Locating My Roots

I first became interested in my ancestry after reuniting with my birth father in 1979. This led to subsequent visits to his siblings, uncovering among other family records, the family Bible. Having discovered I was the sole child of my father, I decided to change my adopted surname of Gibbs back to Hermon, prior to my marriage.

Joining Genealogist Organisation

After joining the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG), I became a member of the Gisborne Branch in 1980, where I held the post of Research and Projects Officer from 1982 until 2000. As a Committee member, I also served in other roles, including that of Convener from 1986 to 1988.

The Researcher

My role as Research and Projects Officer meant that much of my spare time was involved in helping others, responding especially to requests from people outside of Gisborne, whose ancestors had lived in the area. This research enabled me to tap into many local resources, where rewarding items were often found for the waiting correspondents. I spoke at the opening of the new LDS Family History Centre as I recognise this would be a significant asset for local genealogists wishing to utilise international material.

Recording Cemetery Records

One of my more ambitious projects was to transcribe all of the headstone and burial records for Gisborne and the East Coast cemeteries for publication. The Gisborne Branch of the NZSG was one of the few that had adopted a composite headstone and burial record transcript for each cemetery, thus enabling family historians to readily identify graves without memorials.

Gisborne Cemeteries

The two largest cemeteries in the area to transcribe were Makaraka and Taruheru, the latter containing around 19,500 burials dating from 1915 to 1997. This mammoth task had originally been initiated by other Branch members, who had produced a first draft transcription. My effort involved the full support and patience of my family, more especially while I was typing up the many pages of material. Once we had the new transcript our family frequented the Taruheru cemetery regularly, our two sons enjoying playing around while their parents were carefully checking the data. After several years of work, we produced an 878 page book on headstone inscriptions, and a 912 page book on its burial registers.

Land Records & Genealogy

In the course of my work with in Lands & Survey, and later Land Information, I have discovered a wealth of genealogical information within the records held, and have gained considerable knowledge of New Zealand survey and land-title documents, and how to research them. I have given a number of talks to genealogy groups on this subject now, as it appears to be a resource that is too often overlooked.

Awards

In May 1993 I was given an Award of Merit from the NZSG. In the year 2000 I was given a Branch Service Award for my work with the Gisborne Branch. Between 1993 and 1995 I acted as Project Register Officer for the NZSG, during which time the second edition of the register was published. I was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for this work also.