The Newsletter Te Awamutu Branch NZ Society of Genealogists No 191 February 2009 Convenor: John Graham 871 8986 Email: jmrg@xtra.co.nz Secretary: Karen Glew 871 7778 Email: kglew@xtra.co.nz Treasurer: Sandra Metcalfe 871 3250 Email: Metcalfe@wave.co.nz Editor at large: John Graham Te Awamutu Website: Email: jmrg@xtra.co.nz www.teawamutu.net/genealogy New Zealand Society of Genealogists Inc. www.genealogy.org.nz Meetings are held in the Parish Lounge at St John's Anglican Church, Arawata Street (parking off George Street), Te Awamutu, at 7.30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month – February to December. Visitors are most welcome. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ Next Meeting: Tuesday 3 February: There will be a presentation regarding the Te Awamutu Library Online catalogue, which will be followed by an in house session covering gedcom files & transferring the data between programmes and a general question & answer time. At the March meeting our guest speaker will be Lynne Blake who is a NZSG councillor who will talk on the occupation of Publicans – more detail in March newsletter. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ Convenor’s Corner: I trust you are all refreshed from the holiday break and all fired up for 2009. We enjoyed a special time with Wendy’s brother & family over from Johannesburg, a nephew from Cape Town and another from Sydney. This meant that all her siblings and their children were together for the first time ever. The cameras clicked to record the event for the family researchers of the future, and yes we will name and date the photo! Thank you to Alan and Glenyss for hosting our December meeting at the Pirongia Historic Visitor Centre. Advanced warning that the AGM will occur in May and it is likely a couple of the current committee will be standing down. Please give thought to putting your name forward. The current committee has been together for a few years now, with a couple many years. Te Awamutu Branch NZSG # 191 – February 2009 Disclaimer: All efforts are made to ensure the information published is accurate Page: 1 Microfiche readers (library) – From the minimal (one committee member) feedback received it appears the best time to use the equipment is in the morning and also some of the images are difficult to read due to aged fiche. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ Family Tree magazine – A reminder to members that the branch subscribes to this magazine and is available to members. If you would like to read it all you have to do is to put your name on the ‘round robin’ mailing list. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ IRD has granted donation status, in other words any donation over $5 qualifies for a 33% rebate. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ Dusty file holds lost chapter of Cold War An interesting article was published in the New Zealand Herald on 31 December 2008, written by Arthur Max and Randy Herschaft describing a German archive locked away in an attic that goes back to the long forgotten chapter of the Cold War. It was marked “Escapee Programme” which contains a list of thousands of names of people who miraculously breached the Iron Curtain after World War II and found freedom in the west. Not directly related to the above, here is some chilling information: “Cold cases – 17.5 million is the number of people listed in archives of the International Tracing Service which is run by the Red Cross.” “Also 60 years elapsed before the archives were opened to the public in 2007, after a long campaign by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.” On the net: www.its-arolsen.org ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ Spotted in the Courier before Christmas Trying to trace family I wonder if your paper can assist me with tracking down my family. Around 1912 my father's half brother Hubert (Bert) left Plymouth, England to live in Te Awamutu. He owned a hairdressing shop and his brother Charlie joined him within a few years as did his cousin Harold MacKeating. I would be interested to hear from anyone who knows anything of these people or their descendants. Contact details are e-mail: j.hart@swansea.ac.uk, phone 07970119989 Jane Hart Te Awamutu Branch NZSG # 191 – February 2009 Disclaimer: All efforts are made to ensure the information published is accurate Page: 2 Though I am always in haste, I am never in a hurry - John Wesley ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ A collection of information from Europe Europeana is testing newly configured hardware. The site is therefore open for you to use but the user experience may not be optimal in this test phase e.g.: the number of users will be limited in peak times. www.europena.eu ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ FREE BMD TIP from Roy Stockdill – Thank you to Sandra for providing this information: Here's a useful little tip for when you are searching at the FreeBMD website for the entries of births, marriages and deaths of relatives, etc. This is particularly useful for those running one-name studies but it can also work for ordinary family historians if they want to identify possible relatives with an unusual surname where it was used as a middle name, i.e. possibly the name of a mother or