Dangerous Ground or Rich New Research Methods? Using Digital Genealogy to Trace Colonial Mobility

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-125
Author(s):  
Sue McCliskie

More than 3,000 emigrants took up the New Zealand Company's offer of a free or assisted passage to Nelson, the company's Second Colony of New Zealand, from 1841 to 1844 – but did they stay? This article outlines an academic project that combines genealogy techniques and sources with more conventional research, in order to reveal new information about colonial migrants who are often ‘invisible’ in historical accounts. These were predominantly poor English families (with some Germans, Scots and Irish), and they were part of the earliest stages of British colonisation of New Zealand. Genealogy websites such as Ancestry and FamilySearch proved to be central to this research. They provided a gateway to an astonishing amount of information that could ‘locate’ an individual or family, tying them to a certain place, without the researcher knowing which place to look for. This project highlights some of the limitations and dangers of using genealogy methods and sources in academic research – as well as what might be gained. The results suggest that this kind of hybrid methodology incorporating genealogy research can be used successfully within an academic study. In this project, the intricacies of colonial family networks were illuminated, even though the subjects were poor and continued to move around. Surprisingly high levels of mobility were identified, and this was true of women and children as well as men. These findings suggests that using genealogy to trace patterns of colonial mobility is not only important to gain an understanding of individual lives but may also contribute significantly to a better understanding of the larger processes of migration, colonisation and the history of colonial ‘places’.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
John McLellan

<p>The approximately 18,000 imperial troops who arrived in New Zealand with the British regiments between 1840 and 1870 as garrison and combat troops, did not do so by choice. However, for the more than 3,600 non-commissioned officers and rank and file soldiers who subsequently discharged from the army in New Zealand, and the unknown but significant number of officers who retired in the colony, it was their decision to stay and build civilian lives as soldier settlers in the colony. This thesis investigates three key themes in the histories of soldiers who became settlers: land, familial relationships, and livelihood. In doing so, the study develops an important area of settler colonialism in New Zealand history. Discussion covers the period from the first arrival of soldiers in the 1840s through to the early twentieth century – incorporating the span of the soldier settlers’ lifetimes. The study focuses on selected aspects of the history of nineteenth-century war and settlement.  Land is examined through analysis of government statutes and reports, reminiscences, letters, and newspapers, the thesis showing how and why soldier settlers were assisted on to confiscated and alienated Māori land under the Waste Lands and New Zealand Settlement Acts. Attention is also paid to documenting the soldier settlers’ experiences of this process and its problems. Further, it discusses some of the New Zealand settlements in which military land grants were concentrated. It also situates such military settlement practices in the context of the wider British Empire.  The place of women, children, and the regimental family in the soldier settlers’ New Zealand lives is also considered. This history is explored through journals, reminiscences, biography and newspapers, and contextualised via imperial and military histories. How and where men from the emphatically male sphere of the British Army met and married women during service in New Zealand is examined, as are the contexts in which they lived their married lives. Also discussed are the contrasting military and colonial policies towards women and marriage, and how these were experienced by soldier settlers and their families.  Lastly, the livelihood of soldier settlers is explored – the thesis investigating what sort of civilian lives soldier settlers experienced and how they made a living for themselves and their families. Utilising newspapers, reminiscences, biography, and government records the diversity of work army veterans undertook in the colony is uncovered. Notable trends include continued military-style roles and community leadership. The failed farming enterprise is also emphasised. Going further, it offers analysis of the later years of life and the different experiences of soldier settlers in their twilight years, particularly for those with and without family networks in the colony. The thesis challenges the separation between ‘war’ and ‘settlement’ by focusing on a group whose history spanned both sides of the nineteenth-century world of colony and empire.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jamie Hawkins Elder

