Genealogy Chat

Any suggestions on tracing family in New Zealand. My fathers cousin was in the N Z Airforce in WW2 and I have some great photos etc and would love to trace the family and pass them on. I contacted the NZ Air Force who have confirmed they have his service record but will not release any information unless I can provide a death cert - really hoping he is still with us. I know he came from Cavershan Dunedin NZ and his mother - my great aunt was from Scotland. Fairly new to this so any help would be really appreciated.

You could check for a possible burial here:

http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/facilities/cemeteries/cemeteries_search

There might be some reference to his war service in a newspaper:

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast

Hi Christine,

If you'd like to PM me the names, I'll have a look on some records.

When/if I recover from the great lurgy I may be able to offer more assistance.

Bernie

Hi Bernie

Really appreciate the offer. New to this forum so sent reply via email. Hope that was ok. Hope you are feeling better.

Christine - new girl on the block

Hi Adeline

The links were really useful got loads of information.

Many thanks


Christine -( should have posted not emailed)

Hello

Have you tried looking on a website called Archives Archway... Try Archives.govt.nz ? to get on it
I have recently found a few things on my NZ relatives using the site
You can then apply for the document digitally then wait for it to be accessable.

Cheers John M

Hi John

Many thanks will definately have a look.

Kind Regards

Christine

One of the most useful sites I have found is PapersPast http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast - they have a huge number of NZ newspapers digitised, and with a bit of patience and inventiveness about your searches you can extract a lot of information. Not just from the classifieds (birth, marriage, death, in memoriam) but also news items, shipping arrivals/departures, and even adverts if your relatives were in business. I managed almost exclusively from this source to trace the life of an ancestor's nephew who arrived in New Plymouth in 1841 and ran the general store until his death in 1876 (OK, there was a gap of a few years before the Taranaki Herald started in 1852, but fortunately he was still there!). One of the things I found was that he was selling up in 1858 with the intention of returning to England - but then changed his mind and stayed on. On another side of the family, a relative had several daughters who married, soI was looking for a lot of different surnames, but managed to track them down, and last year had a holoiday in NZ and met several of their present-day descendants

Hi Cerynne

Thank you I will definately give it a try. I know the family owned a bakery in Caversham Dunedin in the 1940's so will try several different searches.

Kind Regards

Christine