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Thomas Halbert, known as Tame Poto (Tommy Short) because of his short stature, was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, probably in 1806. His parents were probably William and Sarah Halbert, of Anglo-Scottish…

Kūkūtai's father, also named Kūkūtai, was a warrior of very high standing, and a leader of Ngāti Tīpā of Waikato, who were settled along the coast from Kāwhia Harbour to Waikato Heads, and along both banks of the…

Louis Catherin Servant was born at Grezieu-le-Marché, France, on 25 October 1808. He came from a rural peasant background. His parents, Antoinette Blanchard and her husband, Jean-Antoine Servant, were small landholders…

George Marshall McCall Smith was born on 13 November 1882 at Nairn, Scotland, the second son of Ann Mein Andrews and her husband, Samuel McCall Smith, who farmed at Laggan, Speyside. He was educated at Laggan School,…

Taumata-ā-Kura belonged to Te Whanau-ā-Tinatoka, Te Whānau-ā-Haemata and Te Whānau-ā-Te-Uruahi of Ngāti Porou. He was born at Whakawhitira, near the Waiapu River, probably in the late eighteenth century. In 1823 he was…

Herbert Horatio Spencer Westmacott, known as Spencer, was born in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 10 November 1885, to a middle-class family of limited means. His mother, Ada Janet Depree, was of Huguenot descent. She had…

Ruth Webb, born on 8 February 1901 in Rotorua, was the youngest of five children of Mary Wilson and her husband, Seth Webb, a blacksmith. In 1908 the family moved to Cambridge, where Ruth was educated at the local…

Benjamin Woods was the most important police officer in northern New Zealand between 1840 and 1853. He was born in King's County, Ireland, probably in 1787 or 1788, the fifth of six children born to Ann Wilkinson and…

Kate Halbert was born probably at Tūtoko, near Waerenga-a-hika in Poverty Bay, in the early 1840s. She was the daughter of the trader Thomas Halbert and his fifth wife, Keita Kaikiri (Kaikeri). Through her mother she…

Marie Henriette Suzanne Aubert (known first as Suzanne Aubert and later in religion as Mary Joseph Aubert) was born at Saint-Symphorien-de-Lay, Loire, France, on 19 June 1835. She was the daughter of Henriette Catherine…

Peter Buck claimed to have been born in 1880, but a more likely date is sometime in October 1877 as recorded in his primary school register. For most of his life he believed that Ngārongo-ki-tua was his natural mother.…

Thomas Robert Gore Browne was born on 3 July 1807 at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, the second son of Robert Browne and his wife, Sarah Dorothea Steward. The family, of Anglo-Irish origin, had settled near…

Mina Louise McKenzie was a key player in New Zealand’s museums sector from the 1970s to the 1990s. As curator, and later director, of Manawatū Museum, she pioneered a model of museum practice which placed primacy on…

James Herries Beattie (known as Herries) was the son of Scots immigrants James Beattie and Mary Roden (Rodden) Thomson, who arrived in Otago in 1862 and were married in 1874. After some years of farming, James Beattie…

Robert Tahupōtiki Haddon was born on 5 October 1866 in the Hokianga district, the son of Charles Haddon, a Scots bushman and farm labourer, and his wife, Te Paia (Sophia) Tahupōtiki, of Ngā Ruahine and Ngāti Manuhiakai…

Henry Taipōrutu Te Mapu-o-te-rangi Mitchell was born at Ōhinemutu on 5 May 1877, the elder of two children of Te Whakarato Rangipāhere Taiehu of Ngāti Te Takinga, a hapū of Ngāti Pikiao, and Henry Walker Mitchell, a…

By his own account Hoani Nahe was born at the time the mission house at Parāwai (near Thames) was being built. This was probably in 1833 or 1834. His birthplace may have been at Te Poho, near the Kirikiri Stream. His…

Mihi Kōtukutuku was born, according to family information, on 30 October 1870 at Pōhaturoa, a point near Raukōkore in the Bay of Plenty. She was the third daughter of Maaka Te Ehutū of Te Whanau-a-Maruhaeremuri, a hapū…

Te Pōkiha Taranui belonged to Ngāti Pikiao of Te Arawa, and was descended from Te Tākinga and Hineui. His mother was Te Huruhuru and his father was Taranui. He was born probably in the Rotoiti district early in the…

Te Whiwhi, sometimes called Te Whiwhi-o-te-rangi, was the son of Te Rangitopeora, the sister of Te Rangihaeata, a woman who held a foremost place among Ngāti Toa and Ngāti Raukawa; she was the daughter of Waitohi, Te…