Christmas Meeting
Sunday 7 December at 2pm.
401A Papanui Road (Our rooms)
Bring a plate of Christmas Goodies to share.
You may like to share a story about
"My Best or Worst Christmas"
All set -up and ready for the public to arrive.
It was another great day at the Hororata Highland Games this year.
We were in clans area, between the McDonalds and the Gordons.
We managed to enrol five new members
Sunday, July 6, 12.30pm
Mid-Winter Lunch
The Taproom (Richmond Club), 75 London St, Richmond
Contact – Kevin 021-08266331
August meeting:
Friday to Sunday, August 1 to 3,
Christchurch Family History EXPO,
Tūranga Central Library, 60 Cathedral Square,
Christchurch.
We will be having a stall at the EXPO. More information to
come. This will replace our monthly meeting.
my.christchurchcitylibraries.com/family-history-expo/.
Sunday, April 6, 2pm
David Hill, “Lowering the Colours: The 1914 All England women's hockey tour of New Zealand”
Venue: The Elmwood Park Bowling Club, 83D Heaton Street.
Our president will trace the little known All England women's hockey tour of Australia and New Zealand. He is employing all the tricks he can think of, in an attempt to trace the Canterbury and New Zealand players. It is likely this was the first New Zealand women's sports team ever selected.
Usual $3 entry (includes a raffle).
Sunday, March 2 - 2pm
Usual $3 entry.
The Elmwood Park Bowling Club, 83D Heaton Street.
Adrienne Shaw, “A Descendant from the Chinese Camp, Lawrence”
Adrienne will talk about her discovery of her Chinese ancestry and her research into Chinese gold miners, which has led to a new book.
Sunday, February 2 - 5:30pm
Annual social get-together / barbecue.
399 Papanui Road
Croquet, pétanque & rocket launcher.
Please bring a salad or desert and any meat alternatives. Don't forget to bring a chair, plates, utensils and your own refreshments.
Sausages and bread supplied by the committee.
Tell us what you are researching, share any interesting tales and bring along your questions and research brick walls.
Sunday, March 2 - 2pm
Usual $3 entry.
The Elmwood Park Bowling Club, 83D Heaton Street.
Adrienne Shaw, “A Descendant from the Chinese Camp, Lawrence”
Adrienne will talk about her discovery of her Chinese ancestry and her research into Chinese gold miners, which has led to a new book.
Friday to Sunday, March 7 to 9
Dunedin research field trip
Contact Kevin familyhistory.nz@hotmail.com for more information.
Sunday 1 December at 2pm
401A Papanui Road
Bring along some festive goodies to share and tell us your favourite festive memory / story.
Sunday November 3rd 2:00pm. Usual $3 entry.
The Elmwood Park Bowling Club, 83D Heaton Street.
The Elmwood Park Bowling Club, 83D Heaton Street.
Our president will talk about his research into the first Canterbury Astronomical Society, founded in 1871, the origins of the Townsend Observatory at the Arts Centre and Christchurch's connection to some astronomical observances in the 19th century.
Sunday May 5th 2:00pm. Usual $3 entry.
The Elmwood Park Bowling Club, 83D Heaton Street.
Donald Hansen will talk to us about early New Zealand Censuses. Don is the author of “Forgotten but not gone: some early New Zealand census returns”
Sunday June 9th 2:00pm Annual General Meeting
At our rooms 401A Papanui Road
Nominations are now open for all positions on the executive.
Please note that this is the second Sunday in June, the first being King’s Birthday Weekend.
An agenda for the meeting is included with this newsletter.
Following the AGM, David Hill, our Vice president will give a talk on “A Family Photo Collection”
When vice-president David Hill's Nana died back in 1986, the family said they would get together one day to go through Nana's two old suitcases of family photos.
That never happened, so in 1995, when David started doing his family history research, he went to visit his aunt and together they went through the photos.
Now that his aunt has moved into a retirement home, he has now inherited the photos.
David will bring the two suitcases of old family photos to the meeting and discuss them.
Do others want to bring along some old family photos?
Sunday April 7th at 2:00pm
Visit to New Brighton Museum & Heritage Centre
8 Hardy Street, New Brighton
Join us as we explore New Brighton’s heritage, its connection with the pier, the 10th Commonwealth Games, the speedway and life-saving. Did any of your relatives live in or near New Brighton? The Museum has an extensive family history section.
$5 cash per person: This covers entry and includes a Devonshire tea & slideshow presentation.
March Meeting Sunday 3rd march 2pm
Elmwood Park Bowling Club
Heaton St.
$3 entry - includes a raffle.
Without the Nasty Bits: A Soldier's Story.
I will have copies of the book for sale for those who would like to buy. The book retails for $35 and I will bring some cash for change for those who would like to purchase that way and I do have account details for any who wish to make an electronic bank transfer.
Alan Woods
December Meeting Sunday 3rd December (Christmas Meeting) 2pm
Our rooms 401A ‘The Office’ Papanui Road. No entrance fee!
Mum’s Biscuits. Most of us were brought up in an era of home baking. Some of our Mother’s baking became part of our heritage and we still use the recipes today. Bring along stories about your Mother’s baking. We would love to sample a biscuit or two!
