Visiting our Family History Missionaries at the Archives

 It was enlightening to visit Elder and Sister McVey and Elder and Sister Overton in their hideaway on the 1 1/2th floor of the National Achieves.Only ten stations like this exist outside the United States and three of them are in New Zealand

 They work hard and fast every day. There job is to digitize some 325,000 probates that represent about 4,000,000 documents or 10% of the holdings in Wellington. The project is estimated to be about 10 years in length and is only 1 of the 4 repositories that Archieves New Zealand has. There is one in Christchurch where Sister Nation and Sister Cheilus are working. One in Auckland where Elder and Sister McVey went to train the new missionaries and the final is to be  in Dunedin soon.

 Elder McVey has charted and organized statistics as to how much they are getting done, how fast and how long it should take to finish.

 President Kezerian learning the process.

 We had the opportunity to digitize records from the Masterton area. They have amazing programs and cameras to help with the work.

 Fiona Clark, who is in charge of the Archives in Wellington, gave us a tour of the Facilities. She showed us a 1958 video of the original Maori Mormon choir from Templeview. We then went into the Waitangi Treaty room and saw what was left of the original treaty that has been eaten away by rats chewing the skin that it was written upon.

Fiona was so accommodating and thoughtful in her preparations for our tour. She researched things she thought we would be interested in. She showed us the records of the second Maori King Tawhiao.

 She had this picture and a little on his claim to believe in Mormonism. He was quoted as stating, "My people in the North are believers also in Mormonism, and it is my wish that all the Maori should be of the faith." Other Maori joined the LDS Church based on a prophecy they claimed Tawhiao made in the 1860's - that messengers of God would come from over the Sea of Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean), traveling in pairs and teaching the Maori people in their own language.  When some who heard Tawhiao's prophecy observed pairs of Mormon missionaries from the United States teaching in Maori language, they immediately accepted Mormonism. Tawhiao accurately predicted the site of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple, which was built in 1958.

There is a great article in the 1981 New Era on the Maori. http://www.lds.org/new-era/1981/06/maori-traditions-and-the-mormon-church?lang=eng&query=maori+(publication%3a%22New+Era%22)

We walked through the "Stacks" in Archives New Zealand where they have some 40,000,000 items in their possession. What a great tour!