the ordinary man could be impossible.
As with all professional relationships the client needs to be able to trust that the professional is doing their job and not just asking for money for things when it is not necessary. Hopefully this article will help to show the difference between private and professional research and some of the issues professional researchers have to face.
More Famous New Zealanders You have Probably Never Heard Of
Henry
Edward KAVANAGH (1892-1958)
A
New Zealander kept Britain laughing during the dark days of World War Two.
Henry Edward (Ted) KAVANAGH was born on the 7 March 1892 in Auckland, the son of Henry Paul and Jane Kavanagh née LORIGAN. Henry Paul Kavanagh was public servant involved in the timber industry. The Kavanagh family came from Tasmania and settled at Patumahoe, Franklin in 1866.
Ted passed medical preliminary at Auckland University College and left New Zealand in February 1914 for Edinburgh where he was to study medicine.
On the 1 March 1916, he enlisted with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force[1] at the NZ Base Depot, Hornchurch, London and was posted to the NZ Medical Corps. He was employed at the bacteriological laboratory at London Hospital and was demobilised on the 13 April 1917 to complete his medical studies. After working at Bart’s Hospital, London and just before he was to qualify, he gave up his medical training and began life as a writer.
He wrote for all types of publications and on all types of subjects from science to comedy. He also wrote radio scripts and co-wrote two films. In 1939 he wrote “It's That Man Again” (commonly known as ITMA), a weekly radio comedy programme for popular Liverpudlian comedian Tommy Handley. Hattie Jacques was also a regular. War news was used, and the show was credited with sustaining wartime morale. It was heard in New Zealand through the BBC.
In 1942 a special visit was made by the crew to Windsor Castle and a record of the performance was presented to the Royal Family, fans of the show.[2] The show ran from 1939 until the death of Handley in 1949 and catchphrases from the show, including d’oh and twerp became well known.[3]
In 1948, Ted established Ted Kavanagh Associated (Entertainments) Ltd, which brought many comedy writers together for radio, and later television shows. Ted was known to always wears his hat while he was working—saying he could not write without it.
While still a medical student, Ted married Agnes O’Keefe in Glasgow on the 31 March 1919. One of their sons, Patrick Joseph Kavanagh, known as P J Kavanagh, became a well-known English poet, lecturer, actor, broadcaster and columnist.[4]
Henry Edward (Ted) Kavanagh died on the 17 September 1958 in London and is buried at St Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green, London.
A devout Roman Catholic, Ted was chairman of the Catholic Stage Guild and also was involved with the Catholic Writers' Guild of St. Francis de Sales. He was awarded a knighthood of St. Gregory by Pope Pius XII in 1952.
[1] KAVANAGH, Henry Edward - WW1 3/2253 – Army www.archway.archives.govt.nz/
[2] Otago Daily Times, Issue 26638, 8 December 1947 p5
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_That_Man_Again
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._J._Kavanagh
Wairarapa Wanderings
ILMO…..
How
many times have you walked through a pioneer cemetery, and wondered about the
history of the departed - I can tell you from experience its fascinating and
addictive. After my husband died March 22nd 2000, I decided to
change from what we had started i.e. weeding our local cemetery, here at
Clareville, and started to investigate some of these pioneers.
I can remember one grave, in particular, which was covered in ivy. It took hours of hard work to cut the carpet of ivy so it could be rolled off and carted elsewhere, a job the sexton took on. The headstone was for Charles DAKIN with his wife, Mary, and children (toddlers and older). Charles came from Tutbury in Staffordshire. He had married Mary Jane nee SMITH and came to New Zealand in 1857, on the Libertas, together with a cousin by the surname of ORDISH. Charles’s mother was Frances ORDISH before marrying a DAKIN. I have copies of letters to the family back in England, kindly given by descendants. So many folks married into the Dakin family over the years, and they are scattered around New Zealand North and South Islands.
Another family from Tutbury were in Three Mile Bush, which was the first name for Carterton. This was Thomas INGLEY. I wonder if these two couples knew each other before sailing to New Zealand. Some Ingley’s are buried at Clareville. But mostly at Greytown Cemetery.
