Heritage et AL

In October 1867, a milkman named William Stonex was on his morning rounds in Auckland Central when he noticed a collection of fabric lying in a gutter. He turned it over with his foot and, deciding that the bundle was unusually heavy, called to a nearby servant girl named Rebecca Hall. When Hall fetched a knife and cut open the package, she and Stonex discovered a dead baby wrapped in calico. Mr Craig, a local plumber, and Hall’s employer, agreed to “see about it” and Stonex continued with his route. The police were summoned, and a coronial inquest was held in an attempt to discover the cause of death of the female infant, who was just days old at the time of her death. Although the doctor on the case suspected that her umbilical cord had been tied incorrectly, the jury found that, due to a lack of evidence, they could not ascertain a cause of death. Her mother was never found, and it is unclear where she was buried.   Image:  An 1863 map showing the section of Hobson Str...

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...

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 ...