grandparent, etc. If you enter nothing at all in the surname field but enter in the first name field a surname with a + sign in front of it, this produces entries in which the name was used either as a forename or a middle name. To give you an example..... Entering just "Stockdill" in the first name field produces only ONE entry, for a child called Stockdill Middlebrook registered in 1896 at Dewsbury. But if I enter "+Stockdill" in the first name field, nothing in the surname field and choose All Types, this produces NINE other entries for births, marriages and deaths where Stockdill was given as a middle name. I can then identify all of these as being either relatives of mine or linked to my one-name study. Remember, it's important to put the plus sign before the name and the more unusual the surname the better the chance you have of finding the entries. Looking for people with Smith as a middle name will not be very helpful. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ Are any members planning a trip to the United States of America? From 12 January 2009 New Zealanders will require online approval to enter the country. New Zealanders are currently exempt from visa requirements to enter the USA for short visits, including transit, under the Visa Waiver Programme. However, instead of filling out paper waiver cards on the plane, travellers must apply online at https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov This is abridged from an article in the NZ Herald 12/1/2009 Te Awamutu Branch NZSG # 191 – February 2009 Disclaimer: All efforts are made to ensure the information published is accurate Page: 3 UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS: A GREAT NEW FEATURE! - From a Lost Cousins newsletter in 2007/08 – thanks to Sandra Until recently the only people you could enter on your My Ancestors page at the LostCousins site were your relatives but in January we introduced the 'Neighbours' feature, to allow you to make contact with descendants of your ancestors' neighbours. From today you can also enter servants, apprentices, and other workers who were living in the same household as your relative(s). You can do this whether your relative was another servant - or whether it was your relative who was the employer. Click the Search button and we'll not only look for your cousins, but also for living relatives of the servants you've entered. If your relative was employed by someone rich or famous there could be records that have survived to this day. But even if it was a humbler household the opportunity to link with someone whose ancestor lived with yours opens up all sorts of possibilities. ☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼☼ Genealogy CDs for sale Bay of Plenty Times Births, Deaths and Marriages 1872 – 1910 This CD contains over 3,000 birth, death and marriage records arranged alphabetically in a pdf file. The main source used is the Bay of Plenty Times notices and news articles. They mainly relate to families from Tauranga, Te Puke and Katikati but include those from further afield. Price $17 + postage and packaging Available in hard copy for $45 including postage (222 pages) Nominal and Descriptive Rolls of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Waikato Regiments 1863-1867 This CD contains the Nominal and Descriptive Rolls of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Regiments of Waikato Militia. The records are in a pdf file which can be read using Adobe Acrobat. These regiments were enlisted between 1863 and 1867 for the New Zealand land wars. There are nearly 5,500 men named. Most men are listed with their name, number, date and place of enlistment, place of birth, occupation, age, height and ship to New Zealand. Many have further notes regarding their marital status, discharge date and other details. Price $17 + postage and packaging Available in hard copy for $45 including postage (250 pages) Waikato Births, Deaths and Marriages 1864 - 1900 The CD contains nearly 4,000 birth, death and marriage records arranged alphabetically in a pdf file. Sources include notices and reports from the Waikato Times 1872-1900, birth, death and marriage registers and other newspapers from the period. All the events relate to the Waikato/Thames area. Price $17 + postage and packaging Available in hard copy for $45 including postage (289 pages) Please make cheques payable to Jeni Palmer, 140 Bethlehem Heights, Tauranga 3110 or deposit into account ASB 12 3061 0181494 00. www.gencentre.co.nz Email JeniP@gencentre.co.nz Te Awamutu Branch NZSG # 191 – February 2009 Disclaimer: All efforts are made to ensure the information published is accurate Page: 4 Letter received from ‘The department of Internal Affairs’ dated 12 January 2009 Births, Deaths and Marriages Index Sales The purpose of this letter is to advise you that from 25 January 2009 the BDM Indexes currently available on microfiche or electronically will no longer be sold or maintained by the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry, Department of Internal Affairs. Sales of the Indexes will cease on that date. The removal of indexes from sale is a requirement of the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Act 1995 (the Act), which comes into force on 25 January 2009. The Act also provides that "historical