<p>Anxiety and fear were central to the condition of settler colonialism in 1860s New Zealand. The Land Wars of the 1860s in New Zealand provoked potent anxiety about the enemy, about loved ones’ lives and about survival. The anxiety could transform into full-blown fear and panic with the onset of violence, or even the prospect or threat of violence. This thesis examines and compares evacuations of ‘refugee’ settler women and children from the sites of Land Wars conflicts in Taranaki (1860-61), and at Waerenga-a-hika (1865) and Matawhero (1868) in Poverty Bay. It explores the character and response to danger of what might be described as ‘settler anxiety’. Settlers of the 1860s used the specific term ‘refugee’ to describe the displaced settler women and children. Māori also faced displacement during the wars, though their situation is not within the scope of this thesis. The story of the Land Wars thus far has focused mainly on the narrative of the military conflict and examines events primarily as a male-centric, racial conflict. However, the time has come to examine experiences off the battlefield – of non-combatants. Women and children in particular are far more central to the history of the wars than is currently acknowledged. The first part of the thesis explores how the Land Wars ‘refugees’ coped with separation from homes and family. The second part examines how settler society, both on a formal governmental basis and on a more informal community level, reacted to the presence of ‘refugees’ emotively and with practical assistance. The research examines the language settlers used and the points they emphasised in their writing or speeches to reveal the frameworks of settler colonialism. Personal diaries, letters and memoirs are used to understand the settlers’ situations. To understand the broader reaction of settler society the thesis draws on newspapers, provincial council correspondence and records, and general government debate and legislation. This thesis argues that the existence of women and children settler ‘refugees’ during the Land Wars represented the settler colonial system in turmoil, providing evidence that the wars involved a conflict off the battlefield as well as on it. Colonists dreamed of creating a safe and secure colony where settlers could acquire land and make a livelihood to support a family. Consequently, attacks on family went to the heart of settler colonialism. The ‘refugees’ symbolised the ‘unsettling’ of settler colonialism, both literally by their locational displacement and figuratively by igniting fear about the stability of the settler colony. In response to the ‘refugee’ crisis settlers vehemently asserted their attachment to ‘home’, to prove their right to live in the colony, and promoted their solidarity with the ‘refugees’ and against enemy Māori, who they saw as threatening the settler dream. The evacuation of Land Wars ‘refugees’ is also considered for its similarities and differences to other ‘refugee’ situations internationally during the colonial era.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
John McLellan

<p>The approximately 18,000 imperial troops who arrived in New Zealand with the British regiments between 1840 and 1870 as garrison and combat troops, did not do so by choice. However, for the more than 3,600 non-commissioned officers and rank and file soldiers who subsequently discharged from the army in New Zealand, and the unknown but significant number of officers who retired in the colony, it was their decision to stay and build civilian lives as soldier settlers in the colony. This thesis investigates three key themes in the histories of soldiers who became settlers: land, familial relationships, and livelihood. In doing so, the study develops an important area of settler colonialism in New Zealand history. Discussion covers the period from the first arrival of soldiers in the 1840s through to the early twentieth century – incorporating the span of the soldier settlers’ lifetimes. The study focuses on selected aspects of the history of nineteenth-century war and settlement.  Land is examined through analysis of government statutes and reports, reminiscences, letters, and newspapers, the thesis showing how and why soldier settlers were assisted on to confiscated and alienated Māori land under the Waste Lands and New Zealand Settlement Acts. Attention is also paid to documenting the soldier settlers’ experiences of this process and its problems. Further, it discusses some of the New Zealand settlements in which military land grants were concentrated. It also situates such military settlement practices in the context of the wider British Empire.  The place of women, children, and the regimental family in the soldier settlers’ New Zealand lives is also considered. This history is explored through journals, reminiscences, biography and newspapers, and contextualised via imperial and military histories. How and where men from the emphatically male sphere of the British Army met and married women during service in New Zealand is examined, as are the contexts in which they lived their married lives. Also discussed are the contrasting military and colonial policies towards women and marriage, and how these were experienced by soldier settlers and their families.  Lastly, the livelihood of soldier settlers is explored – the thesis investigating what sort of civilian lives soldier settlers experienced and how they made a living for themselves and their families. Utilising newspapers, reminiscences, biography, and government records the diversity of work army veterans undertook in the colony is uncovered. Notable trends include continued military-style roles and community leadership. The failed farming enterprise is also emphasised. Going further, it offers analysis of the later years of life and the different experiences of soldier settlers in their twilight years, particularly for those with and without family networks in the colony. The thesis challenges the separation between ‘war’ and ‘settlement’ by focusing on a group whose history spanned both sides of the nineteenth-century world of colony and empire.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Alimu Tuoheti

