Tairua Pauanui Genealogy Branch
NZSG Branch
June 2016 Newsletter
Meeting Events & Happenings
June 2016 Meeting
This month saw a return of one of our favorite
and well known gene speakers. Our Branch
hosted guest speaker, Michelle Patient, at our
June Meeting, her topic “An Introduction to
Family History DNA”
See on page two, a brief summary of
Michelle’s presentation.
Simple DNA Graphic – free image Bing Images
Special points of interest:
Mark on your calendars Tairua Pauanui
Genealogy group meeting 10 am, Tuesday,
5th July
2016, The Annex, Pauanui
Sports & Recreation Club.
Gordon Coster & Frank Coulter will be
demonstrating use and how to download the
photo programme, Picasa. Also helping with
advice on looking after those family photo’s.
and yes even our own Branch, Tairua
Pauanui, has a rostered turn on Wednesday
15th. Our new Branch Banner looks
impressive and also as does the flyer for
Tairua Pauanui Genealogy Group – great
photo of our valley and on the back a photo
map of the flyer of our Meeting Place at the
Annex, Pauanui Sports & Recreation Club.
Rostered Helper from Tairua Pauanui, Alan
Brierley is looking forward to a volunteer
stint on the stand. Heard also tell that folks
from Morrinsville will be at the Fieldays –
Hope they visit the NZSG stand too.
The Count Down Is On:
This month is the National Fieldays at Mystery
Creek, Hamilton. The team organising the
NZSG Stand has been busy organising, with
activity increasing since the Regional
Meeting NZSG, at the beginning of May.
Gene sleuth has heard that Waihi and
Thames Branch are also going to be there
10 June 2016
One of the cow sculptures- Family Always - in Morrinsville Main Street –
photo courtesy Chris Ball 2015
Tairua Pauanui Genealogy Branch
Why Bother with this DNA “Stuff”:
In this Issue
•
•
Very rapidly over the last decade, genetic
genealogy has become an essential addition to
family research. The results of a DNA test can
confirm or disprove ancestor relationships, let
you find others researching your family, help
you find living relatives and even break down
brick walls. Of late it has become evidence for
a claim in an Estate.
•
•
Why bother with this DNA “Stuff” Pg 2
An Introduction to Family History DNA
Page 2
More Reading on DNA
Page 3
How and when this DNA “Stuff” got
discovered Page 3
Tairua Pauanui Genealogy Group Page
4 – bowls, books and databases.
Back in May 2016, hot news overseas, was
more than 700 people claiming to be closely
related to Prince. The death of this well-known
singer in April 2016, raised hopes for these
claimants. A possible share of a vast estate
left by Prince!! DNA samples ruled to be taken
by an American Court Judge, saw Morse
Genealogical Services busy with DNA samples.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/79739643/princedead-singers-dna-tested-as-claims-flood-his-estate
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3577864/The-gold-rushbegins-700-people-claim-Prince-s-siblings-judge-rules-DNA-samplestaken-music-legend-s-blood-verify-claims.html
Having a DNA test is another one of those
“getting round tuit “tasks this newsletter
editor has. Not because of any vast estate, as
with Prince, but purely to be able to confirm
that yes, those Macfarlane Ancestors are
mine. Also because they have an interesting
DNA Project, read about on World Families
online http://www.worldfamilies.net/
The newsletter this month will explore this
DNA topic. In the brief article on Michelle’s talk
we will be introduced to DNA in Family History.
In another article we will read how this DNA
“stuff “got discovered
Chemistry clip art from Bing free images
An Introduction to Family History DNA
(Brief notes from Michelle’s Presentation)
Michelle shared with us a very comprehensive
introduction to Family History DNA. Michelle
who in her lifetime experience did a Science
degree made what is a comprehensive topic,
very understandable. Main points of Michelle’s
presentation were:
• Family History DNA testing is not
forensic testing.
