Finding Nuggets

It feels like a wonderful adventure when you are researching family history as you often begin with so little. Gradually the search process enriches those few details until you have a much fuller and more interesting picture.

In New Zealand we are all descendants of immigrants, one way or another. My Maxwell ancestors came to New Zealand on the first New Zealand Company ship to land at Wellington in 1840, the Aurora. James and Elizabeth were from Ayrshire originally, we believe. After a short time the couple and their two young daughters relocated to Auckland. Their story and that of their family is coming to life on the pages I am now writing for their descendants.

At the moment, I am concentrating on their oldest daughter Mary, about whom I knew very little until recently. I have discovered that Mary's line died out quickly and I knew that TB responsible for at least one death in the family. I assumed from that that the family was poor, but have discovered that Mary married a timber merchant and that the family business was very successful. Most of this information was gleaned from the Papers Past site. This is part of the National Library and a great source of early New Zealand information. Newspapers currently available for Auckland are Daily Southern Cross (1843-1876,) New Zealander (1845-1852,) and Observer (1880-1909.)

I found newspaper ads for the timber firm of Schapp and Ansenne, as well as stories of fires at their mills, and even reports of how many men they employed plus how much timber they produced. Far from being a poor family struggling with disease in urban late 19th century Auckland, this family was prospering from the profits of timber from Coromandel, sold in Auckland and used to build many of Auckland's early buildings.

You'll get a great thrill when you discover more about your ancestors too. I often liken it to mining gold - each nugget turned up can completely change your viewpoint and open up new pathways to search, hopefully leading to even more gold!