The academic history of Islam in China. It not only refers to the academic history of Chinese scholars' research on Chinese Islam, but also includes the carding of various researches and achievements of Chinese scholars on foreign Islam and Muslims. This includes the study of Islamic classics such as Koran and Hadith, History, Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Society and Culture. Islam and Muslims in different regions of foreign countries also have different characteristics, and the research methods also respect this aspect of attention. On the origin of academic history: according to the author's own and previous research results, it can be concluded that academic research with contemporary significance began at the beginning of the 20th century. Under the background of the introduction of Western learning to the East, modern academic research methods also affected the research field of Islam in China. There are four imams with high academic level, such as Ha Decheng, Wang Jingzhai, Da Pusheng and Ma Songtin. There is also Chen Hanzhang, Chen Yuan and Chuan Tongxian non-Muslim scholars joining the ranks of Islamic researchers. There was little research before the 20th century. The year 2000 can be regarded as the dividing line in the evolution of modern Islamic academic history. The period from the beginning of the 20th century to the founding of new China can be regarded as the beginning period. The period from the founding of new China to the reform and development can be regarded as the initial period. During this period, due to various political movements and other reasons, China's Islamic academic history and many other fields suffered setbacks such as stagnation to varying degrees. The period from reform and development to 2000 can be regarded as the prosperous period of Islamic academic research in contemporary China. During the period from 2001 to now, the subject consciousness is clear and the research methods are diversified. Many industries and scholars have actively participated in this research field, that is, using the theories and methods of religion, ethnology, anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy, linguistics, culture, politics and other disciplines to systematically study the historical, political, economic, cultural and other phenomena of Islam and Muslims, so as to lay a foundation for the further development of China's Islamic research.


1929 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 582-582
Author(s):  
R. Luria

New research methods, being an essential prerequisite for advances in the recognition and therapy of diseases, can gain especially great importance and will be especially useful if wide circles of doctors are thoroughly familiar with the history of the method, the technique of its application and the results obtained by the new method in various fields of its application. ... This is the task that the author of the book about the duodenal probe sets himself. Extremely simple in essence and giving the possibility of practical application in the most modest conditions of medical work, the duodenal probe is still little used in a wide circle of practical doctors, and from this side the book of prof. Levin undoubtedly fills in a great defect in our literature


Author(s):  
Paul Christoffel

According to conventional historical accounts, the New Zealand Ensign Act 1901 changed the national flag from the Union Jack to the current flag. This article shows that the 1901 Act did not change the national flag; it merely reconfirmed that the New Zealand ensign was ‘the recognised flag of the colony’. During 1900 the public became confused when an apparent rival national flag emerged thanks to a bureaucratic bungle. The 1901 Act abolished the rival flag, which was highly unpopular due to its unsightly white disc. 


1929 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 582-582
Author(s):  
R. Luria

New research methods, being an essential prerequisite for advances in the recognition and therapy of diseases, can gain especially great importance and will be especially useful if wide circles of doctors are thoroughly familiar with the history of the method, the technique of its application and the results obtained by the new method in various fields of its application. This is the task that the author of the book about the duodenal probe sets himself.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Grace Millar

<p>From February to July 1951, 8,000 New Zealand watersider workers were locked-out and 7,000 miners, seamen and freezing workers went on strike in support. These workers and those who were dependent on their income, had to survive without wages for five months. The dispute was a family event as well as an industrial event. The men were fathers, husbands, brothers and sons, and their lack of wages affected the family that they lived with and their wider kin networks. The thesis examines families in order to write a gendered social history of the 1951 waterfront dispute.  The discussion starts by exploring the relationship between waterfront work and watersiders' families before the lockout. Then it turns to examine the material support that families received and the survival strategies used during the dispute. It examines the decisions union branches made about relief and other activities through the lens of gender and explores the implications of those decisions for family members. The subsequent chapters examine the dispute's end and long-term costs on families. The study draws on a mixture of union material, state archives and oral sources. The defeat of the union has meant that union material has largely survived in personal collections, but the state's active involvement in the dispute generated significant records. The oral history of 1951 is rich; this thesis draws on over fifty existing oral history interviews with people involved in the dispute, and twenty interviews completed for this project.  The thesis both complicates and confirms existing understandings of 1950s New Zealand. It complicates the idea of a prosperous conformist society, while confirming and deepening our understanding of the role of the family and gender relationships in the period. It argues that union branches put considerable effort into maintaining the gender order during the dispute and set up relief as a simulacrum of the breadwinner wage. Centring workers' families opens the dispute outwards to the communities they were part of. Compared to previous historical accounts, the thesis describes a messier and less contained 1951 waterfront dispute. This study shows that homes were a site of the dispute. The domestic work of ensuring that a family managed without wages was largely women's and was as much part of the dispute as collective union work, which was often organised to exclude women. The thesis argues that homes and families were the sharp edges of the 1951 waterfront dispute, the site of both its costs and crises.</p>


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