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Abel Janszoon Tasman was born, probably in 1602 or 1603, at Lutjegast, Groningen, the United Provinces of the Netherlands (the Dutch Republic). His first wife was Claesgie Heyndrix, with whom he had a daughter named…

Cedric Harold Firth was born on 22 May 1908 in Auckland, the son of Jane Elizabeth Marie Cartmill and her husband, Wesley Hugh Bourne Firth, a building and general contractor. His father was a great influence on him,…

Thomas Morland Hocken, whose name is perpetuated in the Hocken Library, Dunedin, was born on 14 January 1836 in Rutlandshire, England. He was the third surviving son of Joshua Hocken, who was of Cornish descent, and his…

Pérrine Millais was born in London, England, on 8 February 1893, the daughter of Mary St Lawrence Hope-Vere and her husband, Everett Millais, a medical student at the time who died in 1897. Her paternal grandparents…

Robert McNab was born at Dunragget farm, near Invercargill, New Zealand, on 1 October 1864. He was the eldest child of Janet McQueen and her husband, Alexander McNab, a runholder who served as a member of the Otago and…

John Cawte Beaglehole was born in his parents’ house in Hopper Street, Wellington, on 13 June 1901, the second of four sons of Jane Butler and her husband, David Ernest Beaglehole. David was a serious-minded young man…

According to reliable sources James Cook was born on 27 October 1728 at Marton-in-Cleveland, Yorkshire, England; he was baptised on 3 November that year. He was the second child of James Cook, a Scottish day labourer,…

Ian Athfield was an award-winning Wellington architect whose practice, Athfield Architects, designed distinctive and innovative houses that challenged suburban norms, as well as celebrated commercial, public and…

Early life Thomas Allen Monro Curnow (known as Allen) was born in Timaru on 17 June 1911, the second of three sons of Tremayne Monro Curnow, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Jessamine Towler Gambling. On his…