February 2015
Vol. 30 No. 1
7.30pm on Wednesday 11 February 2015
Our guest speaker this month is:
Professor Geoffrey Rice
the well known Christchurch historian whose presentation is on
“Victoria Square”
Geoff’s new book entitled Victoria Square: Cradle of Christchurch was published late last year.
Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995
The Department of Internal Affairs is required by this act to review the access provisions 5 years after they
were implemented in January 2009 so, albeit one year late, they are now doing so and until Wednesday 25th
February are seeking feedback from the public. A discussion paper with questions to be answered is now
available at www.dia.govt.nz/bdmreview in the form of a pdf document that can be filled out and e-mailed. If
you have obtained NZ BDM certificates/printouts since 2008 (or even if you have not) I would urge you to
have your say so that the process does not become more difficult. You can also give feedback on any other
matters to do with the Act or BDM processes, e.g. the website [see page 22 of discussion document].
A.T.
Happy New Year to all Members
Meetings: 7.30pm second Wednesday of each month, Upper Riccarton Library, 71 Main South Road.
Postal Address: Riccarton Branch NZSG Secretary, 32 Townshend Crescent, Halswell, Christchurch 8025
Riccarton Branch Committee:
Convenor: Kathy Hill 322 6183
Secretary: Judith Pay 322 6367
Treasurer: Betty Campbell 343 2834
Committee: Heather Pearson 347 2558
Jean Sharfe 349 8366
Alan Tunnicliffe 358 4838
Win Loach 338 4316
Research Advisor: Alan Tunnicliffe 358 4838
Magazine Circulation: Win Loach 338 4316
Librarian: Gaynor Phillips 343 0443
Project Officer: vacant
Auditor: Keith Sharp
Archivist: Jan Sharp 351 5951
Editor: Alan Tunnicliffe alant@snap.net.nz
Please note, than if anyone wishes to get in touch with our branch by e-mail, the official e-mail address to
use is: riccartongenealogy@hotmail.com This e-mail address is monitored by our Secretary and Convenor.
From the Convenor’s Almost Tidy Desk
2015: a new year, a new venue and new discoveries for you all in your genealogical hobby. It’s strange how
this particular hobby becomes more than just a hobby. I am happy to admit that it has become an obsessive
addiction for me, but that is no less than my ancestors deserve.
Research paused over the summer, but I was lucky to meet a very distant relation, on my father’s side, who
lives here in Christchurch. We have plenty to share – especially photos – and I am looking forward to
keeping in touch with this man with whom I share a 3 times great-grandmother.
On the subject of photos, I have just printed a selection of our holiday photos from last year in a classy
photobook. It is well-worth investigating Diamond Photo or Snapfish to see what they offer.
Our first meeting this year will be in the Upper Riccarton Library, and I am looking forward to seeing you all
again. We will not have library books available because we are still working through storage solutions and
accessibility issues with library staff, but hopefully will get something suitable worked out during the year.
We need to keep ownership of our books, not just have them absorbed into the library stock. This will need
to be done very carefully and with guidance from the NZSG.
The meeting room we have been allocated looks pretty comfortable and is very well-equipped. When you
enter the library, keep walking down the length of the building until you come to the café. Our meeting room
is on the right adjacent to the toilet facilities.
Kathy
FINDMYPAST NEWS
Since our December newsletter was published, many new data sets have been added to this popular website:
- Ireland Marriages 1619-1898 (indexed but with transcripts only)
- Ireland 1911 Census (indexed but with transcripts only)
- London Docklands and East End Marriages 1558-1859 (for 18 parishes only but better than none at all)
- Nottinghamshire Baptisms 1538-1980
- Nottinghamshire Marriages 1538-1929
- Nottinghamshire Burials 1539 1905
- Mid Norfolk Monumental Inscriptions 1471-2012
- Eastbourne Gazette newspaper [Sussex] birth death and marriage announcements 1838-1931
- Derbyshire Railway Servants’ Orphanage Registers 1875-1912 (i.e. orphanage for children of employees)
- Utah Deaths/Burials 1848-1960
- British Army Bond of Sacrifice: Officers who died in the Great War 1914-1916 (in 2 volumes)
- Channel Islands Births/Baptisms 1820-1907
- Isle of Man Births/Baptisms 1821-1911
- Isle of Man Marriages 1849-1911
WEBSITES for UK and Worldwide Research
www.royalmailmemorials.com
This British website contains details of the more than 300 First World War memorials for Post Office staff
who served in WWI and lost their lives. There are photos and transcriptions of the names on them plus
details of their locations. You can search for a person’s name.
