Heritage et AL

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...

I discovered a Mary Scott display in Pirongia on a recent road trip following a compulsory coffee stop plus a walk across the highway to the Pirongia Heritage & Information Centre / Te Whare Taonga o Ngaa Rohe o Arekahanara. Ref: Mary Scott display, Pirongia, 22 February 2017. A Notable Display The display features a gingham frame and artefacts from Scott’s writing life – notably her third typewriter. The adjacent bookcase features her prolific output. They even had some editions for sale. We left with It’s perfectly eas y – one of Mary Scott’s great titles published by Paul’s Book Arcade in Hamilton, 1962. The striking dust jacket was designed by Geoffrey Ridall. Ref: Mary Scott, It's perfectly easy.

Over the years when I've attended conferences and family history fairs, I've been interested to hear how many people associate Auckland Libraries with just having material relating to Auckland, and nowhere else. We have a range of material in all of our collections that covers other parts of New Zealand, as well as overseas, and by not considering what is on offer, you may miss out on some treasure we have that other libraries do not. For instance, with regard to Otago we have a series of books that were published in the 1980s covering events in Otago 1901-35 titled Otago Cavalcade. The series is divided into approximately five-year sections and are filled with photographs from the Otago Witness and Otago Daily Times newspapers.  While the reproduction of photographs is not always wonderful, they are still worth looking at as they include buildings no longer in existence among other things. The war years naturally cover events occurring at home and overseas.  Other e...

On display during March 2017, in the Special Collections reading room at the Auckland Central City Library, is a single leaf from a 13th century Latin Bible generously donated to the Library by Keith Stuart in 2016. Stuart, an archivist trained in biblical research presented a paper to ANZBS Conference in 2010 which included a detailed description of the leaf. Described as a typical leaf from a Paris manuscript bible, it is roughly the same size as a sheet of A4. This is much larger than a Bible we may be familiar with viewing, but it is not especially large for a medieval Bible. As Stuart notes, the size of Bibles became smaller with the rise of Mendicant orders and their travelling preachers, so portability became important. The text is in Latin, from Saint Jerome’s translation of the Hebrew and is from the first book of Kings, chapter 4 verse 19 to chapter 8 verse 22. It tells of the Ark of the Covenant in Philistine through to Israel’s demand for a King. The leaf provides ...

There are several historic churches in Onehunga, reflecting the early European settlement of the area. Early Church Services in Onehunga The first church services in Onehunga were held on the first Sunday (21 November 1847) after the arrival of the first contingent of the Fencibles . There was an Anglican service in the morning and a Catholic service in the afternoon. St Peter’s Anglican Church St Peter’s Church was one of the earliest churches in Auckland, constructed in 1848. The first service was held on Saint Peter’s Day, 29 June 1848.The stone wall at the church was built in 1853, a part of which still stands. In 1857, the tower and the spire were moved to the south side of the church. As the numbers of people attending the church grew, the original wooden church was extended in the 1860s and 1870s. Ref: St Peters Church, Onehunga, 1860s, Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 957-192-1.

If you had an ancestor who was working on the land in the 1830s in England there is a chance that they were involved in the Swing Riots. These started in the Elham Valley in Kent and quickly spread among the rural workers of the south and East Anglia. The unrest was caused by a number of reasons - machinery taking jobs from men, farmers offering lower wages, payment of tithes to the Church of England whether or not you were a member. Threatening letters were sent to those who were considered in a position to resolve the situation signed by "Captain Swing" who was fictitious. If the warning was ignored it was followed by destruction of threshing machines, their engines, attacks on workhouses and tithe barns and later turned to burning hay ricks and other arsonist attacks. If caught, the rioters faced imprisonment, transportation or execution. Of the 2000 (approx.) rioters who were caught 252 were sentenced to death (only 19 were hanged), 644 imprisoned and 481 transp...

In February 2017 Manurewa Library celebrates its 50th anniversary. On 20 February 1967 it was opened on the first floor of the Natali Buildings on the corner of Great South Road and Station Road. It was Manukau City Council’s first full-service free public library. Ref: The Natali's Buildings, c1979, South Auckland Research Centre, Auckland Libraries, Footprints 01617. Known as Pegler’s Building when it was opened in June 1930, this originally housed seven shops on the ground floor and a reception room or hall, four offices and two flats on the first floor. In 1967 the reception room was converted into a library.