Heritage et AL

In November 2004 Stephen Deed presented a Master of Arts Thesis to the University of Otago entitled U nearthly landscapes: the development of the cemetery in nineteenth century New Zealand , and until recently that limited access thesis was the only major historical study of cemeteries in New Zealand. Deed has now updated and expanded on his thesis, which has now been published by Otago University Press as Unearthly landscapes; New Zealand’s early cemeteries, churchyards and urupā . Deed’s book covers tradi tional Māori u rupā , Pākehā influenced Māori burial places, early Pākehā and Church Mission Station burial grounds, and urban and rural cemeteries of the nineteenth century. He also makes a distinction between what he terms ‘first generation’ cemeteries such as Bolton Street (Wellington) and Symonds Street (Auckland) and ‘second generation’ better planned cemeteries such as Southern Cemetery (Dunedin) and Waikumete Cemetery (Auckland). The book is very well il...

The Auckland Heritage Festival is about to begin again. The region wide festival starts this Saturday, 26 September, and runs for the subsequent two weeks until 11 October. This year’s theme is “The iwi, people, kōrero, and stories that shaped our region, Tāmaki Makaurau”. Ref: 2 015 Auckland Heritage Festival logo.

Ancestry.com have just added the New Zealand Cemetery Records, 1800-2007, to their website and to mark the occasion next week is New Zealand Cemeteries Heritage Week at Auckland Libraries.  The week involves a series of talks, seminars and ‘How-Tos’  by speakers from such places as the New Zealand Society of Genealogists , the Royal New Zealand Naval Museum , Ancestry.com and Auckland Libraries. All the talks will take place at the Whare Wānanga on the second floor of the Central Library.  Ref: Henry Winkelmann,  Showing views of St Stephens Chapel and cemetery at Judges Bay, 4 April 1916, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1-W563.

Here at the Central Auckland Research Centre, every so often I am able to add one or two more names to the records we have of those buried in Symonds Street Cemetery, in Grafton. However, it is very rare to be able to add a new name to those buried in the St Stephens Cemetery, in Parnell. Ref: 4-8857, Sir George Grey Special Collections The last survey, a photographic one of all the remaining headstones, was carried out in May 1995 and  so I was most surprised to hear about a 1977 burial.

It’s dead good Waikumete Cemetery in Glen Eden is one of the most significant heritage places managed by Auckland Council. At 108 ha, it is New Zealand’s largest cemetery, the second largest in the southern hemisphere, and the resting place of over 60,000 people, some of whom played an important role in our history. The cemetery is just one of the many heritage assets owned or managed by Auckland Council on behalf of the community. Ref: JTD-12AA-02366-3, West Auckland Research Centre The cemetery opened in 1886 as a replacement for the overcrowded Symonds Street Cemetery. It was laid out by denomination and contains many historic graves and memorials of heritage significance. It includes a children’s section, soldiers’ cemetery, large lawn cemetery, Māori urupa, mass grave of over 1000 flu victims from 1918, and a memorial to the 1979 Mt. Erebus Air Disaster. The cemetery also contains a notable group of mausoleums and the historic Faith-in-the-Oaks Chapel (1886), Sexton’s ...

Ref: 4-319, Symonds St Cemetery, Sir George Grey Special Collections A recent article in the Western Leader describes the history of the Walker family, who were employed as gravediggers at Symonds Street Cemetery and Waikumete Cemetery over a period spanning from the mid 1840s through to early 1900s. Find out more . Ref: Waikumete Sexton's House & Cemetery, JTD-12A-02364-1, West Auckland Research Centre