One family that I have been interested in these last few months, is Thomas REID from Calvin Bank farm at Clareville and his wife Mary Ann. They sailed from Glasgow in 1840, on the Bengal Merchant. Sadly Thomas was killed on 26 July 1866 whilst cutting down a tree to build his first home in Three Mile Bush. A descendant and I went to this very house the other week, and spoke to the family living there today. Our next visit was the house that Mary had built, still in the same road, at Clareville, and met the present owner who welcomed us and showed us around. It’s lovely to be able to do history like this, doing the cemetery and visiting the properties the family had lived in
Now with the DAKIN family, there was a son also called Charles who married but didn’t have any sons to hand the surname on. They were in the South Island. I live in DAKIN Cottage which was built, in 1880, by Charles Dakin. He also worked for Charles Rooking CARTER whom Carterton is named after in 1859. There is a Dakin’s Road at East Taratahi, on the land that was where Charles had his sheep. I renamed our cottage when I learnt who had built it from Tiffin to Dakin Cottage which is a much more apt name after the family that built it, but not the first to live in it - that was James Burton PENNY family…whose sister married Bishop Nevil of Dunedin. I hold a lot about the Penny family and who is related today to them, he was in Parliament…..
So, from first weeding to doing history, it is a fascinating life being retired.
12 Neich’s Lane
Clareville 5713
Guest Contributors
Ken Morris
An Underground Guide to Sewers
Or Down Through & Out in Paris, London, New York By Stephen Halliday. Published 2019 (& the reviewer’s added comments on a system closer to home, Auckland)
Certainly not everyone’s subject of choice, but this is a superbly produced book with many detailed photos, maps, and drawings to complement the narrative. When there is a TV show that shows folk, who may have been our ancestors in all their finery or perhaps in the slums of London in the 1800’s I think of them trying to deal with all of their clothes and to the actual toilet facilities they may have had or not had when they have to attend to their toilet functions. The book covers the sewers of ancient civilizations but has an emphasis on the sewers and sewage systems that were needed in the cities of Europe and the new world as city populations exploded with the Industrial Revolution. Science, medicine & engineering all played their part in developing the collection systems, early disposal systems and eventually treatment plants to clean the water to its original purity. Visitors in all their finery took tours though the sewers on carts & boats, and a small vehicle fits inside
Auckland’s Eastern Interceptor.
I started
my career as an engineering cadet in 1959 and some of my first jobs involved
assisting on the new Auckland sewerage system whereby, instead of discharging
Auckland’s raw sewage from an outfall near Okahu Bay Wharf on Tamaki Drive, it
was going to be redirected to a treatment plant & large oxidation ponds
created around Puketutu Island at Mangere on the Manukau Harbour. Until the new
system was operational the sewage was collected into giant tanks under the
Tamaki Rd pavement and was discharged untreated on an outgoing tide down the
Rangitoto Channel. These tanks were eventually repurposed and became Kelly
Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium. Whilst Auckland’s system might not have been so
grand as some of the British Victorian era sewage systems it was a major
engineering feat to redirect the raw sewage from the Pacific Ocean to the
Tasman Sea as treated sewage via the Manukau harbour, and it also collected all
the liquid (& other) waste from three major abattoir/freezing works that
until then just poured it into the upper reaches of the Manukau Harbour.
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Geoff Mentzer
The Doris – Tu Atu Disaster:
ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
INTRODUCTION
It began with the local paper. In December 2015, Hawke's Bay Today ran a subjective, error-laden, half-broadsheet piece entitled "'Doris disaster' shattered families' lives." The disaster was the collision of the launch Doris and coastal lighter Tu Atu in December 1932, at the entrance to the inner harbour at Port Ahuriri, Napier. It took three people – Messrs MORONEY, TURNBULL and GEDDIS – to compile this sorry excuse for journalism. Their piece, devoid of even a single instance of original research, was simply copy and paste, a cribbing of others' mistakes, a reiteration of earlier errors compounded with their own. And the compilers were blind to a fundamental potential source of information, the telephone book.
The Doris – Tu Atu collision ranks as one of New Zealand's worst harbour tragedies, and my grandfather Eric MENTZER was one of the survivors from the Doris. I'd researched the collision in the 1990s, collected newspaper articles, copies of both Inquiry transcripts and of all relevant Napier Harbour Board archives, along with notes of interviews with numerous folks, some of whom remembered the collision first-hand (and many of whom were traced via the phone book). And there the matter was shelved since there was nothing further to be gained.
Hawke's Bay Today subsequently published three further pieces covering the Doris tragedy, none of which was devoid of errors. Even one as simple as a reporter not knowing the difference between ancestors and descendants.
There is, then, a need for a re-examination of the tragedy.
