Te Puke archives secured by Family Heritage Group

Te Puke Family Heritage Group convener Christine Clement with the hard drive being used for archive storage in tandem with the cloud.

Thousands of Te Puke archives have been secured thanks to a raft of sponsors.

The archives have been scanned and stored in the cloud and on a hard drive.

“We are so happy to have this large project under way,” says Te Puke Family Heritage Group convener Christine Clement.

“The branch bought a large scanner and, as records arrive at the archives, they can be added to the cloud and the hard drive for future storage.

“We are very aware of how original records start to deteriorate, sometimes quite quickly.”

One of the larger projects was the scanning of the newspaper scrapbooks originally started by Jean Barnett (nee Dunlop), whose grandmother was one of Te Puke’s earliest settlers, Sarah Malyon.

Jean kept scrapbooks of the town and local people from the 1930s until her death in the 1970s.

“They were full of obituaries and death notices for families that had a connection to the district.”

Many of these have been added to the burials at the Old Te Puke Cemetery on Find a Grave.

“With these and other records, the group is now pleased that they are safe from fire, floods and silverfish.”

The project was made possible thanks to the support of Tect, Cogs, the Lion Foundation, Te Puke Kiwicoast Lions and the Pāpāmoa Rotary Club.