From the Archives, no. 6


Research at Alexander Turnbull Library (Wellington) last week delivered some remarkable documents and taonga, including this whakapapa showing descent from Hoturua (leader of the Tainui waka) and baptism registers revealing some significant rangatira names of Te Atiawa, Ngāti Raukawa and other hapū. The whakapapa was literally inside the back cover of a Church Register, and was almost certainly taken down by one of the missionaries, probably Rev. Octavius Hadfield, or Rev. Samuel Williams, both students of Māori histories and traditions.

Whakapapa (genealogy) chart showing descent from Hoturoa of Te Rauparaha and Te Wherowhero; MSZ0080-0085, Kapiti Church Register, 1840s, Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL).
First page of Church Register showing baptisms by Hadfield (1840) and confirmations by Bishop Selwyn (1843); first baptism shown is of Riwai Te Ahu, who by 1858 was ordained and conducting baptisms himself; MSZ0080-0085, ATL.
Kapiti Baptism Register, 1852-75, p1, showing baptisms by O. Hadfield and S. Williams at Otaki, Ohau, Wainui and other settlements; MS. 1925-55-3, ATL.
CMS London to Octavius Hadfield, 1855; MS. 1925-46-02 ATL.