Papers Past

Many families have  a New Zealand connection - it was not uncommon in the 1800s for family members to migrate from England to New Zealand, then Australia or vice versa or for one family member to come to Australia, one to New Zealand or Canada or some other corner of the British Empire. Papers Past http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ is a great source of New Zealand history  - it's similar to the digitised newspaper collection on Trove http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper, which I use all the time.

According to their website,  Papers Past contains more than three million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1839 to 1945 and includes 92 publications from all regions of New Zealand.

I have selected three articles with  a local Casey Cardinia connection,  to show you the range of information you can discover on Papers Past and of course, if you come from New Zealand then it would be an especially valuable resource for family and local history.

The Press  November 18, 1905

This is a report of the marriage in Christchurch, of  George Hobbs and Muriel Simcox, and there is a double Casey Cardinia connection as George had  a connection to Berwick and Muriel to Officer. George is the son of John and Alice Hobbs, of Berwick, who both lived to the grand age of 90, John dying in 1940 and Alice in 1945, they are buried at Berwick Cemetery. Muriel died in Christchurch in 1948, aged 64 and she is buried in the same grave as her father, Samuel James Simcox who died in 1916 and I believe that George died in 1912, aged 32. I haven't found out the Simcox/Officer connection but will keep trying.

Mataura Ensign February 10, 1908

The Kerr family had large land holdings in Tynong; in 1903  five years before Edmund's death, they had around 1000 acres - north of the Highway around Fogarty Road; south of the railway line where Kerrs Road is, land closer toward Garfield plus some Tynong Township allotments.  I found another interesting reference to Edmund Kerr, I assume he is the same Edmund Kerr as above, in Table Talk newspaper on Trove which says that John Kerr of Tynong discovered the Kimberley mines in South Africa and they then fell into the hands of Cecil Rhodes, who went onto establish Rhodesia.  The Kerr family is thus a perfect example of the reach and influence of the British Empire in the Victorian era. 

Table Talk February 8, 1900

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article145933313

New Zealand Herald  September 23, 1933

This is an interesting article for two reasons, Mr C.D Lloyd  is Charles Duplan Lloyd (1863-1937) who purchased the Holly Green property (where Fountain Gate Shopping centre is) in 1924, from the Webb Family, and moved his Glen Iris jersey cattle stud from Glen Iris to Holly Green. The other reason it is interesting is that it shows how important rural industry was at the time, in both Australia and New Zealand, that farming matters were reported in the daily papers.