Even if your Mother did not bake – after school treats were part of our heritage. Tell us about yours.
The rooms will close for the year on Saturday 16th December at 12 noon
The rooms will reopen at 10am on Saturday 20th January
October Meeting
Sunday October 1st 2pm. Usual $3 entry. The Elmwood Park Bowling Club, 83D Heaton Street.
Evelyn McIver-Keeley talks about her new book on the history of three women in her Campbell clan family in Scotland, and how she approached the research and writing of her book “With Grace: Her Story and place in Campbell History 1642 – 1856.” Grace Buchanan Campbell is the central character; she was a published author in Edinburgh during the early part of the 19th century.
Trevor Lord speaking at our last meeting in the new rooms at the Elmwood Park Bowling Club - 83D Heaton Street
Sunday June 11th AGM 2pm. Meeting at The Bowling Club 5 Donald Place
Please note that this is the 2nd Sunday of the month, as the 1st Sunday falls during the King’s Birthday Weekend
Your chance to have your say about the future of our Society.
The usual $3 entry applies. There is extra parking behind the rooms.
Speakers: Glenda Rattray & Victoria Wisternoff
Unmarked graves at the Sydenham Cemetery, in particular searching for Sunnyside patients.
For almost 40 years, Ann Rattray was incarcerated at Christchurch’s Sunnyside Hospital. She spent half her life at the psychiatric institution and died there alone when she was 80 years old. There is no record of her ever being visited by her husband or her two surviving children. Rattray is one of up to 1000 former Sunnyside patients lying in unmarked graves in Christchurch’s Sydenham cemetery.
The Press - Tina Law Nov 27- 2021
Sunday May 7th 2pm. Meeting at The Bowling Club 5 Donald Place
The usual $3 entry applies. There is extra parking behind the rooms.
Speaker: David Hill - 13 Migration Stories
How my ancestors got to New Zealand
David will be sharing a power-point to support his talk.
During the week, the committee and other volunteers undertook a small fundraising exercise - preparing advertising envelopes for AVO New Zealand.
Last weekend the Society had its annual Field Trip, this time to Nelson. It was a wonderful weekend with visits to historic buildings, walks, special morning teas, talks on a variety of subjects and a cemetery tour where we saw first hand the restoration work undertaken by the hard working Friends of Wakapuaka Cemetery group. Special thanks must go to Simon Courtney for organising this wonderful event.
Time for a well earned cuppa. Some of the ten strong team who helped out at the January working bee.
The Society took part in the Family History EXPO at the weekend. We got a great response from our committee to run the stall and managed to sign up 7 new members.
The Committee decided, at its meeting on Wednesday, that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond the Committee’s control, the Mid Winter dinner – due to be held this Sunday - is postponed until Sunday 7th . August.
Sorry for this late notice.
Sunday 7 August 2022 Annual Midwinter dinner 12:30 start at the Bowling Club 5 Donald Place Please contact Judith Munro Ph.3597228 with your meal selections The meal will be followed by a talk from a prominent historian Richard Greenaway on “The Canterbury Provincial Government Immigration Scheme 1853-1876”
Jill Lord QSM
On Tuesday 10 May our Patron Jill Lord was presented with her QSM (Queen's Service Medal) by the Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro at Government House in Wellington.
It was a delightful ceremony. Jill was supported by her family.
Sunday April 3rd. 2pm The Bowling Club 5 Donald Place
Claire le Couteur (one of our own members) will talk about her latest book
Dodds’ Pharmacies
Claire will have copies of her book available at the meeting for $30 – a special discount for our members.
Usual $3 entry
There is parking behind the rooms if the street parking is full
For nearly a hundred years, the Dodds’ name has been synonymous with pharmacy in Merivale, Christchurch. Doug Dodds established his chemist shop there in 1924. When he retired in 1965, successive owners of the business honoured him by naming it Dodds Pharmacy.
Doug’s grandfather, George Fawcit Dodds arrived in New Zealand in 1877 and opened his first chemist shop in Port Chalmers before leaving it in his son Nicholas’s hands and moving to Akaroa in 1888. George bought a French chemist’s business in the town and operated it with another son, John, also a chemist. Doug, John’s son, was brought up in Akaroa and later served an apprenticeship in Christchurch before buying the Merivale business.
The medicines these men sold were often imported patent medicines supplemented by their own formulations. Each generation developed their own concoctions, many of which could never have lived up to their extravagant claims. This advertising was common practice by chemists in the years leading up to strict legislation obliging manufacturers to list the ingredients of their mixtures on their labels.
This is not a family history, nor is it a comprehensive study of pharmacy through the ages, but an interesting tale of three generations of one family of chemists and their experiences in pharmacy.
Claire le Couteur
We are all very aware of the danger COVID still holds,
especially for us older members, so please
Wear a mask
Keep a safe distance
Be prepared to show your vaccine pass
Congratulations to our Patron Jill Lord, who today became a well deserved recipient of the Queens Service Medal, QSM.
We now have a Covid Tracer sign on the noticeboard in our rooms. Please use it to sign in.