PRELUDE
Wednesday 28 December 1932
About 11pm, the launch Doris under control of launchman Eric MENTZER, collected from the cargo ship Port Brisbane 15 waterside workers and their employer, stevedore company owner J T 'Jack' FENWICK. Immediately prior, Doris had collected 13 men and their supervisor N W LOW from the nearby Port Hunter. Both ships were anchored in the roadstead off Napier, but whereas the Port Hunter men had handled the wool cargo in their usual working clothes and boots, the Port Brisbane men who'd worked in the freezer holds were clad in double layers of clothing and coats.
MENTZER, rated an AB, had made four or five trips in the launch that day, taking messages from the port and crew members out to both ships in the roadstead.
Doris owner FENWICK had, along with other men, noted from Port Brisbane that the single 12-volt electric lamp with three sectors – red port, green starboard and white masthead – on a 2 foot 9 inch [850mm] standard on the launch foredeck were quite clear. The short standard along with the lamp tricolour construction did, however, make the separation between the white and the coloureds less than the recommended 3 ft [900mm.] Nonetheless, the launch had passed its official survey the previous October. And now she was headed for home.
At the same time, the little twin-screw coastal lighter Tu Atu cast off in the Iron Pot at Port Ahuriri and motored out into the channel, headed on her regular cargo run for Wairoa. Engineer David JONES had her at half speed with the usual single engine, lookout Arne ANGEN was on deck but not fully forward, and Captain Billy MARTIN was at the wheel but not in front of it. Instead, he was standing on a grating outside the wheelhouse on the port side of the vessel, leaning in to hold a wheel spoke.
There was an ebb tide for Doris' estimated 12 to 13 minute voyage to the Iron Pot, and the moonless night was fine and clear, visibility was good with a light breeze, and there was a slight sea and swell. And while there was the usual banter amongst men all seated and homeward bound from their shift, a few remained silent, watching the approaching channel entrance to Port Ahuriri.
The entrance, approximately 100 metres wide, was bordered by the West Pier with a blinking white beacon at its seaward end, and the East Pier with fixed lamps in sectors of red, green and white to aid navigation, all mounted on a timber beacon slightly inland from the Pier end. In order to open the channel, Doris initially headed more west, with the blinking light on her port bow and the Eastern white light in view. Once the Eastern green lamp came in view, it would be safe to enter the channel. But before then, there was laughter at a joke about being taken to the cabaret at Westshore to finish the night. The cabaret lights could be seen, and the implication was that perhaps Doris was headed just a little too far west.
About six minutes into the voyage, MENTZER saw at about one point on his starboard side the masthead and starboard green lights of a very slow moving vessel in the fairway, and altered his course a little for the midchannel, ie to the east. He was still outside the channel proper, and kept the other vessel's lights slightly on his starboard bow for another three or four minutes. He'd reduced Doris' speed by 2 or 2½ knots down from eight, when someone called out, "Look out Tu Atu," which vessel was then about 20 to 25 ft [6 to 7.6 metres] away, her green and white lights still visible. Tu Atu was then suddenly upon them, her red port lamp briefly visible. The vessels collided, but only a mere brushing of Tu Atu's stempost against Doris' starboard side amidships, a little below the gunwale.
The complete article is available from
https://knowledgebank.org.nz/text/doris-tu-atu-disaster-another-perspective-the/?searchterm=tu%20atu
Geoff Mentzer
An
Invitation to Contribute:
I have a number of people that contribute occasional articles. These appear irregularly if and when the authors send them to me. I use them to bulk up each month's newsletter. The more we have the more "rests" I can give my much-appreciated regular columnists.
This is a way that a person can get some of their writing published. Of course, we are all writing up our research results, aren't we? I have always said that every genealogist is an expert in some small piece of history, resources or research methods.
We circulate this newsletter to about 7,000 subscribers worldwide but is read by many more as it is passed on to other readers and LDS research centres. Every month I get feedback on my poor attempts at writing and I have now made many "new friends", albeit digital ones. In a few months I hope to meet a few when I waddle along to a few conferences and meetings in England and Scotland. I have even had a few very helpful assistances in my research.
Why don't you contribute an article?