• It provides an ultimate genealogy
record from ancestors.
• May be the key to also unlocking
someone else’s genealogy tree.
Michelle also showed us a DNA test kit, which
helped all of us present, know what to expect
in the taking of a DNA sample, sending away,
the wait for results and what to expect.
Thanks Michelle for a great presentation and
also to Tony who came with you.
10 June 2016
Tairua Pauanui Genealogy Branch
More Reading on DNA
DNA Learning Centre https://www.dnalc.org/websites/
Hathi Trust Digital Library – great reads here.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?field1=ocr;q1=DN
A%20IN%20Genealogy;a=srchls;lmt=ft
Jefferson Lab
http://education.jlab.org/scienceseries/dna.html
This world class science lab website even has a
game of hangman on DNA for you to pit your skills
And knowledge on.
How and When this DNA “Stuff” got
discovered
Much has been heard about nurse Florence
Nightingale ( “ the Lady of the Lamp” )during
the Crimea War. About the improvements in
sanitation, nutrition, and activity for the
patients of the hospitals – the wounded and
dying soldiers.
However, also out of the Crimean War came
the discovery of deoxyribose nucleic acid DNA. In 1869 Swiss born physician and
biologist, Johannes Friedrich Miescher, was
treating the wounded soldiers in the Crimea
War. Working in biochemist’s, Felix HoppeSeyler's, laboratory, Miescher discovered a
substance containing both phosphorus and
nitrogen in the nuclei of white blood cells
found in pus ( from the casualties bandages).
These he called the name, 'nuclein.' Meischer
went on to study the
molecule
in
salmon
sperm,
and
even
suggested that it might
be involved with the
genetic code. He raised
the idea that nucleic acids
could be involved in
heredity.
Bing free image DNA
Johannes Friedrich Miescher photo courtesy Wiki Paedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Miescher creative
commons licence
Meischer’s ideas were revolutionary and
contrary to the scientific current thought of
that time.
Most researchers then, were of the thought
that proteins, were the molecules that carried
genetic information through the generations,
not DNA molecules.
It was not until 1944, with
the work of biochemist
Maclyn McCarty, in Oswald
Avery's
laboratory
at
Rockefeller University New
York that this prevalent
scientific thought changed.
McCarty’s laboratory work
Bing Free Image DNA
led to a thought by a
number that DNA must be the stuff of
inheritance. So began more study and work on
DNA, in the field of molecular biology, on up
until this century when it is now becoming an
accepted
thought in Genealogy and Forensic Sciences.
As to Johannes Friedrich Miescher, contracting
tuberculosis, led to the death of this gifted
researcher, in 1895. Born in 1844, Miescher
was only fifty-one years old. For Meischer,
discoverer of an important hereditary factor,
he also figures in a family tree record.
10 June 2016
Tairua Pauanui Genealogy Branch
Tairua/Pauanui Genealogy
Branch
in other club teams – Pam, Alan, Jim, Bill and
Gillian. In all a fun evening.
Did Your family members play bowls?
All this bowling, got the Newsletter Editor to
thinking about any family forebears playing
bowls. First to mind was cousin William Gorrie,
one of the directors of the Golden Belt
Goldmining Company, up the Tairua Valley,
near Neavesville and of Woodstock GMC at
Karangahake. Loved his bowls and passed
down the bowling tradition to Morton Gorrie,
who lived at Coromandel for a number of
years.
Looking up the Beautiful Tairua Valley – Once the home for many
families involved in timber, gold and gum - now some farming –
photo 2014 courtesy Chris Ball
Well done Gene Team!
There were no prizes
for this team. If there
was,
a
prize
for
phenomenal
team
spirit and participation,
our Gene Team would
have
won.
“Hands
down” at the recent
Indoor
Bowling
Tournament on 24
May.
The
annual
tournament was held
by the Pauanui Indoor
Bowling
Club.
