Where did they live?
Is it quite interesting to go back years later, and look at your childhood community? The houses, are they all as they were? The roading – gravel? Tar-sealed? Street numbers or no street numbers still? And, are the streets all named the same as you recall them? More than that, what about where your parents, grandparents and great grandparents lived? And this is where it can get confusing.
In fast growing and ever-changing cities like Hamilton, we have had a number of street name changes with which we must contend. The changes have occurred for a variety of reasons; rationalisation, change of land ownership, duplication and suchlike. It just makes it a wee touch iffy when you have a family photo or other memorabilia, an old passport for instance, with an address like Selkirk Street, Hinemoa Street or perhaps, Jersey Street. All in Hamilton.
Your grandparents may have lived in Selkirk Street but you have to go back to an early 1960s map to find that street in Hamilton. Said to have been named in 1864, it was one of the casualties of the railway lowering project. Selkirik Street became Anglesea Street in the 1960s. Hinemoa Street likewise became an extension of Tristram Street and was thus re-named.
In the library, we have an index of street names which includes ‘lost’ names and we have maps like this 1927 edition which shows Hinemoa and Selkirk. It also shows Queen Street which is now Barton Street and has been since 1927.
Finding where your ancestors lived is made more complex by changes like these. To make it worse still, there have been street number changes all over Hamilton. Many streets had no numbers for some years and in some official items like electoral rolls, street numbers were not included. At least if you have the correct street name, we can start tracking down the location.
Old maps are a great resource for searching ancestry locations as are directories from the past. Contact us – we may be able to help.