Dive into dog registrations offers glimpse into family history

Chloe Searle followed a lead all the way to the dog.

In my work at the Waitaki Museum & Archive and Forrester Gallery, I never tire of the research process. I enjoy how the threads, hopefully, come together as you start delving into something. Sometimes luck is on your side and you find more than you ever expected.

Our team is full of pet lovers. I was recently curious about the dog registration tags in our collection and wondered if we could track down anything about the dogs that wore them.

We have three tags in the collection that were once issued, one from Waihemo County Council issued in 1938, one from Waitaki County Council issued in 1886 and one, along with the collar, from Oamaru Borough Council issued in 1922. Back then, tags were made of metal.

I had no luck with the Waihemo and Waitaki County Council tags, but our archives showed that in 1922, tag 130 was issued for Jack, a white Pomeranian. The information collected by the council was similar to today, including the dog’s name, breed, colour, sex and the owner’s details.

Pomeranians seem to have been in vogue, as there were four others on this page of dog registrations alone: Gipsy, Browney, Mojo and Possy. The fee was 10 shillings, which is about $60 today. Jacks owner, John Samuel Burns of Greta St, also had another Pomeranian, named Twinkle.

Sadly, J.S. Burns died suddenly later in 1922. He was 61. His dogs were registered in subsequent years by his brother, Donald. Jack appears in the registration records up until 1934. He outlived his former master by at least 12 years.

I assume D. Burns held on to Jack’s collar. It is a familiar instinct to keep something tangible of the pets we treasure after they die.

I have a couple of collars and tags belonging to departed pets in my home. Jack’s collar and tag were donated to the museum in 1983. I am unclear about the donor’s connection to the Burns family, if any.

While working on this research, I had the exceptional luck of my colleague finding something akin to a needle in a haystack, a studio photograph of "Twinkle B" and "Jack B".

J.S. Burns was a noted rugby football referee and this photo of his two dogs was among a recent donation of items related to the Athletic Rugby Club. It is clear these were treasured pets and I am pleased that our archive can tell some of their story more than a century later.

• Chloe Searle is arts, culture and libraries manager.