Lives of my ancestors

Let me introduce myself: I am Michael Pringle, living in Wellington, New Zealand.

For about thirty years I have been researching the lives of some of my more remarkable ancestors and relatives, which gives insight into the lives that our forebears lived in a time before social media and modern conveniences, and jet travel, transformed our lives – for the better or the worse.

This site contains biographies of some – a growing number – of my family members. Some are my direct ancestors.  Others are those from extended branches whose lives have left trails of interest and activity which mean they are alive in the written record. All I claim as part of my whakapapa.  For some, their lives only graze the archives but I have knowledge of them from family oral tradition and my own interviews with older family members, and from my research in sources such as newspapers and genealogy websites.

This site exists to tell the stories, by way of carefully researched and accurate biography, of those who became before me.  I have placed much emphasis on detailed research to arrive as close to the truth as documentation and newspaper accounts will allow.  I have taken note of family stories, and researched them for veracity.  They often prove to have the seeds of truth, or are correct in some ways, with details and corrections needing to be set.  I have read ships’ logs and diaries, used digitised newspapers extensively (what a remarkable innovation these are!) and secondary sources to set context (for instance Joseph Peet’s work as a CMS missionary or David and Amelia Johnston’s journey on a New Zealand Company emigrant ship; both require research  into whether their experiences were typical or extraordinary).

I tell the stories of my ancestors who lived more active and notable lives, but all lives of our forebears are of interest – simply by being set in what is now the past.  Hopes, aspirations, gender roles, religious and social beliefs – all these were very different one hundred, even fifty years ago.

Therefore I tell the stories not only of the well- documented and better known but those – often, of course, women – whose lives are less visible in the recorded history but tell us much of the forbearance, resilience, ingenuity, and love, of those who came before us.  To those unheralded women, who often endured great hardship, I pay tribute by here highlighting their lives, and give thanks.  Notable are Amelia Hansford, who with her first-born infant and  her husband David Johnston,  endured appalling conditions on her way to New Zealand on the Lady Nugent as a New Zealand Company settler in 1840.  Or Mary Amelia Pilliet, who became the first female general practitioner of medicine in England. And Ettie Rout, who saw that life could be better for those men and women caught up in the titanic struggles of their era, and fought to make it so, in the face of mockery and opposition.

My aunt Josette Pringle, who followed a road less taken, and did not live to see its full course, but lived well and in the spirit of an ever-inquiring mind and heart.  She was truly an explorer, and I can only hope to try to follow in her footsteps.

And my mother Ann Louise Byrne, whose love of learning, literature and music, inspired in me a life-long appreciation of all that gives life meaning, and to whom I dedicate this online document.

My male ancestors of course do usually appear in the records, often to a considerable degree, but that does not mean that a great deal of research did not have to be undertaken in order to recover their lives from history.  I have spent a good part of the last twenty-five years of my life on the research to which these pages bear witness, and doubtless I shall spend the next 25 – or however many years are left to me – refining and expanding these stories.  Charles Pilliet, who led a quite extraordinary life, has led me to some less-visited corners of the globe in search of his story.

I have cited sources at the end of each entry, but full details, and of course family trees which explain the interconnections, are available from me at mikelpringle@gmail.com.

I shall also add more entries as time permits.  Please email me with your suggestions, corrections, and amendments.  This is a living document.    Categories list the countries in which my forebears lived, and family names, and the search button can be used to find names or any other text.  Or if you like, just browse!  Thanks for reading my record of the lives of my ancestors.