Heritage et AL

Image: Research Centre, Central City Library, 1998. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 669-183. Photographer: Kevin Durrant Do you want to start your family history research at home? We have a wide range of resources on the Auckland Libraries website and family history librarian Seonaid has provided information about these resources below that will help get you started.  📌Resources at Auckland Libraries  Family history research guides Our family history research guide can help you get started if you are a beginner, or assist you with questions like: What resources are available to help with finding records of births, deaths, and marriages?  What research resources are available for New Zealand specific research? When ordering an electronic printout of a birth, death and marriage, what information can I expect to receive for a birth that happened after 1875? Our guides also cover further New Zealand resources , immigration records , international resour...

Matrimonial agencies and personal ads were the colonial era equivalent of today’s dating apps like Tinder. In 1885 the owner of Auckland’s only agency , Thomas Hannaford, claimed to have found 115 wives for socially isolated men. He was particularly proud of encouraging “many respectable English girls to wed Maori Chiefs” who were subsequently “living lovingly together”. He felt his match-making skills helped promote “the fusion of the races” and he petitioned Parliament to recognise his expertise in this area ( Star , 16 July 1885 ). Ref: Charles Dawes, Unidentified wedding couple, 1890s-1900s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1142-D441. Hannaford started finding potential life partners for gentlemen in 1868. He also married people at “any day or hour they like.” His Queen Street offices were open for business between 10.00 am and 9.00 pm. Although scandal didn’t brew over such quickie marriage ceremonies here; in Australia, Holt’s Matrimonial Agency wa...

In today’s property market most young couples can only dream of such a wedding gift, but when Julia Thorne George married up-and-coming lawyer Wilfred Colbeck in June 1895 her parents presented her with a house in St Stephens Avenue, Parnell. What’s more, Sir George Grey sent her a generous cheque that enabled her to furnish the dining room in style. She was nevertheless miffed at Sir George for failing to attend the wedding. Technically, he was her great-uncle, but she regarded him more as a grandfather. She had lived in the same house as him most of her life. Her mother, Annie, was the daughter of Grey’s half-brother Godfrey Thomas, who died young. Grey not only took Annie in but continued to provide a home for her and her growing family after she married Seymour Thorne George in 1872. Ref: Daniel Mundy, I nterior of Mansion House, Kawau Island, c1870, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-A3034.

Sir George Grey Special Collections recently acquired a wonderful collection of colour slides taken by Ron Clark mostly in the nineteen-fifties, sixties and seventies. They are accessible via the  Heritage Images  database. Ref: Ron Clark, Oakura Bay,  1950s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1207-1227 Ref: Ron Clark,  Muriel Clark at the wheel of a Humber Hawk ,  about 1956, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 1207-12 Photographs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are a strong part of the Sir George Grey Special Collections image collection. The Ron Clark slides span the mid-twentieth century, filling a time period gap in Auckland Libraries' photograph collections. Life in New Zealand is captured in wide-ranging ways. There are scenes showing urban and rural activities, family gatherings and outings, interior shots of homes, churches and hospital wards, beach visits, overseas holi...

Whilst we are in a 'Kiwi as' frame of mind, its time to turn our attention to baches out West. As the summer fades, there are fond memories of times spent by the ocean enjoying a simpler way of life and bunking down in a basic bach each night. Baches offer easy access to beautiful parts of coastal NZ and also remote inland parts of the country. Whether you are getting out and about amongst it all - taking in the sights, tramping and swimming or just plain relaxing, there is something for everyone. Initially starting off life as quite humble dwellings baches have been spruced up the years into far more luxurious affairs. Want to find out more about Kiwi baches? Check out the Te Ara website . Get some inspiration from these heritage photos drawn from Auckland Libraries collections and plan your next escape from the city! Time to catch up with the family: Ref: Photographer unknown, Family group on the steps of the bach in Happy Valley, Te Henga, c. 1930s, West Auckland...

Marge Harre, as featured in book ' 'Roadhouse Days: an account of a family, a house and a restaurant' by Drew Harré and David Harré (2009) and covered in blog posts on the 4 and 9 December, is part of a network of families in West Auckland, linking the Gardner and Clark families. These connections are explained in the ' The Clark Family History: the descendants of Josiah Clark & Ann (nee Rose) Clark of Great Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England' by Athol Miller (1989) , which adds further background to Marge’s story. (Rice) Owen Clark I (1816-1896), Marge’s great grandfather, immigrated to New Zealand from England in 1841. In 1854 he bought some land in Hobsonville and “[i]n 1862 he established the field tile industry [used for drainage in agriculture], which under his guidance and that of his son R O Clark II and grandsons Thomas Edwin, and latterly under his great grandsons Malcolm and Thomas Edwin II, was to grown into the firm known as Ceramco" (p.20, ...

Marge Harré’s story is one of an enterprising and, by all accounts she was an extremely engaging and unique character. She left behind a lasting legacy - one that connects, a house, a community, her wider family history, and the history of West Auckland. Her most enduring legacy has been provided in the book, 'Roadhouse Days: an account of a family, a house and a restaurant' by Drew Harré and David Harré (2009). 'Roadhouse Days' tells the story of Marge and her family’s involvement in the Town and Country Roadhouse Restaurant (1949 to c.1968) in Oratia, West Auckland. Written by Marge’s son, Dave Harré and Dave’s nephew, Drew Harré, this book contains entertaining anecdotes, recollections as well as accounts based on historical records. Many of Marge’s recipes are also included at the end of the book. Ref : JTD-13A-01995-1,  Oratia Bowling Club pavilion. (Parr Homestead in background), 1963, West Auckland Research Centre The original Roadhouse restaurant...

Lily Lee and Ruth Lam, the authors of the book ' Sons of the Soil ' have done a good job of pulling together what little 'original' documentation there was available about early Chinese market gardeners - such as newspaper articles, account books, photographs. The families described in the book sometimes set up gardens in different parts of the country and moved around and frequently inter-married. So staff at the Central Auckland Research Centre decided that it would be very useful to index families mentioned in the book and add this information to Auckland Libraries heritage online database: Index Auckland . The goal was to help people track down the families mentioned in the book and set up useful connections. Index Auckland is a rich resource of history, art, theatre, film and music references sourced from Auckland area newspapers and journal articles. Whilst the index predominantly covers Auckland, other regions are also covered, which means that the index a...