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Niniwa-i-te-rangi, often known as Niniwa Heremaia, was born at Ōroi, on the east coast of Wairarapa; the date of her birth is said to have been 6 April 1854. She was the eldest surviving daughter of Heremaia Tamaihotua…

Ruatara was one of the first Ngāpuhi leaders to become closely associated with Europeans. For most of his life he lived in the vicinity of Te Puna, in the Bay of Islands. His date of birth is uncertain and his parentage…

Walter James Scott was born at Hilton, near Temuka, on 23 December 1902, the son of Christina McKay and her farmer husband, James Scott. His father died when he was 11, causing a crisis in the family’s fortunes, and it…

Miriam Bridelia Cummings was born at Thames on 15 June 1879, one of eight children of Irish-born Matthew Cummings, a carpenter, and his Scottish wife, Annie Cunningham. The couple solved the problem of their different…

Te Pahi was by 1800 one of the senior chiefs of the north-western Bay of Islands. He was the son of Wharerau, a descendant of the ancient ancestral Ngāti Awa, the original people of the area, and of their Ngāpuhi…

Te Rohu was the daughter of Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II and his senior wife, Nohopapa. She was born in the early part of the nineteenth century. The principal hapū of her father was Ngāti Pēhi (now Ngāti Tūrumakina) of…

Tiramōrehu was born at Kaiapoi pā, probably early in the nineteenth century, into a high-ranking family of the prominent hapū Ngāi Tūāhuriri of Ngāi Tahu. His father was Kāraki. Tiramōrehu was a descendant of Tūāhuriri…

J.C. Sturm, also known as Te Kare Papuni and Jacquie Baxter, was a pioneering writer of poetry and short stories. Long overshadowed by her first husband, the poet James K. Baxter, Jacquie emerged in later life as a…

Willis Thomas Goodwin (Bill) Airey was born in Auckland on 7 January 1897. His father, Walter Henry Airey, an inspector of schools, had died three months earlier, leaving a widow, Margaret Avon McDonald, and seven…

Frederick Baker was born at Whauwhaukauri, Hokianga, on 19 June 1908, the son of John Francis (Frank) Baker and his wife, Jane Robinson. His father was a bushman but subsequently became a dairy farmer. Baker was of…

John Holland Baker was born on 4 December 1841 at Chilcomb, Hampshire, England, one of 10 children of Catherine Mathias and her husband, Thomas Fielding Baker, an Anglican clergyman. He was raised by his grandmother for…

New Zealand's most celebrated and energetic confidence trickster was born on 18 May 1859 at Hobart, Tasmania, the eldest child of Mary Ann Parkinson and her husband, Alfred Bock, and christened Amy Maud. Between her…

George Ferguson Bowen is said to have been born in Ireland on 2 November 1821, the eldest son of Edward Bowen, rector of Taughboyne, County Donegal. His mother's name is unknown. He was educated at Charterhouse, and won…

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…

Henry William Cleary (baptised William Henry) was born on 15 January 1859 at Oulart, County Wexford, Ireland. His Catholic father, Robert Cleary, a farmer, came from the neighbouring county of Wicklow and settled in…

Tonga Mahuta was born probably in 1897 at his father's home at Hukanui, near Waahi pā, Huntly. He was the fourth surviving son of Mahuta Tawhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the third Māori King. His mother was Te Marae, a…

According to family information Robert Maunsell was born at Milford, near Limerick, Ireland, on 24 October 1810. He was the seventh child of George Maunsell, a collector of customs and later a banker, and his second…

Campbell Percy McMeekan was born on 29 July 1908 at Otaki, the only son of four children of Alexander Nelson McMeekan, a baker and shopkeeper, and his wife, Ellen (Helen) Kime. His paternal family were Irish, and on his…

Humphrey Francis O'Leary was born at Redwoodtown in the Wairau Valley, Marlborough, on 12 February 1886, the son of Irish parents Mary Falvey and her husband, Humphrey John O'Leary, a blacksmith. Before he reached…

Roy Parsons sold books in Wellington for nearly 50 years, changing the intellectual climate of the city and opening the minds of several generations of New Zealanders to the world of books and ideas. The son of a…