Sarah Jane Mattocks was born in 1829 in Warwickshire, England. She worked as a silk marker before marrying Thomas Kirk, a bookkeeper on Christmas Day, 1850. In 1862, the Kirk…

Thomas was born in Oxford, England and trained as an engineer, working on the Great Northern Railway and at University College, London. He came to New Zealand in 1873 and…

Jacob was the sixth child of James ‘Worser’ Heberley and his wife Te Wai (also known as Māta Te Naihi), of the Puketapu people of Te Āti Awa. James and…

‘Mrs Martin was one of the oldest residents in Wellington, and was highly esteemed for her plain unostentatious kindness of disposition’. Marion Baird was born in Fountainhall, a hamlet southeast…

Walter Joseph Lawrence was born in Camberwell, London in 1878[i] and Phoebe Elizabeth Thornton[ii] in St Saviour, London in 1881. The couple married in London in 1906[iii] before immigrating to…

This beautiful object was found by one of our volunteers at our October 2025 Working Bee in Gum Gully. Our volunteer very carefully cleaned the floral tribute as well.

‘Cemetery Reported to be Haunted’ We found this article from July 1939. If anyone can identify the likely headstone, please let us know. Link to full article: https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19390727.2.137?end_date=31-12-2001&items_per_page=10&query=%22karori+ghosts%22&snippet=true&sort_by=byDA&start_date=01-01-1920&title=DOM%2CEP%2CNZFL%2CHN%2CHVI%2CKOP%2CMKURA%2CMATUH%2CNZCPNA%2CNZGWS%2CNZMAIL%2CNZSCSG%2CNZTIM%2COTMAIL%2CPUKEH%2CUHWR%2CVT%2CWAG%2CWDT%2CWAIST%2CWAITA%2CWI#text-tab

Kaitoke Drowning Tragedy George, aged 23 years of age and a carpenter, was on a camping party of twelve friends at Kaitoke over Christmas 1905. They had pitched their tents…

As part of our gardening project, we weeded and mulched around the roses in this plot. They are a lovely fluttery, open, pink flower. None of us can recall a…

Mr & Mrs Ford William Florington Ford was born in 1823 in Durham, England. He was a schoolmaster. He taught initially in Salford and then later in Manchester. He married…