Family History Month: Start your journey

Professional genealogist with Memories in Time, Fiona Brooker.

August is Family History Month for most genealogy groups throughout New Zealand, and the Te Awamutu group has some special events planned.

The first is a week-long display of family stories in the Te Awamutu Library foyer, starting on Monday.

During the week the group will have volunteers available at the library between noon and 2pm to help anyone interested in starting their family history.

In August, the group will collaborate with Te Awamutu Museum on an Introduction to Family History talk, with a focus on the museum’s resources to assist with research.

A special guest speaker for the monthly meeting on Tuesday is Fiona Brooker, who will join via Zoom from Christchurch.

A professional genealogist with Memories in Time, Fiona will introduce attendees to the wonderful world of genealogy.

Her Exciting Discoveries talk is aimed at helping people get started, developing their digital skills and utilising the wide variety of records and sources available to the modern genealogist.

Think of genealogy as a jigsaw, this talk will help you to organise your research and to always find those crucial edge pieces.

Events are also planned in Auckland and Hamilton that several branch members will be attending, including the Auckland Family History Expo on the weekend of August 12-13 and the Hamilton Library Lock-in on August 26.

During the year branch members have been working on several projects, including the rechecking of local school registers and writing up the stories from the St John Cemetery tour undertaken earlier this year.

Work is also continuing on a book covering the commercial development of Te Awamutu and the history behind many of the buildings in the centre of the town.

The St John Cemetery stories will be uploaded to the Facebook site for the public to access over the coming months, as will stories from the Kihikihi Cemetery tour the group did in 2019.

Te Awamutu Genealogy Group meets on the first Tuesday of the month, at 7.30pm in St John’s Ambulance Station in Palmer St. Prospective members and visitors are welcome — there is a $3 fee.

Several members also get together for an informal monthly gathering at 10am on the first Friday of the month at Robert Harris.

People do not need to be members of the group to join in the coffee morning and visitors are always welcome.

There is no time like now to get started if you are wondering about your roots and want to find out how to explore them. The best way to contact the group with any research queries or planned activities is through its Facebook page.