My basic requirements:
1) The column must be in English
2) The column should be no longer than about 1,200 words
3) The article should be emailed to me in a Word document format
4) The subject should be genealogical or historical in nature
Do not be afraid about your "perceived" bad English. The article will be edited, in a friendly manner, by me and then Robert. Then all columnists and a few valuable proof-readers get to read the newsletter before it is emailed out. You’ll be paid $0 for your article, which is on the same scale that Robert and I pay ourselves for editing and publishing the newsletter.
From our Libraries and
Museums
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 makes 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 - Waha pū-taonga
February to June 2021
Are you interested in family and local history; the stories of Aotearoa New
Zealand, the Pacific, and beyond?
Then why not come along to one of our fortnightly HeritageTalks - Waha pū-taonga and hear more about both our personal and our shared heritage?
These talks are given by experts in their field and can provide valuable insight into our histories and our cultures.
When: Wednesdays, February to
November, 12pm - 1pm unless otherwise stated
Where: Whare Wānanga, Level 2, Central City Library, Lorne St, Auckland.
Also online via Zoom (when speaker permits)
Cost: Free
Booking: All welcome. Booking recommended.
To ensure your place, please contact Research Central on 09 890 2412, or book online www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz
These events have been submitted to our web team and should be showing on our website.
Go to www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz and select events
February
Summer scholars from the University of Auckland
present their research into Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland
Wednesday 17 February 12pm – 1pm
The Auckland History Initiative (AHI), a research collaboration at the
University of Auckland, presents research projects from the 2021 Summer
Scholars exploring aspects of Auckland's history. These students have spent 12
weeks over the summer break researching in the varied and rich archives around
Auckland under the supervision of Professor Linda Bryder. The AHI views Summer
Research Scholarships as an integral way to engage students in Auckland history
and to strengthen relationships with the Auckland GLAMR (galleries, libraries,
archives, museums and records) sector.
This event will be
held in the Whare Wānanga on Level 2 of the Central City Library and online via
Zoom.
To
ensure your place, please contact Research Central on 09 890 2412, or book
online www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz
Moana Currents: Early Pacific migrants to Auckland City with Dr Andrea Low and Emily Parr
Wednesday 24 February 12pm – 1pm
The Kronfeld and Greig families were calabash cousins through their matriarchs Florence Greig and Louisa Kronfeld. Both women were gafa to Samoa; the island of Lotofaga for Louisa and Fasitoʻotai for Florence. Their travels eventually brought them in 1890 and 1907 respectively to Aotearoa New Zealand, where they settled and continued to raise their families, maintained links to the families they had left and nurtured new relationships. Andrea Low, great granddaughter of Florence, and Emily Parr, great great-granddaughter of Louisa, will share stories and images of these early Moana migrants who made their homes here.
Speakers’ biographies:
Emily Parr (Ngāi Te Rangi, Moana, Pākehā) is an artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau. Weaving stories with moving-image, her practice explores relationships between people, political frameworks, whenua and moana. Her recent Master's research on settler-indigenous relationships of Te Moananui a Kiwa traverses oceans and centuries, seeking stories in archives and waters on haerenga to ancestral homelands.
Dr Andrea Low (Samoa, Hawaiʻi, Fiji, Tongareva, Scotland) is a curator and artist in Tāmaki Makaurau and is a multi-disciplinary researcher who brings together archival studies, ethnomusicology, Moana/Oceania/Pacific history, photography, biography and de|colonial perspectives.
March
Migrant women we love with Dr Edwina Pio
Wednesday 10 March 12 noon – 1pm
In our woven universe, immigration stories have multicoloured gleaming threads entwined with motifs of history, culture, work and gender. How do migrant women navigate their worlds? How is voice and silence enacted in the theatres of their lives? This heritage talk will focus on the lives of visible ethnic minority migrant women and their trajectories of migration and work, embossed with patriarchy, religion and transnational feminist psychology, in their quest to create wonderful meaningful lives for themselves and their families in our beautiful Aotearoa.
Exploring 1840s New Zealand Through Australian Convict Records with Associate Professor Kristyn Harman PhD
Wednesday 24 March 12pm – 1pm
In the
decade before New Zealand’s first official national population census was
taken, more than 100 people were transported as criminals across the Tasman Sea
to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania). Detailed records of their interrogations
have survived, along with in-depth accounts of their physical features and
other personal attributes. This talk will reveal how Tasmania’s convict records
can tell us much about the origins, characteristics, and skill sets of the
working classes who populated New Zealand’s early towns and cities, why some of
them were transported across the sea, and what became of those who were exiled.