It
provided
an
from Bing free Images
opportunity for the
Clubs, Organisations and a couple of Business
Teams to share their game skills, camaderie
and supper. The venue was the Recreation
Hall of the Pauanui Sports and Recreation
Club. Our Gene team were members, David
Ward, Jill Ward, Frank Coulter and Chris Ball.
Newsletter Editor Anne went along as standby
in event of collapse or injury. Also spotted
during the evening, were other gene members
A search of the veritable Genealogists’
Goldmine for BDM’s - Papers Past and Trove
found a number of articles on Indoor and
Outdoor Bowls. Plus, many names. Got to
thinking – what kith and kin do we all have
who may have played bowls in their village or
town or community. Even some photos of
indoor bowling teams, such as the one below
Check out also the team dress, hats included,
in this photo, taken of Christchurch teams in
1934.
WOMEN'S INDOOR BOWLING CHAMPIONSHIP. —Measuring a head in
the match yesterday between Sydenham and Be... [truncated]n Press,
Volume LXX, Issue 21231, 1 August 1934, Page 18
Photo courtesy Papers Past, National Library NZ
10 June 2016
Tairua Pauanui Genealogy Branch
There were also newspaper articles about
wooden bowling – another form of bowls
which was said to be a popular form of
entertainment on some of the world’s
goldfields. Maybe your kith and or kin played
in one of these alleys.
Electoral Rolls Provide
Good Source Information
for Family Members
Back in 1865 the NZ Electoral Roll for
Franklyn Electoral District, recorded those
first Europeans living in Tairua then,
involved in the first sawmill and/ or timber
felling. Maybe one of them is one of your’s
– maybe even your brick wall. (from
Papers Past Daily Southern Cross 12 April
1865 Page 6. Columns 1 – 6 and New
Zealand Herald, 15 April 1865, Page 5 &
6 page 5 column 1 and page 6 columns 1
– 4)
Wooden Bowling Alley, Sovereign Hill, Ballarat, Victoria Australia in 2011 –
photo courtesy Chris Ball
Book Review –
“Tides of History “–
from Christine Brierley
This book, in our genealogy
library, about the Bay of
Islands, was commissioned by
the B.O.I. Council and written by Kay Boese.
Being A4 in size and 470 pages - not a book
to take to bed. Sadly, no index. Nearly every
page has either photos, sketches, or printed
articles. If you have ancestors who lived or
worked in the greater Bay of islands area in
the early years this is a book for you to
borrow. Well worth a look. (If anyone has
time to go through this book cover to cover
and index onto a computer all the names and
places - please do so).
Note from Editor: Many of the data bases, indexes and
lists we use, are thanks to other Genealogists
throughout the world. See following article on Electoral
Rolls – each web link Sooty (Christine) and Althea’s
work.
This Branch Newsletter is yours. Contributions for
Future newsletters. Contributions, ideas for topics
welcomed – email Newsletter Editor
- Anne
[email protected]
BACH, John
BLEAZARD, Robert
BRADLEY, Robert
CRAIG, Arthur
CRAIG, Joseph
DYER, John
MCDONALD, Peter
MILLBURN, James
ROGERS, Owen
TAPSELL, Philip
TOTHILL, Charles
Franklyn District Electoral Roll 1865 also
0n Rootsweb.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestr
y.com/~sooty/franklynERoll1865.html
By 1885 Tairua was in what was called the
Coromandel District Electoral Roll.
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.c
om/~althea/Coromandel%20Electoral%20Ro
ll%201885%20surnames%20no%20order%
20complete.htm
Looking for family elsewhere on Electoral
Rolls. Try Ancestry on the Library Edition
at Tairua Library. (Make an appointment
with the Librarian to use the Library
Edition at the Library.) Note: Māori were
granted the right to vote in 1867 without
the property ownership requirement, and
in 1897 the requirement was repealed for
British subjects as well.
10 June 2016