Website of the Month
maritimequest.com
This USA website of Michael Pocock could be useful for info and images of wartime vessels. It has received
over 6 million visitors in the last 7 years. Its aims include a quest for a photographic history of the world’s
ships and to record little known tales of the sea and the history behind the world’s greatest ships. Worth
having a look at for any ship although there is an emphasis on more recent navy ships.
Riccarton Branch NZSG Newsletter, February 2015, page 2
CENTENARY OF WORLD WAR ONE: PART 12
In Part 10 of this series (see November 2014 newsletter) I promised to write about the other 6 of my maternal
grandfather’s 9 cousins surnamed LAW who served in the NZ Army during WWI. Two of these six died.
They were the brothers Albert William Law (born 1888) and his younger brother Alfred John Law (born
1892). They were sons of James Law, a farmer at Gordonton near Hamilton. Two other sons, Joseph Ormond
Law (born 1889) and William James Law (born 1894) also served overseas in the war but survived the
experience. The oldest son Albert enlisted on 16 April 1915, a month before his 26th birthday and became
Private 12/2756 in A Company of the First Battalion of the Auckland Regiment. He was
at Trentham until he sailed overseas on active service on 14 August 1915 aboard
HMNZT Willochra. He went from Egypt to Gallipoli in late
September 1915. He remained there until after Christmas and then
returned to Egypt. After more than 3 months there he was sent to
France in April 1916 and served in the field until being wounded in
both thighs on 27 September 1916. He died 5 days later in No.22
General Hospital at Dannes Camiers at 9am on the morning of 2
October 1916, aged 28. He was not married and had been a farmer.
The photo of Albert here appeared in the Auckland Weekly News 3 months later on 4
January 1917. He is buried in the Etaples Military Cemetery in France (see photo of
headstone at right).
Albert’s younger brother Alfred John, known as John, enlisted very early after the war started, on 22 October
1914 aged 22. Like Albert he as also single and a farmer. He became Private 12/1452 in the Auckland
Infantry Battalion and sailed from Wellington on HMNZT14 Willochra on 14 December 1914 for Egypt and
arrived on 29 January 1915. He then served at Gallipoli from 12 April 1915 and was wounded in action in
the Dardanelles a few days after Anzac Day on 29 April 1915. He was sent to hospital in Cairo for treatment
and returned to his unit on 4 June 1915 in the Dardanelles. In July he spent a week sick in hospital and then
returned to the fighting. About 3 weeks later he was reported wounded in action and missing on 8 August
1915. His dead body was recovered and it was found that he was wounded in the thorax
and had died on 7 August. He is buried in the Embarkation Pier Cemetery in Turkey.
John Law was born in Marlborough and on his attestation form it is correctly recorded as
“Tuamarina, S.I.”. An Army clerk in making a duplicate copy later, incorrectly recorded
this as “Tasmania, Australia”. The photo at right appeared in the Auckland Weekly News
on 10 June 1915 reporting him wounded. Like for his brother Albert, John’s 3 war
medals, the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, were sent to their father
James Law.
Joseph Ormond Law was the first of the 4 brothers to enlist, on 14 August 1914 when he was aged 25 and he
became Trooper 13/387 in the Auckland Mounted Rifles. Like his brothers he was a single man and a farmer
prior to signing up. He sailed with the Main Body from Auckland on 16 October 1914 headed for Egypt. He
served at Gallipoli and later in Egypt and remained overseas for 2 years and 9 months until he was sent back
to New Zealand in July 1917 and was discharged on 28 August 1917 on account of illness contracted while
on active service. He had been in and out of hospital several times in 1916 and 1917. While he was away he
kept a diary and this is filed with his papers in the Auckland War Memorial Museum’s archives.
