Papers Past - Part VI

[Eyesee]

Thanks Spades.

Just wondering if they have the same thing happening with Archives, no further imaging.

Did you get my PM.

Ian C

[spades]

Oops, my apologies, I was away on holiday and clean forgot to respond to you.

I'll reply to it now.

Spades

[spades]

Latest additions this month from the Papers Past website (October 2024):
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers

Oamaru Mail (July-August 1916)

Otago Daily Times (January-March 1886)

Otago Witness (April 1909, December 1909)

Taranaki Daily News (1936-1945)

Timaru Herald (June 1913)

Spades

[spades]

Latest edition to Papers Past  -Newspapers - as at November 2024:

Central Hawke's Bay Press (July 1936-1950)

Spades

[spades]

Latest edition to Papers Past, Newspapers, from February 2025:

Daily Telegraph (Napier) (1902-1934)

Spades

[Tanzenhaus]

Good evening,

I have registered specifically to ask this question: What is the correct etiquette when one discovers something sordid and murky on Papers Past from the 1960s and 1970s about one's estranged kin?

Do we discreetly tell them that it's there now, as we know what lengths some of them have gone to in a bid to hide their Christchurch past from new partners and stepchildren in another location? Even if their history is one of 'shooting the messenger'?

Is it worse to keep quiet and pretend not to have seen it, even if it means their loving grandchildren might eventually stumble across it some day, with no prior warning that Grampy was a bankrupt, robber or sex offender?

I had prior knowledge of some - but not all - of their crimes and misbehaviours, yet was still shocked and totally overwhelmed last year to see the 'bad man' from my childhood escalating from petty theft to indecent exposure to children near a school in a series of articles.

The offending kin concerned are seniors now, all living elsewhere, and have no clue about these articles being released online.

I would be glad to hear suggestions about how to handle this in an upright and ethical manner.

[spades]

Hi Tanzenhaus, and welcome 😁

Personally I’d let sleeping dogs lie.
It was years ago and they were punished by society.

As genealogists I believe we have a responsibility to respect privacy and confidentiality.

Spades

[Tanzenhaus]

Hello Spades, 

Thank you for responding. I have so far been quite cautious and told no-one about this newer information, until posting here.

Papers Past is, and always has been, a godsend to my research, and has frequently helped to fill in so many valuable missing pieces of the larger family story. It has also helped settle a few intergenerational "he said, she said" type disputes, especially in relation to the crime stories.

As you may have guessed, it's not the type of family where a lady's name is only mentioned in newsprint at the time of her society debut, engagement and death. (There have been several startling murder trials...and not just way back when.)

I suppose that I just wasn't emotionally prepared to see anything pertaining to my own childhood online just yet, having always presumed that I would be older, more calm and much less excitable - and my parents-aunts-uncles generation most likely deceased - before anything too confronting appeared.

Thank you for your sensible advice.   

[spades]

Hi Tanzenhaus,

Yes, it's a bit confronting, isn't it  One of the less obvious perils of family research.

Best wishes, and keep researching,

Spades