This will be an interactive session. Bring a small plate to share. 

Presented by Professor Charlotte Macdonald, Professor Emerita of History at Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka.

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Several of the imperial regiments which fought in the New Zealand Wars in the 1860s were stationed in India before being ordered to New Zealand. In this talk Professor Macdonald discussed the links between India and New Zealand in the mid-nineteenth century. What conditions did soldiers and their families find themselves in in Allahabad and Auckland? How did empire continue to connect India and settler colonies such as New Zealand? People flowed back and forth. How do we understand the huge shadow cast by the events of the 1857 Indian Rebellion ('Mutiny')?

Catherine and Eric Ruth spoke about some new features on the FamilySearch.org website. Catherine and Eric are both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are experts on the FamilySearch website. Eric told us that the Church started filming records in 1938 and their records are organised by “films”. These used to be actual microfilms but are more likely to be files now. There are now billions, many of which are available to search.

Catherine showed us the homepage and showed us each of the tabs. You can tailor the home page to see features such as links to people you have researched recently, notifications and to memories.

Learn about the latest tools for genealogical research.

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Speakers - Fiona Brooker, Luke Howison

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Exhibitors - NZSG, Scottish, Irish, English & Shetlands Interest Groups, National Library, Wellington City Library, Wellington City Archives, Military Medals, Wellington Region NZSG Branches

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Joan is Leader, Outreach Services at Alexander Turnbull Library, which is a division of the National Library of New Zealand. 

Eating out in Wellington has changed hugely over the decades, reflecting corresponding changes in our society. Gábor Tóth, Local & NZ History Specialist at Wellington City Libraries, looks at the history of the restaurant trade and food trends in the Capital City over the past 100 years.

The rationale behind Pandora's Box and Pandora Research is to improve awareness of manuscript collections by producing indexes, transcripts and inventories. Pandora's Box II became the foundation stone for Pandora Research. See: www.nzpictures.co.nz/pandoraresearch.htm The first major project undertaken was to compile an inventory of the New Zealand Company records, create transcripts and improve descriptions. See: www.nzpictures.co.nz/pandoraresearch-nzc.htm Other significant themes include vintage postcards, Hutt Valley communities, and Wellington Land District records. One document, the Hutt Valley Timeline 1822-1855, is an ongoing project to showcase the variety of manuscripts available. There is still much to find! New to the website this month: NZ Company transcripts of correspondence relating to the Glasgow Committee from 1839 (Bengal Merchant) and the flow of monies as recorded in the NZ Company general cash account 1839-1840.

A very engaging and engaged speaker, Tom began by describing how the book came about through an unexpected discovery. In 2018 he and his wife were clearing out the old family home. His mother had been a hoarder. After ages of getting rid of junk, Tom found an attaché case on the top shelf of a wardrobe. It contained about 200 letters written home by Tom’s father Hugh to his parents from 1941 to 1945 while he was on the front line. Along with many other things he discovered, such as an huge old family tree and photos, there was plenty of material for a book: the effects of war on his family, unexpected consequences.

Simon is the Managing Director of the New Zealand Remembrance Army (NZRA), a group of volunteers who restore military graves around New Zealand. Simon started the NZRA six years ago. He saw a military grave at the Porirua Cemetery which was in terrible condition. He posted on Facebook and within a week had 1,000 followers. Today there is a Board, 40 teams across New Zealand and they have restored 175,000 graves. They now have 1.5 million social media followers, some overseas. Their mission is not only to restore, but to re-tell and remember as well. For about every thousand soldiers, 300 will be in unmarked graves. They place ceramic poppies on unmarked graves (10,000 so far) and have started to also place headstones on unmarked graves (although headstones are very expensive).

Five members gave short talks about mementos of love they (or other relations) have saved. These demonstrated that love comes in many manifestations and at various stages of relationships: teenage love in all its wackiness; a soldier’s letter to his fiancée after his release from POW camp; an extract from a story written by a woman whose husband was going off to war; a poem remembering a first kiss while awaiting the birth of a first child; a mourning brooch commemorating a grandmother and grandson who died in the same year; and a letter written by a new grandmother to her daughter about her new grandchild.

• May 2023 Claire Bibby - Extraordinary stories from Glenside and Halfway House.

• June 2023 Rodney King - Finding the Staffordshire-born Ackley Children in Canada.

• July 23 Doug Miller - On Scottish Resources: ‘In Search of Scotland’.

• August FHM Gabor Toth - ‘A quick pivot’: Family History Resources at Wellington City Libraries.

• September 2023 Alison Howell and Kaye Batchelor - Finding Ancestors without documentation using DNA matches.

• October 2023 Sarah Hewitt - Filling the gaps in Family History using newspapers.

• November 2023 - our Christmas Party.