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Wēpiha Apanui (also known as Wēpiha Te Mautaranui) was the son of Apanui Te Hāmaiwaho and Mīria Tārei of Ngāti Awa. He was the first-born of two brothers and two sisters; the date and place of his birth are unknown.…

Thyra Avis Mary McNeill was born on 26 March 1910 in Wellington, the eldest of four children of Jane Louisa Beatrice Thompson and her husband, Alan McKenzie McNeill, a journalist. In 1913 the family moved to Auckland,…

Tūhuru Kōkare was born probably in the latter part of the eighteenth century: his son, Tarapuhi, was said to be about 70 years of age in 1864. He spent his early life with his parents, Te Ruahuanui and Tītohi, at…

David Crosgrove was born in Scotland at Crosshill, Ayrshire, probably on 20 January 1852, the eldest child of weavers James Crosgrove and his wife, Elizabeth Campbell. The family surname was changed to Cossgrove about…

William and John Deans, first and third of four sons of John Deans, a notary, and his wife, Catherine Young, were born in the parish of Kirkstyle, Riccarton, Scotland. William was baptised on 31 January 1817; John was…

Moihi Te Mātorohanga, also known as Moihi (or Mohi) Torohanga, was of the major Wairarapa hapū Ngāti Moe. His family hapū was Ngāti Whakawhena. He was also kin to Ngāi Tahu of Wairarapa, Ngāi Tūkoko, Ngāti Kahukura-…

James Henry Gunson was born on 26 October 1877 in Auckland, New Zealand. He was the son of Jane Burton and her husband, William Gunson, a storeman who became a grain and seed merchant. Both parents were from the north…

Ānaha Kēpa Te Rāhui, also known as Ānaha Mātao, is thought to have been born in the early 1820s, at Te Koutu pā on Lake Okataina. He was descended from Te Rangi-takaroro by his first wife, Rangipare. His father was Te…

Frederick Whitaker was born at Manor House, Bampton, Oxfordshire, England, on 23 April 1812, the son of a magistrate, Frederick Whitaker, and his wife, Susanna Humfrey. He married Jane Augusta Griffith, stepdaughter of…

Papahurihia, also known as Te Atua Wera, was a renowned Ngāpuhi tohunga. He belonged to both Te Hikutū and Ngāti Hau hapū. The date of his birth is unknown; in 1866 he was said to be about 50 years of age, but he was…

Marti Friedlander was one of New Zealand’s most outstanding twentieth-century photographers. Her work was massively influential both in the development of photography as an artistic practice in New Zealand and in the…

George and Herbert Cook came from a seafaring family. Their grandfather, William Cook, came to New Zealand as third mate on an English whaler. He took as his wife Tīraha, who was of Ngāpuhi and Kapotai and kin to…

William Morley was born at Orston, Nottinghamshire, England, on 14 August 1842, the son of William Morley, a tailor, and his wife, Mary Mason. As devout Wesleyans both parents held office as class-leaders, and gave…

Gerhard Mueller was born on 7 February 1835 at Darmstadt, in the grand duchy of Hesse, where his Danish father was a professor of mathematics at Darmstadt university. His ability was passed on to his son, for Gerhard…

Dugald Louis Poppelwell was born on 2 July 1863 at his parents’ farm, Sunwick, at Tokomairiro, South Otago, New Zealand. He was the 10th of 12 children of William Poppelwell, a Scottish mariner turned farmer, and his…

Bill Pearson was an important mid-twentieth-century fiction writer, cultural commentator and academic, best known for his social realist novel Coal Flat (1963) and polemical essay on New Zealand identity, ‘Fretful…

Raharuhi Rukupō of Rongowhakaata is said to have been born at Ōrākaiapu pā, Manutūkē, in Poverty Bay, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He was the second son of Te Pohepohe (also known as Pītau) of Ngāti Maru…

Te Whiti-o-Rongomai III was a descendant of both Awanuiārangi, the founder of Te Āti Awa of Taranaki, and Tahuaoariki. More directly, he was descended from Te Rangiāpitirua, paramount chief of Te Āti Awa, and Korotaia.…

Thomas Adolphus Bowden, known either as Tom or Adolphus, was born at Aldermanbury, London, England, on 26 July 1824, the son of Rebecca Treacher and her husband, John Saunders Bowden, a solicitor. After attending a…

John Luck was born in Peckham, Surrey, England, on 18 March 1840, one of seven children of Alfred Luck, a warehouseman, and his wife, Clementina Golding. Theirs was a profoundly religious household. After the death of…