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Heritage Genealogy

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Samoa

Gazetteer of Central Polynesia, 1857

12 August 2011 by Carole Riley

A gazetteer of Central Polynesia was published in the Sydney Morning Herald over some months in 1857. Included were placenames in Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.

It can be seen that the spelling is not what we know today, so be mindful of this when you search.

I have added the articles making up the gazetteer into a list called ‘Fiji gazetteer’ on the Trove website at http://trove.nla.gov.au/list?id=13361

Here is an example from Friday 3rd July 1857, covering the first half of the listing for places beginning with N.

SMH 1857 Gazetteer Central Polynesia N detail

If you come across a placename in an old book or document that you can’t recognise, perhaps it is listed here with a spelling that you wouldn’t have suspected.

 

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I am Carole Riley of Sydney, Australia and this is my genealogy research business. I can help you to find out who your Australian ancestors are and I can usually trace them back to their country of origin. I can also help you find out their stories and mysteries - who they were, what they did for a living, where they lived and died.

I am the author of Land Research for Family Historians in Australia and New Zealand (2023) and Evernote for Family Historians (2015). I am a Fellow and past Vice President of the Society of Australian Genealogists and former editor of their journal, Descent. I am also a past Director of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Read More…

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