RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => New Zealand => New Zealand Completed Requests => Topic started by: DeniseBS on Saturday 30 January 16 06:28 GMT (UK)
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Happy New Year to All
I have been trying to find school records for my grandfather for a number of years with no luck. We are pretty sure he went to Ellerslie Primary School, Auckland. This seems likely as his foster parents lived in Great South Road, Ellerslie and we did find his foster brother there. However, no one seems to know where the records are for this particular time period 1897-1907. The school told me that NZSG had them and NZSG told me the school had them. Round in circles.
I was trying to find out what his previous school was and when he started at Ellerslie. He was supposed to have been in Taranaki with his mother before being put with a foster family in Auckland (the birth place of both of them). So I want to confirm this and also find out where and when.
Has anyone had any luck with records for Taranaki primary schools in this time period? I can't find anything specific on Archway to say they are in the Wellington Archives office.
Thanks
Denise
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Auckland archives have records for Ellerslie
https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ItemAdvancedSearchResults.do
Cheers Janette
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Apropos Janette :)
If you type "Ellerslie School" into the Archway search box you'll find the school records from 1880 to 1940-ish.
For example...
Ellerslie School - Primers 1-2, Standards 1-6 1899
https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=22112149 (https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=22112149)
The records are held at Auckland Archives but have an orange restriction. Not too sure what will be entailed in ordering/viewing them.
Not sure if the records hold the "Register of Admissions, Progress and Withdrawal" or just examination results. Either way you can search them for your grandfather's name which should determine if he attended that particular school.
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Reasonably sure the NZSG have done a fairly comprehensive indexing of available school records.
You could ask for a look-up on the NZSG CD as several rootschatters have a copy of it and are happy to do lookups.
Regards
Beg
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Hi Janette and Beg
Thanks for your responses. I am not totally sure as it was too long ago, but when I found the foster brother, the years when I thought my grandfather would have been there were not among the records in Auckland Archives for Ellerslie Primary School. He certainly was not on the indexes I looked at, hence why I was reverting to looking at all the Taranaki schools around the Stratford/Eltham area. Mind you it is always worth checking again, if only I could get back up to Auckland.
I have NZSG Index V5 and Ellerslie is not on that, neither are many Taranaki schools, it would appear.
Still hoping someone has some knowledge of Taranaki School Records as I am handy to Wellington Archives if they are there. Although a search on Archway did not produce anything.
Denise :)
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I have NZSG Index V5 and Ellerslie is not on that
Hi again...
I was thinking more of the NZSG Kiwi Index Vol 1 CD which the blurb says has "more NZ School Records to 1916". This CD came out a few years after the NZSG Vol 5 CD.
Still think you should ask for a CD lookup. If you want to keep your grandfather's name off the board just say you'll PM the name.
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Still hoping someone has some knowledge of Taranaki School Records as I am handy to Wellington Archives
If you type THETARANAKI into the Archway "Simple Search" box
then click "GO"
then click "GO TO ASSOCIATED RECORDS"
...you can see the Taranaki Education Board records held by Archives.
They're mostly at Wellington Archives.
Here's one Stratford School register...
Series 14 - Admission Registers - Closed Schools - Denbigh Road - 1896-1939
https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=18849849 (https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=18849849)
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If you want to know roughly where in Taranaki the schools are located here's an 1897 AtoJ which might (or might not) help.
Scroll way down to Table No.8 - Page 20
http://tinyurl.com/ztzzxcm (http://tinyurl.com/ztzzxcm)
Regards
Beg
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I was thinking more of the NZSG Kiwi Index Vol 1 CD which the blurb says has "more NZ School Records to 1916". This CD came out a few years after the NZSG Vol 5 CD.
All the information on the first CD will be the same on the latest CD, it is just an upgrade with additional information added.
Cheers
KHP
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Hi
Thanks for the links Beg. The list of schools is a good to have and I can start working through the closed ones to eliminate them.
I can get access to the Kiwi Index Vol 1 and I am pretty sure I looked at it when it first came out, with no luck.
Cheers
Denise
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All the information on the first CD will be the same on the latest CD, it is just an upgrade with additional information.
Hi KHP...
