Grahamstown Gazette: the Heritage Week edition



Every month I write a local heritage-themed column, on behalf of The Treasury, for the Grahamstown Gazette. Here's my piece for the March edition.

From The Treasury: 

This month is set to be a busy one for The Treasury. We’re celebrating Thames Heritage Festival with the return of our popular The Way We Were lunchtime lecture series, guided walking tours of Shortland and the Kauaeranga Valley, a film festival at Embassy Cinema and a late-night workshop for budding genealogists. Phew! There are more details about all of these events on our pages on Facebook and Eventfinder.

We’re also playing host to another important visitor this month - He Pou Aroha Community Cenotaph, a portable digitisation kiosk connecting us to Auckland Museum’s Online Cenotaph. If your ancestors served in World War I, you may already be aware that the Online Cenotaph is a veritable goldmine of information on New Zealand soldiers. 

The kiosk is part of Auckland Museum’s initiative to encourage the public to add more information about their military ancestors. The Cenotaph database holds extensive records of all New Zealand soldiers who fought in World War I, and will eventually extend to soldiers who fought in other conflicts. Our kiosk lets you to search the Online Cenotaph, lay a virtual poppy against a specific person’s name and add your own information to the database. You can also use its object photo booth to digitise your family's war-related items, such as medals, diaries, and letters. The digitised objects are immediately uploaded to your service person’s Online Cenotaph record, creating a valuable and comprehensive resource for future researchers and family historians.

 You can access the kiosk for free at The Treasury until March 22nd.

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