The Lake Taupō Geneaology group in action at the library. From left is Judith Heywood, Terri Foley, Sue Howard and George Charles Fedfern. Photo: Dan Hutchinson

For 40 years members of the Lake Taupo Genealogy group have been poring through old books, shipping records, electoral roles, births, deaths and marriages records.

By Dan Hutchinson

The group is celebrating its 40th birthday this month, and one thing is certain - finding long lost relatives and historical family records has never been more popular.

It has also never been easier thanks to do, thanks to the world wide web and modern-day DNA databases.

Nevertheless, it is still a painstaking and daunting exercise for many to track down those people from their past.

Every Thursday, from 9.30am to midday, researchers can be found huddled around a long table between aisles of books at the Taupō Library – a mix of those who are looking for answers and those who are helping.

Convenor Terri Foley says making a start is the hardest part for many people, so they show people what records they have available and how to find the records they need.

It is a typical busy morning when Taupō News stops by for a visit.

“Judith's been researching for a long time for her English people, Tom's been trying to find his Scottish and Irish ancestors. It's a bit of a struggle at times for everybody.”

She says it can be particularly difficult for those who are looking for Māori whakapapa, because records don’t go back as far and before that it was mainly verbal knowledge, passed down through the generations.

“The best thing they can do is go and talk to their families ... But you can find some Māori land records that help with names and things.”

She says the group has different members versed in different countries.

“We all have different ways of doing things, so if somebody says, ‘look, I can't do any more for Mary, can someone else have a go at her stuff?’ You think, ‘oh, what about this or that?’

“Sue does a lot of research in England and Yorkshire and Lancashire, so she's well versed there.

“I'm Australian, so I don't have any... apart from my husband's New Zealand things, I don't have any ancestors… So, I do a lot of Australian, Irish, Welsh, German.”

DNA testing has made a big difference in recent times.

“DNA has been the biggest game-changer in finding anything. We do a lot of work here with people who are trying to find their birth parents using DNA. And we've had a few successes with that.

“Sometimes it's a very sensitive subject and you have to treat it with care, because some of the people coming to find their birth parents are in their 60s and 70s.

“We had one just recently, a guy who's 52, and he wanted to find his father, his birth father.

“And between us and another DNA expert in Te Awamutu that we use sometimes, we found him. So, he's now in the process of deciding. He's also found a half-brother.

“Without DNA, you'd never find them now. So just about everyone has done DNA and it helps narrow down where they're going. It's quite an art.”

Lake Taupo Genealogy celebrates 40 years

History prepared by Terri Foley

September 18, 1984: An augural meeting was organised by Barbara McLaughlin for those people interested in family history.

June 1985: Beginners’ Seminar was held at Tauhara College and a new Informal Group at Taupō was formed with the first meeting held in July 1985.

January 1992: The informal group became affiliated to New Zealand Society of Genealogists as a Group and in 2009 all groups became branches, and we became the Lake Taupō Genealogy Branch.

For the first 10 years, meetings were held in the Polytech rooms on Kaimanawa Street, old Waiora House and the Church @109 Heuheu St, and research services were made available in various members’ homes.

In 1995 Joan Shepherd negotiated a space at the Masonic Hall on Spa Rd through her husband John and Graham Mock. That brought all our library resources into one place: books, folders, and microfiche readers.

John Mason custom-built a floor-to-ceiling storage unit for our library resources and readers.

We were able to open our holdings for monthly research meetings and weekend seminars. We hosted speakers from far and wide.

July 29, 2008: A Memorandum of Understanding with Taupō Library was signed. This MOU was to provide us with a dedicated ‘floor’ in the newly refurbished library for local history and genealogy research.

Well, we got a space, if not a ‘floor’ and were able to move our library holdings into this area before the Masonic Hall was sold.

Space is a at a premium for us at the library. We have our financial and administration records stored in the library “Closed Section”.

We now have three filing cabinets in our area and an additional cabinet upstairs for meeting needs.

We provide free research advice to the community every Thursday morning from 9.30am to midday and monthly meetings for members and visitors on the 4th Saturday of each month at the library.

We appreciate the support shown to our researchers by the library team.

Committee meetings have been held at various members’ homes over the years, at one time out at Kinloch, to cover a committee member’s childminding duties and our youngest ‘committee member’ spent her first birthday at a branch cake stall outside Whitcoulls in 1999.

Committee Meetings have continued to be held at various members homes.

Over the last 40 years, the branch has been managed by a committee of dedicated members overseen by 11 convenors.

The branch will be celebrating with a lunch on Saturday July 26 with several past members in attendance.