Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Thames Shops & Businesses

Finally getting round to doing a register of early shops and businesses of Thames..or should I say Shortland and Grahamstown.

Over the weeks I'll post some of the names, remembering many are still operational today. Such as A & G Price (Foundry), Read Bros (Hardware) and Battsons (Plumbers).

One of our most treasured shops was PALMERS SWEET SHOP, you can read more about the shop via a recent Journal article.

Other shops that also are featured in the Treasury Journal by other writers are:
WOODS SHOP and HANSEN BROS.

Monday, September 13, 2010

The People of Marutuaha

A wonderful artice available online at the New Zealand Herald Newspaper

The people of the Marutuahu confederation treasure their centuries-old relationship with Tamaki Makaurau though their rohe (tribal area) is much larger. The closely related and autonomous Marutuahu iwi, comprising Ngati Paoa, Ngati Maru, Ngati Whanaunga and Ngati Tamatera, express their rohe in the pepeha (tribal saying) "mai Matakana ki Matakana" - from Matakana Island (near Tauranga in the south) to Matakana (near Leigh in the north).

Including photo of the Hotunui meeting house, that proudly sits in the Auckland Museum

Sunday, September 5, 2010

The Treasury JOURNAL

A wide range of articles are available to read online via The Treasury website.
The Journal section has articles for years 2008-2010.

The journal is co-ordinated by Kae Lewis and members and non-members of The Coromandel Heritage Trust are welcome to submit articles.  So if you have a story/article please email the editor

Some topics include: Streets of Thames, Hotels of Thames, The Giant Kauri Tree, Shortland and Tararu Cemeteries. Lots on mining , shops and the old residents of The Thames

Ohinemuri Journal

An excellent source for articles on Thames as well as the Ohinemuri area.

The journal is online and searchable. Search results are not easily narrowed, but well worth a glance at all the results.

The Ohinemuri Regional History Journal (ORHJ) was first published in 1964 by the Historical Section Waihi Arts Centre and Museum Association (Inc.) and Paeroa & District Historical Society District History Museum

Thames Advertiser & Evening Star/Thames Star

Important to remind folk who are using Papers Past and searching the Evening Star/Thames Star for their families and events.

Don't forget the Thames Advertiser, that is available on microfilm at The Treasury and several other large libraries.  It appears families were either 'users/readers' of one paper or the other. So if a notice is not in one paper it could well be in the other.

There are index cards for a wide range of newspaper articles from the Thames Advertiser 1874-1876 that we are currently putting onto computer.  I've just done the goldmine section and it is amazing amount of information. (Filed in the MINING folder at The Treasury, Thames).

The HILLS INDEX Vol 2 does has BMD notices from the Thames advertiser included in the index. So you can get your reference then look it up on the microfilm.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Thames & area SCHOOL RECORDS

Often overlooked is the value of school records.
Sure they give you details on the child, but the extra info is invaluable for building a picture of our ancestors,
Look at GUARDIAN, ADDRESS, past and future SCHOOLS & DESTINATIONS
Plus you can often get birthdate (although it can vary)

Sources:
The Hauraki indexing group indexed many of the schools and the info is available on the NZSG Index Cd's
Thames Library has photocopies of these registers in the closed archive section, behind the front desk
The Treasury has some copies, more to come

Archives Auckland do have alot of school records that can be viewed. Search at Archway.
One exception - Sadly no early Catholic School records pre 1900 are available at archives or at catholic archives

School Reunion books are also excellent for learning more about the school plus Newspapers for reports on school reunions. For instance in the 1950s several schools (Tararu or Shellbank, Waiokaraka and Thames High) had reunions and reports in the papers listed names of those attending and several old entrants names.
These are filed in the SCHOOLS FOLDER at The Treasury, Thames.