information" (as defined by section 78G of the Act) may be made available by the Registrar-General via the Internet. It is proposed that this service will be made available as close to 25 January 2009 as possible. This service will offer enhanced information that is not currently available on the indexes. A fact sheet detailing what is defined as "historical information" is attached to this letter. While the indexes are being removed from sale, individuals and organisations who currently hold index information will be able to continue using that information - subject, of course, to the Crown copyright and New Zealand Privacy Act restrictions that currently apply. However, please note that as of 25 January 2009 it will be an offence for any person to publish index information unless the information relates to the person publishing it, or if the person to whom it relates has given permission for it to be published, or the information is "historical information" or could not reasonably be expected to identify any particular person, due to its form. Please also note that these restrictions apply to any information published on "member-only" websites or internal "Intranet" sites. Index information that is currently published on the Internet, and that does not comply with the requirements above, must be removed within 14 days of Act coming into force - in other words, it must be removed by Sunday 7 February 2009. Any breach of these new legislative requirements is punishable, upon summary conviction, by a fine of up to $50,000 Historical Births. Deaths and Marriages Information - as defined by Section 786 of the Births. Deaths. Marriages and Relationships Act 1995 Historical Information is: > Births that occurred at least 100 years ago > Still-births that occurred at least 50 years ago > Marriages and Civil Unions that occurred at least 80 years ago > Changes of name for overseas born people - if they were born at least 100 years ago > Deaths of people who died at least 50 years ago or who were born at least 80 years ago Te Awamutu Branch NZSG # 191 – February 2009 Page: 5 Disclaimer: All efforts are made to ensure the information published is accurate WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE 1911 CENSUS? The release of any new census is exciting, but the 1911 Census is an especially valuable resource - it offers the most information we've ever seen. The main addition is a section on the form headed Particulars as to Marriage which has columns headed Completed years the marriage has lasted, Total Child Born Alive, Children still living, and Children who have died. This was intended to be completed in respect of each married woman, but in practice many husbands (including all 4 of my great-grandfathers!) wrote the information alongside their own name. Why is this information important? Because it will in many cases tell us about children who never appeared on any census - the ones who died in infancy. I've so far discovered two in my family tree, little brothers or sisters of my grandparents who sadly were forgotten when the verbal history was passed down through the generations. I've also discovered that both of my maternal grandparents had brothers recorded on the 1911 Census who died in their youth - that makes four new great uncles and aunts I've discovered thanks to this one census, and that's just on my mother's side of the family. How many will you find, I wonder? Of course, the information about children who have died can also help with the relatives you do know about. No longer will you waste time searching the census for someone who was already dead - or the death indexes for someone who was still alive! The employment information is also more informative. Instead of one column there are two: Personal occupation and Industry or Service with which worker is connected. In some cases the additional information - in conjunction with trade directories - may be sufficient to enable you to track down precisely who your ancestor worked for. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE COST? Whilst the cost of the census is in line with many of the other records released by the National Archives over the past few years, it is more expensive than the 1901 Census was on release in 2002. The main problem seems to be the vast number of individual households schedules that need to be scanned and transcribed - by my calculations this one census involved more scanning than ALL of the previous censuses added together! That's because instead of simply scanning the enumerators' schedules, each with an average of 4 or 5 households, this time they've scanned the individual forms householders. completed by the At the official census site there's a blog where you'll find lots of useful information. The most important announcement - as far as serious researchers like me and you are concerned - is that later this year it will be possible to access the 1911 Census with a findmypast.com subscription. This enables us to plan our research accordingly: my strategy is to look up the most important households now, and explore the remaining twigs and branches later. Thank you to May for providing this information Te Awamutu Branch NZSG # 191 – February 2009 Page: 6 Disclaimer: All efforts are made to ensure the information published is accurate