People of Lower Hutt
Here are some helpful websites and collections that you could use to learn about interesting and important people from the Hutt City area.
Image: Group outside one of the Petone railway workshops by Albert Percy Godber. Collection: Alexander Turnbull Library, Ref: APG-0127-1/2-G.
Which people can I learn about?
Here are some people related to Lower Hutt you could find out about:
William Alfred Fitzherbert (1842-1906)
First Mayor of Lower Hutt after it became a borough.
Hutt Chinese Community
Migrants that influenced the development of the Hutt Valley. Includes former Petone mayor George Gee and the Wong and Wing families.
Factory Workers (1880s-1980s)
The manufacturing industry in Lower Hutt included railway workshops, car factories, and fabric and textile mills.
Mākere Rangiātea Ralph Love (1907-1994)
Also known as Sir Ralph Love. Te Āti Awa leader and politician.
Beatrice Enid Bell (1888-1977)
Served in World War I and II. Awarded an British Empire Medal (BME).
Mīria Woodbine Pomare (1876-1971)
Founder of Lady Liverpool’s and Mrs Pomare’s Maori Soldiers’ Fund and wife of physician, surgeon and politician Māui Pomare.
Tips: These are just some examples of people you could research. You may have someone different you're interested in finding out about. Just use their name or names as your search terms in the resources below.
Local iwi:
Note: Iwi are listed in alphabetical order. This list was put together to the best of our knowledge. If there are any other iwi to be included, please let us know.
Lower Hutt resources
Here are some sources you could look at if you'd like to find out about individual people or groups of people from Lower Hutt.
Heritage at Hutt City Libraries
A blog about the documented heritage of Lower Hutt by Hutt City Libraries with a collection of photos and blog posts.
Enter your keyword into the search bar.
The results will be formatted with Title, Description, Author and Date it was posted.
Go through the results to find a post that best matches what you are looking for.
Tips: Library blogs can be good for looking at how things have continued or changed over time. Remember, stories can be told in different ways so it’s helpful to look at multiple information sources to find different perspectives.
Hutt City Heritage
Hutt City Heritage is a database of photographs, printed items and collected knickknacks from Lower Hutt's past.
Enter your keyword into the search bar.
Use the filters to get more accurate results.
To the left side you can find a few options under the word Filter by.
Choose an option like Image or Document to find what you want.
Select an item to look at.
Tips: Before searching it can be useful to come up with a list of words to use. These are sometimes called keywords. They can be the name of a person, place, or event you are researching.
Petone Library and Heritage Centre
The Heritage Centre at Petone Library has many useful resources for finding information on both local and family history including books, images, newspapers on microfiche and microfilm, and more.
7A Britannia Street, Petone.
Mon - Fri 9:30am - 5:30pm | Sat - Sun 9:30am - 5:00PM.
Talk to library staff if you need help.
Te Āti Awa
This is the website of the Te Rūnanganui o Āti Awa Ki Te Upoko o Te Ika a Māui which represents those Te Āti Awa people in the Wellington region.
Go to Te Rūnanganui o Āti Awa tab.
Choose Te Āti Awa for a short history of the iwi.
Muaūpoko
This website comes from the Muaūpoko Tribal Authority. It has information on the iwi's history and news.
Go to About Muaūpoko and then Te Iwi Muaūpoko.
This page has a short history of the iwi.
For more information select the link to the Waitangi Tribunal Oral history of Muaūpoko.
Look through the table of contents to find which part of the report to go to.
Tips: Some websites have .iwi in their url. This tells you that the website belongs to an iwi and likely has Māori knowledge (mātauranga Māori).
Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika
This is the website of Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika (Port Nicholson Block Settlement) Trust.
Look down the page for information about how different iwi came to Wellington.
Explore the section The Settlement for information about the Port Nicholson Block Settlement.
General New Zealand websites
These websites can be a good help finding information about Lower Hutt historical people as well as for all of New Zealand.
NZ History
NZ History is a great website for information about Aotearoa New Zealand. The website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.
Enter the name of a person or group of people in the search bar at the top of the screen.
Choose an article to read.
Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Te Ara is an excellent starting point for all questions about Aotearoa New Zealand. If we look down to the bottom of the page, we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.
Enter the name of a person or group of people in the search box.
Choose an article to read.
Tips: We like sites like this because they’re reliable. You can tell because of their web address – they have either .govt or .ac, meaning they are from government or educational organisations. They’re also New Zealand sites, so relevant for us.
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (DNZB)
DNZB is part of Te Ara — The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. It has more than 3,000 biographies of famous New Zealanders who are no longer alive. This site also includes around 500 biographies that are in te reo Māori.
Enter a name into the search bar.
Choose a biography to read.
DigitalNZ
This is a search site that focuses on Aotearoa New Zealand's history and brings together results from lots of different websites such as New Zealand libraries, museums, universities, and government sites all at once.
Use the name of a person or group of people as your search words.
Look at a range of videos, audio, articles and images, and more about your topic.
National Library of New Zealand
The National Library collects New Zealand's documentary taonga in words, sounds and pictures. They have content that is available online and some resources that can only be looked at in the library in Wellington.
We recommend starting off with a website search as this will search the National Library catalogue, the Alexander Turnbull catalogue, and more.
Enter your keywords in the search bar.
Use the Filters to get fewer results.
Filter by Type if you're looking for images, audio, or books etc.
The Availability filter lets you choose if you want items that are available online.
Filter by Date for when things were published.
You can also filter by Subject.
Select an item to look at.
Books
Here are a few general knowledge books about Hutt City history and culture.
Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka by Hilary and John Mitchell.
Lower Hutt: The first garden city by David McGill.
Once Upon a Village: a history of Lower Hutt, 1819-1965 by David Pierre Millar.
Petone: a History by Susan Butterworth.
Bygone days in Lower Hutt by George Kaye.
Mitchell & Mitchell : a father & son arts legacy by Peter Alsop, Anna Reed and Richard Wolfe.
SCIS no: 5496289
More about Lower Hutt
Places of Lower Hutt
Hutt City has many interesting places both from it's history and dedicated to it's history, we'll recommend some websites and collections you can use to find out about them.
Learn about places of Lower Hutt
Events of Lower Hutt
Many events have shaped Lower Hutt into what it is today. This page will give some examples and recommend resources that you might find useful to explore these histories.
Learn about events of Lower Hutt