Not what I heard (even though I'm not a NZSG member so have never owned or used either CD so what do I know :)
NZSG Vol 5 contains a lot of info that was not allowed to be copied over to the Kiwi Index.
Likewise the Kiwi Index contains a lot of new info that had been transcribed since Vol 5 was released.
The two CD's are complementary rather than Kiwi superseding Vol 5... although, as I said, that's just what I've heard.
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We are pretty sure he went to Ellerslie Primary School, Auckland [...] we did find his foster brother there.
Hello Denise...
So are you saying you've found and viewed Ellerslie School records for your grandfather's foster brother.
If so, do you have a record of these records. I'm curious as to what they are (e.g Form No.20 - Class List, Form No.19 - Examination Schedule etc).
To be honest, I'd say the pretty comprehensive Ellerslie School records held by Auckland Archives are the only ones surviving from 1897 to 1907. If you've searched them and your grandfather isn't mentioned then I'd say he didn't attend that school.
Regards
Beg
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The two CD's are complementary rather than Kiwi superseding Vol 5... although, as I said, that's just what I've heard.
Beg, you are probably right .... I shouldn't listen to Chinese Whispers when at the library.
Cheers
KHP
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Hi Beg
Too be honest I can't remember exactly what they were as it was in 2006 and because I wasn't interested in the foster brother I only made a mental note that I had found something on him. I am leaning towards them being the examination records.
Yes I know I should make clear notes of everything I have searched :P but I am usually rushing to make the most out of the opportunity when it arises which is not often. I am leaning towards them being examination records.
What has sparked my interest in following this up again is that I made a quick visit to the Auckland Archives Thursday week ago just before attending a family funeral. I found the thing I went there for and found a couple of other interesting tidbits. Then it got me thinking about the school records again.
I think I have clearer understanding of what records schools created now than I did in 2006 so perhaps I need to revisit the whole Ellerslie thing again to make absolutely sure I haven't missed anything. Because I don't have any exact dates I am guessing about when he would have been there.
He was born in 1892 (his foster brother in 1888), his mother married in 1904 in Stratford and we believe her future husband did not want to raise another man's child so she took him back to Auckland and had him fostered. His Statement of Service for the Railways says his Education Qualification was Std 5, so if I remember correctly that would make him about twelve when he finished his schooling. So maybe you are right and he never went to that school, although family lore says he did. Unfortunately the funeral I attended in Auckland the other week was the last of my parents' generation, a daughter in law of my grandfather's.
Cheers
Denise
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Hello Denise,
"His Statement of Service for the Railways says his Education Qualification was Std 5, so if I remember correctly that would make him about twelve when he finished his schooling."
Don't know whether it makes any difference or not, but Standard 6 was generally the year for twelve year olds.
Minniehaha.
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Hi
There was various reasons that children could remain in primary school until they finished their education. This could be 16 year-olds in Standard 6. Pupils tended to be held back if they failed an end-of-year exam or were absent for a good part of that year. I was in Std 5 with a fellow pupil who was 16. I myself was 12 having lost a year by attending a city school for 12 months for speech therapy.
After the 1950's the Education Department's policy on year-by-year advancement was made virtually mandatory. So, just about all pupils had at least some secondary schooling from this time.
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Hi
Just an update on my initial post about Taranaki Schools. I went to the NZ Archives office in Wgtn last week and waded through the School Examination Lists for 1898 to 1903 for N (Ngaire School) to W (Wortley Road School). I chose this section of the alphabet as it included Stratford and Whangamomona, two places associated with my gt grandmother. No luck. I will go back to do the A-Ms as well, a my gt grandmother had a sister at Eltham. It may have been he was only in Taranaki for months and missed the annual school examination.
As for the records themselves they were easy to look through. They have been bound into two books for each year, as I said above I have only looked at the last book of each year so far. Each school has two summary sheets at the beginning, one blue and one white. Both pre-printed and then filled in by the examiner. The next sheets are pre-printed too. One has columns for the three primmer classes and then the other sheet is for the standards. Usually several standards classes on the same sheet, sometimes girls and boys listed separately. The last page or pages are a handwritten summary on some kind on funny now brittle paper.
Looking at ages of children in various classes was interesting. I found a 12 year old in the primmers and Std 5 ages were anywhere from 12 to 15.
Cheers
Denise