This journal is to introduce myself and share my whakapapa (family history)

Why genealogy?
I thought I might start with why I am researching my genealogy. I think maybe my decision to trace my family history is a need to find a connection to the land and roots of my ancestry. My desire to find the location, the place, where my ancestral heritage began.

Genealogy to me is so much more than just names, dates and places, every one of my ancestors has a story to tell, it's the story that makes history, the stories that add flesh to the bones, They, my ancestors, determined my genetic inheritance. They have determined my height, my shape, the colour of my eyes, the colour of my hair. The choices and decisions that my ancestors made cumulate in me being me.

I have always been interested in my ancestors who decided to make the move from their home land and travel to a new country, in search of a better life for their families.
Who were these people? Where did they come from and what sort of people were they? What led them to travel so far, enduring the discomfort and danger of long sea voyages, often in small sailing ships with many voyages at that time ending badly with many illnesses and casualties on board the ships. To an untamed land covered in bush. To a life filled with hardships, and hard work,to the new paradise, the promised land. The land of the long white cloud. New Zealand.