The fourth and youngest of the brothers to serve, William James Law, was attested on 20 March 1917 when
he was aged 22 and likewise a single farmer. He became Rifleman 657893 in B Company of the 3rd
Battalion of the NZ Rifle Brigade. He went overseas at the end of December 1917 and disembarked in
Glasgow on 25 February 1918. He immediately went into camp in the south of England until being posted to
France in April 1918. He had several spells in hospital and returned to NZ on 28 January 1919 but was not
discharged until 28 October 1919. Like his brother Joseph he went on to marry and have a family.
The other two of my grandfather’s LAW cousins to serve in the war were from Taranaki and were two
brothers who joined up the same day. They were the sons of Joseph Law. James Henry Law was Private
10/3628 in B Company of the Wellington Infantry Regiment and served from 18 October 1915 in Egypt,
France and England until his discharge in NZ on 13 May 1919. His older brother Percy George Law, Private
10/3629 in the 1st Battalion of the Wellington Regiment, later in the Machine Gun Corps, served from 18
October 1915 in Egypt, France and England and was discharged 22 May 1919. He married in 1917 in
England.
Riccarton Branch NZSG Newsletter, February 2015, page 3
ANCESTRY.COM NEWS
Since our November 2014 newsletter report, many new databases have been regularly added to the website:
- NZSG Cemetery Records 1800-2008 [from our society’s large set of fiche]
- NZ WW2 Appointments, Transfers and Promotions, etc 1939-1945 (from CD of Colonial Books, Dunedin)
- NZ Bankruptcy Notices 1893-1904 (from the NZ Gazette)
- NZ Who’s Who for 1908, 1925 and 1938
- Scotland & Northern Ireland Death Index 1989-2013
- England & Wales Death Index 2007-2013
- UK Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects 1901-1929 (details of what was sent to next of kin of dead solders)
- California Naturalisations 1940-1991 (with images)
- Oregon Biographical etc Card Index 1700s-1900s
- South Africa Methodist Parish Registers 1822-1996
- South Africa Births/Baptisms 1700s-1900s
- South Africa Voters Lists 1719-1996
- South Africa Directories 1813-1962
- South Africa Eastern Cape Estate Files 1962-71
- Jamaica Civil Birth Registrations 1878-1930
- NSW Land Records 1856-59
- Cyclopedia of NSW 1907
- Cyclopedia of Tasmania for 1900 and for 1931 (browse only)
- Cyclopedia of Victoria 1903
- Cyclopedia of Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti and the Cook Islands 1907
MOST POPULAR NAMES FOR BABIES BORN IN NZ IN 2014
The Registrar-General of New Zealand has recently released the rankings for the most popular names for
babies in his annual Top 100 list. For baby girls Charlotte remains in no.1 position, albeit with fewer
instances. Olivia has risen in popularity and has gone from 5th to second place. Emily and Sophie have gone
down from 2nd and 4th to fourth and fifth respectively. Ruby was in 3rd place but is now in 10th place. Two
others to go up in the placings are Isla and Amelia, from 6th and 7th to third and sixth respectively. A
newcomer to the top 10 names for girls is Harper, now in 8th place, previously 19th.
As for boys, Oliver, Jack and James remain in 1st, 2nd and 3rd places. Most of the 20 top names for boys
are still in the top 20. Charlie is now at no.15, up from 22nd place.
PAPERS PAST UPDATE
Just too late for being included in our December newsletter was news that more papers have been added, all
from smaller places: Milton, Rotorua, Reefton, Dannevirke and Masterton. The dates added to the
newspapers from the first four of these are in addition to those already on the site but the newspaper from
Masterton, the Wairarapa Age, is new and covers the period 1906-20, so includes WWI.
Milton’s Bruce Herald has been extended 1906-20 (begins 1865)
Rotorua’s Hot Lakes Chronicle previously went from 1898 to 1910 but now starts in 1895.
Reefton’s Inangahua Times has been extended 1907-19 (begins 1877)
Dannevirke’s Bush Advocate has been extended 1910-12 (begins 1888)
THE STORY BEHIND THE GRAVESTONE
This is the title of a book that the Dunedin Family History Group will be publishing in December this year. If
you want to write up to 20,000 words (approx 26 A4 pages) plus a photo of the gravestone, entries for the
book are wanted now. Your article must be about the people whose names are recorded on the gravestone. It
can be about any gravestone anywhere in the world. Entries and queries to dfhg@xtra.co.nz
Riccarton Branch NZSG Newsletter, February 2015, page 4