Speaker’s biography
Originally from the Wairarapa, Dr Kristyn Harman currently lives and works in
Hobart where she is an Associate Professor in History at the University of
Tasmania. Her latest book Cleansing the Colony: Transporting convicts from
New Zealand to Van Diemen’s Land was published in November 2017 by
Otago University Press and was longlisted in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards
the following year. She has a Certificate in Arts from Massey University as
well as a Bachelor of Arts (first class honours), PhD, and Graduate Certificate
in University Learning and Teaching from the University of Tasmania.
Talking Family History with Michelle Patient and Fiona Brooker
Wednesday 31 March 12pm – 1pm
Join us this Wednesday lunchtime to chat with Fiona Brooker and Michelle Patient in person. Last March, they joined forces and started a weekly Friday night Talking Family History virtual lounge session online. As a result the two past Presidents of the Society of New Zealand Genealogists found themselves giving fortnightly presentations on Ancestry's Facebook site. So now is your chance to come along and meet them in real life as they chat about genealogy, DNA and take questions from the floor. Bring along your family history questions, be they brick walls, or "I have always wanted to know how..." or "what would you suggest I do next"?
Fiona Brooker
Fiona has served as both President and Treasurer of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG) and has worked with local branches, including convening the 2008 and 2018 national conferences. She holds a Higher Certificate in Genealogy from the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies. She began her company Memories in Time from a desire to help others trace their family history. She has helped people get started, get through roadblocks, and find heirs to estates. Fiona is a co-founder of Talking Family History.
Michelle Patient
Michelle is a genealogist and scientist with qualifications in chemistry and geology. She is a past President of the NZ Society of Genealogists and current NZ representative of the Guild of One Name Studies (GOONS). She has spoken in New Zealand, Australia, and England, belongs to many genealogy societies and has a keen interest in education, surname research, adoptions, methodology, and technology. She set up the New Zealand DNA Users Group on Facebook to assist researchers using this new tool. Michelle is also a co-founder of Talking Family History.
To ensure your place, please contact Research Central on 09 890 2412, or book online www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz
APRIL
From picks to Pietas - James Tannock Mackelvie's rise to fame with Mary
Kisler
Wednesday 7 April 12 noon – 1pm
While
James Tannock Mackelvie spent only the years 1865 to 1871 living in Auckland,
working for Brown, Campbell & Co., his investments provided the funds to
collect a wide array of art, books and objects that he gave to the people of
Auckland. His archive, sent to Auckland after his death in 1885, shows he threw
little away. Alongside his annotated catalogue for the 1882 Hamilton Palace
sale are lists of everyday items such as tea, shovels, and beef provided for
gold miners. This talk is based on research carried out in the Mackelvie
archive at Sir George Grey Special Collections as the Auckland Libraries
Heritage Trust Scholar 2020.
To
ensure your place, please contact Research Central on 09 890 2412, or book
online www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz
Remembering the Military Nurses with Iris Taylor
Wednesday 21 April 12 noon – 1pm
Family
historian Iris Taylor takes us through a brief history of New Zealand nursing
up to the First World War. Iris also covers the deaths of 10 New Zealand nurses
when the 'Marquette' was struck by a torpedo in the Aegean Sea. She recounts
her pilgrimage in September 2015 to remember these New Zealand nurses and visit
the island of Lemnos, a Greek island off the coast of Turkey, where the 3rd
Australian Field Hospital was set up to take casualties from Gallipoli.
To
ensure your place, please contact Research Central on 09 890 2412, or book online www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz
Nga 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
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: wfhg2012@gmail.com
Venue: Meets every 4th Thursday morning at the Waikanae Chartered Club, 8 Elizabeth Street Waikanae, just over the Railway Crossing from 9.30am to 12 -12.30pm, every month from January to November.
Research days: at the Waikanae Public Library, 10am to 12 noon on second Wednesday of each month.
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
waitarahistory.genealogy@xtra.co.nz
President:- Rona Hooson
Vice President:- Doree Smith
Secretary:- Trish Smart
Treasurer:- Marilyn O’Lander
office:-067543212
News
and Views
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From the Editor: Because of space restrictions and copyright issues I cannot put the complete articles in this newsletter so here are some URLs that are worth looking at:
Kirk
session records to be added to ScotlandsPeople in 2021
http://scottishgenes.blogspot.com/2020/12/kirk-session-records-to-be-added-to.html
IrelandXO Insight - Irish Naming and
Baptism Traditions
Digital images from the AJCP
https://cooroynoosagenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/08/digital-images-from-ajcp.html
Guarding Against Presentism: How Historical Facts
(Should) Affect Your Research Strategy
https://www.legacytree.com/blog/social-historical-context
Should you build your family tree online or offline?
