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Jessie Finnie was one of a large number of prostitutes who worked in Auckland, New Zealand, in the 1850s and 1860s. She was born in Scotland in 1821 or 1822. Her exact place of birth and the names of her parents are…

Robert Hogg was born in Blochairn, Glasgow, Scotland, on 28 January 1864, the son of Samuel Hogg, an iron puddler, and his wife, Elizabeth Pearson. Robert began his working life at the post office at Musselburgh, where…

Matekoraha Te Peehi Rangihika, commonly known as Bessie, was born on 27 February 1902 at Whiritoa, a small Ringatū settlement between Waihī and Whangamatā. Her father was Rangihika Kereopa of Ngāti Maru, whose parents…

Lewis Tilleard Natusch (always known as Charles) was born on 4 October 1859 at London, England, the son of Emma Sarah Dixon and her husband, Charles Francis Natusch, a mercantile clerk. Social contact with people of…

Mildred Amelia Woodbine Johnson (also known as Mīria Tāpapa) was born on 24 December 1877 in Poverty Bay at Ahipākura, east of Gisborne. Her mother, Mere Hape, was of Rongowhakaata and Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki descent, from…

Mary Anne Rymill was baptised on 1 June 1817, the second youngest daughter of William Rymill, carrier, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, and his wife, Mary Herbert. She was orphaned when quite young, and went to live…

Tāmairangi was a high-ranking woman of strong character and great beauty, who lived in the area around Cook Strait in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Her parents were Te Rōnaki and Kahukura-ā-Tāne.…

Hēmi (James) Tautari was born, probably in 1814 or 1815, at Paihia in the Bay of Islands. His father may have been Te Koki, the principal chief of Ngāpuhi at Paihia and brother of Hongi Hika's mother, Tuhikura, of Ngāti…

Norris Frank Davey, who would in adult life change his name to Frank Sargeson, was born in Hamilton on 23 March 1903, the second of four children. His father, Edwin John Davey, had taken over his father's general store…

Maria Susan Rye is said to have been born in London, England, on 31 March 1829, the eldest in a family of nine children. She was named after her mother, Maria Tuppen, a woman of Quaker descent, from Brighton, who had…

Arnold Everitt Campbell was born at Karere, near Palmerston North, on 13 August 1906, the son of Mabel Annie Brooker and her husband, Fernly Charlwood Campbell, a teacher. He went to West End School and Palmerston North…

Minnie Kronfeld, who was to become well known in New Zealand theatrical circles as Maria Dronke, was born on 17 July 1904 in Berlin, Germany. She was the youngest child and only daughter of Salomon Kronfeld, a barrister…

George Gage, or Hōri Te Kou-o-rehua Keeti as he was known to Māori, was born probably in 1895 or 1896 at Kihikihi, Waikato. His father, John Gage (Hōne Keeti), was of Ngāti Maniapoto. His mother, Rea Waitāuhi Nikorima…

Wīremu Parata Te Kākākura Waipunaahau was born on Motungārara, a small island off Kāpiti Island, probably in the mid-1830s. He grew up during a time of unprecedented and irreversible social change, of which he…

Te Kiato Rīwai, or Kia, as she was more commonly known, was born in the Chatham Islands, on 21 November 1912, to Mere Ngautanga Dix of Ngāti Mutunga and Te Oti Rīwai, a farm labourer of Ngāi Tahu; her father’s hapu was…

Little is known about the early life of confidence trickster Arthur Bently Worthington. His real name was Oakley Crawford, but he was also known as Samuel Oakley Crawford. He was born to Samuel Crawford, a lawyer, and…

Hongi Hika was born near Kaikohe, in northern New Zealand: he told French explorers in 1824 that he had been born in the year of Marion du Fresne's death, which was in 1772; and he was a mature man at the height of his…

Harry Scott was a psychology educator and researcher whose work on the effects of isolation evolved from his own experiences as an imprisoned conscientious objector during the Second World War. He was a significant…

James McCosh Clark was born in Beith, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 12 August 1833, the son of Archibald Clark, a merchant, and his first wife, Margaret McCosh, whose father was a wealthy coal mine owner. James arrived in New…

The Holyoake connection with New Zealand goes back to 1843, when the great-grandparents of Keith Jacka Holyoake settled at Riwaka, near Motueka, and it was there that he spent much of his youth and began his farming…