Heritage et AL

Family historians spend a lot of time researching and collecting their facts and stories. Many have been spurred on to share their research with other family members or even the wider general public. Often the stories are shared in blogs, but some have been keen enough to share in books. We call these "published family histories." In New Zealand, a couple of copies are sent to the National Library in Wellington to be preserved as part of the nation's memory. Sometimes, Auckland Libraries is also also sent a copy or two as well. Often we purchase them for our family history collection. - You should come in and have a look if you haven't already! We don't just collect New Zealand family histories , we also collect published family histories from all over the world - particularly if they relate to the historic areas that many of us emigrated from. One such book caught my eye today. Written by a New Zealander about her English grandfather's family. My ...

From humble but enthusiastic beginnings, RainbowYOUTH has grown to become one of the most successful youth organisations in New Zealand. Ref: RainbowYOUTH, RainbowYOUTH Collection, West Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries. In 2017 an exhibition was created from the Auckland Libraries RainbowYOUTH archive collection, which consists of seven recorded oral histories , images and ephemera sharing the origin and development of the 28 year young organisation , and the stories of those involved from the very first small Auckland gay and lesbian group to the highly successful present day queer youth community support network. The RainbowYOUTH Exhibition is on now at Leys Institute Library , Ponsonby, until June 3.

This blog post looks at the Abercrombie family’s outings during the 1930s and 1940s. The memories of this West Auckland family were documented by Ken Abercrombie through 4 photo albums of exquisite hand-coloured family snaps. These albums are held at the West Auckland Research Centre and you can view the first album online . A significant and attractive feature of the albums is that the majority of the prints have been hand-coloured and captioned by the photographer. Ref: KRA-PA-02-049-00, Ken Abercrombie, Album 2, West Auckland Research Centre Ken Abercrombie (b.1916) was a keen photographer, first becoming interested as a 16 year old boy when his parents gave him a camera – a ‘Balovo’, a German make. Ref: Ken Abercrombie's camera, early 1930s, West Auckland Research Centre At this time the Abercrombie family were living in Blockhouse Bay where Ken’s father, Roy had started a carrying business. The photo below shows his International truck. Ref: KRA-PA-02-031-04, ...