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/family-tree/offline-family-tree-genealogy-history-physical
Scottish Research
Electric Scotland https://electricscotland.com/webclans/scotroot.htm
Lost Cousins’ Newsletter
There's always something interesting in the LostCousins' Newsletters:
https://www.lostcousins.com/newsletters2/jan21news.htm
DNA winds of change
https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2021/01/10/dna-winds-of-change/
Genealogy Magazines
I suggest that a regular visit to the websites of the Family Tree magazine and Who do you think you are magazine. There you will find many readable articles.
https://www.family-tree.co.uk/
https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/
In conclusion
Help wanted
Marty Martin
My husband's great (x3-ish) grandfather was one of the early settlers to New Zealand, and lived near to us. We have been searching for his grave, including in the databases of local and regional cemeteries, and through ordering the full transcript of his death certificate, without success. Grateful for any advice which you or your authors might be able to share as to how we might find him. Having done family history research (off and on) for most of my life I am well accustomed to dead ends, but my husband is not and, feeling a very strong connection to this particular ancestor, is pressing hard to find him.
Marty Martin was born in 1833 in Woodford, Ballynakill, County Galway, Ireland. He served in the 65th Regiment of Foot, and moved to NZ with them. He married Margaret Liddy (born 1842, Manchester, England, to Thomas Liddy and Anne Chapman) in NZ in 1857. They had a son named Thomas Peter Martin (born 1858 in Wellington NZ).
Marty died 13 Dec 1874 in Wellington, NZ. His wife Margaret died 1893 in Martinborough, Wairarapa, NZ.
I believe that Marty's first name is not Marty, but that that was the name he was known by (as a derivative of his surname, as he was in the military). However Marty Martin is the name on his military records, marriage index, the schedule of applicants for land orders, and his death certificate. So I do not expect his grave would be registered under any other name.
Marty served in Wellington city, died in Wellington (city or broad region), and applied for land in Wellington District. His wife, who outlived him, died in the Wairarapa. So I expect his grave is most likely to be in the lower north island.
My husband is focused on finding Marty's grave as we are a military family, and according to my research to compile a family Roll of Honour Marty may be the first of his direct ancestors to serve in the military (that is he was the first I could find, and earlier records do not appear to have been well kept). My husband also served a few hundred metres from where Marty was based, so there's a strong connection there.
Thank you so much for your help! I look forward to hearing from you.
Sarai Higginson
Identifying a wedding photograph
Hi,
I have a wedding image that appears in my grandmother’s album which I have been trying to ID since it was found two years ago,
I have shared it on a number of networks but i am always seeking new suggestions. The image dates from around 1939 and might be South Canterbury or Victoria AU.
Any suggestions for further exposure?
Aden Shillto
Letters to the Editor
Photographing the generations
Though this is a little different to normal, I thought it may be interesting. I am the oldest living family member in my branch and after a few bad health scares last year to other members my eldest granddaughter organised a photo shoot with a professional photographer to meet in the trees and sand dunes of Muriwai. Four generations turned up with spouses, partners and children. There were hundreds of photos taken of groups, separated families, generations and the whole family in among the trees, sand and a beautiful sunset. Followed by pizzas, fish and chips in a playground which kept the young ones happy. I now have a photo of every single member of the family with me either singularly or in a group, to use as a photo and add to my family genealogy files. Brilliant idea to have a documented copy of all the family.
Pam
Advertising with FamNet
Every now and then we get requests to put an advertisement in the newsletter. I have therefore created a new section which will appear from time to time. Advertisements will be included only at the Editor's discretion and will be of a genealogical nature.
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.
A Bit of Light Relief
After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, British scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 200 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 150 years ago.
Not to be outdone by the British, in the weeks that followed, an American archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after, a story published in the New York Times: "American archaeologists, finding traces of 250-year-old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network 50 years earlier than the British".
One week later, Australia's Northern Territory Times reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 feet in his backyard in Tennant Creek , Northern Territory, Lucky Bunji, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely fuck all. Lucky has therefore concluded that 250 years ago, Australia had already gone wireless."
Just makes ya feel bloody proud to be Australian!
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