Preserving the Past: Looking for Ancestors
In August, the Dunedin Branch of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists kindly allowed me to speak to their members at the Dunedin Public Library about the Trust’s work, to preserve New Zealand’s at-risk historical newspapers through digitisation, and eventually gift the results to the National Library’s Papers Past site.
I am not a “genealogist” belonging to the Society, but I wanted to start with some common connections between their activity and my own. Like many people, my family has an interest in their history. I am lucky that my mother’s was an avid collector of information, not only on her own family but also my father’s side, as well as a lot of material from her own lifetime. When she passed on, I became the custodian of a number of cartons of her material. While my mother collected various newspaper clippings, she was too old-fashioned to look at any online.
As someone with a keen interest in old newspapers, I have undertaken my own Papers Past investigations to look for ancestors, and I showed a photo of my great grandfather, who immigrated from Scotland in 1863, as well as snippets of his son (my grandfather) who lived in Dunedin at the start of the twentieth century before shifting to the southern Hawkes Bay. It was great to be able to share some of this with such a keen audience.
Before retirement, I was an academic, researching Māori history. I briefly touched on some of the research that I have been collaborating on with Professor Angela Wanhalla and other scholars on Māori in New Zealand during and after the Second World War. This includes the health and life trajectories of veterans of the Māori Battalion, and the service of Māori women in the Army, Air Force and Navy during the war, and their lives afterwards. Indeed the research methods and sources we use for this sort of research closely mirrors the kind of work undertaken by many genealogists looking for information on their own ancestors.
Most of my talk, however, focused on the work of the Trust.
There are now many historical newspapers on the National Library’s Papers Past website, and more being uploaded each year. We all know how these are used by all sorts of researchers; historians, school students, genealogists and others, as the newspapers give unique access to stories from our past.
But there are still many papers yet to be digitised. While some may be already microfilmed, or are stored safely in repositories (such as the National Library and the Hocken Collections) where they can wait almost indefinitely, there are other titles, as yet neither microfilmed nor digitised that may be stored in less well-controlled environments, such as newspaper storerooms, small museums, and sometimes even in a shed, and are at risk of loss through accident, deterioration, or even being taken to the tip. The Trust’s role is to help in the preservation process. Our policy is to digitise papers that have not already been microfilmed or digitised.
Image from the talk: Crumbling pages of the Wairarapa Daily Times.
The Trust works with Papers Past – indeed, the National Library is one of the Trust’s strategic partners. We put up the newspapers we digitise on our own Recollect site then transfer them over to the National Library when they are ready for them. We have already provided some titles on Papers Past, such as the Waimarino Bulletin and its successor the Ruapehu Bulletin (1983-2001), Taupo Times (1952-1974), and have added more years to the online holdings of the Marlborough Express (1921-1953). Indeed, one of the genealogists there said that he had found out unknown details online about his father from the pages of the Ruapehu Bulletin.
But our own Recollect website holds more newspapers still awaiting transfer. This includes material from three North Shore titles, eleven West Auckland community papers, Westport News, Opotiki News, The Chatham Islander and Kapi-Mana News.
Of particular interest to Otago and Southland genealogists is the Otago Witness, a paper noted for its pictorial supplements from 1900 on. This newspaper has already been microfilmed and digitised, and sits on Papers Past. The images include buildings, workplaces, sports teams, visiting entertainers, fashion, scenery from Otago and Southland and lots of photos of people, often with names attached. The good thing is that Otago Witness published lots of images from the rest of New Zealand as well.
Because the original digitisation of these images on Papers Past is not the best, the Trust decided to re-digitise them, and make them available. The results speak for themselves. Unfortunately, these are not available on Papers Past, but are freely available on the Trust’s Recollect site: https://preservinglocalhistory.recollectcms.com/nodes/view/99
Otago Witness, 11/6/1902
Mr and Mrs J.W. Jago of Leith St, Dunedin, who celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 1902.
Images of children, winners of the 12th Annual Festival Competitions in 1913.
Otago Witness, 24/9/1913
The rest of the talk was how the Trust goes about its work. Digitisation is not cheap, and while we have been lucky in the past gaining some Lotteries funding, our last application to digitise four historical Dunedin newspapers (ranging between 1856 and 1883) was unfortunately unsuccessful. We will be trying again, and are thankful for the support we received from local heritage organisations, including from the Dunedin Genealogists.
How YOU can help.
Do you know where old newspapers are?
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The Trust is keen to help preserve New Zealand’s history and heritage. If you want to help, please look at the Trust’s website for more details. If you haven’t already, consider signing up for the Trust’s newsletter; it’s free and comes out as an email about every couple of months. Have a look too at the blogs on the website, and if you have a story about using newspapers in your own research, please consider writing one for us as well.
Written by Lachy Paterson