Hutt Valley Genealogy Branch :: Branch helps trace family trees

Branch helps trace family trees

Hutt News | Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Drop in for help:  Anita West says Saturday's family history open day is geared especially for people who have 'hit a brick wall' research ancestry.

Drop in for help: Anita West says Saturday's family history open day is geared especially for people who have 'hit a brick wall' research ancestry.


Wartime bride: Above, Christina Gibbons, one of the first 50 New Zealand nurses to go overseas to serve during World War One, with the NZ Army doctor she married in London.  Echoes from the past: Left, Christina Gibbons and her brother Bob in their uniforms.

Wartime bride: Above, Christina Gibbons, one of the first 50 New Zealand nurses to go overseas to serve during World War One, with the NZ Army doctor she married in London.

Echoes from the past: Left, Christina Gibbons and her brother Bob in their uniforms.

The Gallipoli centenary is prompting more people to delve into the World War One experiences of greatgrandparents, uncles and aunts.  Help is at hand at a Family History Open Day this Saturday [28 March 2015].

Anita West, acting convenor of the Hutt Valley branch of the NZ Society of Genealogists, says a name scribbled on the back of a photograph is often enough to launch a search.  These can take surprising directions, as she recently found herself.

On Saturday at Petone Library there will be people to help absolute beginners at researching the family tree, as well as specialist "help desks" on New Zealand, Australian, English, Irish, Scottish and USA family history.  Christine Edney, from the NZ Defence Force Archives in Trentham, will join branch genealogists to show people how to search Archive NZ's military service records through the Archway portal.

A service record for someone who served during World War One, for example, will usually include details about when s/he joined, what places they saw action, whether they were injured, at what casualty clearing station or hospital they were cared for, etc.

"Some of it can take a bit of decoding but we can help people get started on that too,"  West says.

Some service records can run to scores of pages, depending on the person's length of service.

West recently discovered that her great-aunt, Christina Gibbons, was one of the first 50 Kiwi nurses to go to WW1.  She nursed Gallipoli soldiers in Egypt and on the British hospital ship HMS Gascon.

Faded and tiny "Box Brownie" photographs piqued her initial interest.

Her grandfather was the youngest of 13 and grew up in Nightcaps, Southland.

"He died when I was young so I didn't get to hear many of his family stories,"  West says.

Jim Gibbons was a Lower Hutt citizen from the 1930s, involved in local politics and sport.

His wife Joan worked at Carey's Drapery for more than 50 years and is depicted in the mural in the foyer of the War Memorial Library holding a bolt of cloth, representing local business.

When her gran died, West inherited a box of papers that included the old photos.

"I got out the magnifying class and there was a photo of Christina [in her nursing uniform] and beside her was her brother Bob in his World War One uniform." 

She got onto the Archway portal and began to build the story of her great-aunt.

Christina ended up marrying a doctor from the NZ Medical Corps; Bob's service record notes he was granted leave to attend their wedding in London in 1917.

Both Christina and her future husband had been in Egypt.

"He came back from the Somme unwell to the hospital in England where she was nursing." 

West says she envisages them falling in love as she helped nurse him back to health.

As was the requirement of Anzac nurses getting married, Christina resigned the day before her wedding.

"But she almost immediately joined up as a VAD [Voluntary Aid Detachment] nurse." 

Both she and her husband stayed working at Brockenhurst, the No 1 or 2 hospital for care of Kiwi service personnel, and as a result of his experiences there he later became a specialist in artificial limbs at Dunedin Hospital.

It's a neat story but West says it's by no means uncommon in terms of what people can turn up if they delve into family history. The Great War touched so many Kiwis; 14,000 New Zealanders volunteered for service in the first week alone.

Genealogy exploration has also become much easier in the last five to 10 years, with so many records now going on-line.

"It used to be that it was a thing for older, retired people who had the time to write lots of letters to cousins, and who might make a trip to a [records] repository overseas.

"Now younger people like me can dip in and out, search here and there and start to piece their stories together." 

While help is there for complete newbies at Saturday's event, it's particularly geared for those who have started to search "but hit a brick wall, and are starting to lose interest or lose heart.

"We can help people get back on track." 

Modern technology can be a great aid, West says.

"By sharing what you learn via social media or blogs, others can add to it." 

West says she put up a "scant family tree" on-line and by coincidence so did a second cousin in England.

Their grandmothers were sisters.

"So now we've had contact for three years using emails and skype, researched things together, and she came to New Zealand three weeks ago."

  Family History Open Day, Heritage Centre, Petone Library, [28 March 2015] 10am till 2pm.  $5 for nonmembers.  Tea, coffee, milo provided; byo lunch.  Enquiries to Terry Stock, 565-0059.

  Editor's Note: Subsequent to this article being printed, a point of clarification by Anita West for family history researchers who like things to be correct: Christina's surname was GIBBON, without an 'S'.  More information about Christina Gibbon and her story is available in Anita West's blog: Family History Matters NZ :: GIBBON