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Filter biographies using dates, occupations and places related to people's lives.
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1855/1856?–1932Catholic nun, teacher
Frances Banahan was born in Ireland, probably in 1855 or 1856, the daughter of Cornelius Banahan, a grazier, and his wife, Margaret McManus. She entered the Brigidine Convent novitiate on 1 February 1873 in Mountrath, County Laois, and was professed as a religious on 24 February 1876, taking...
Story: Banahan, Mary Gertrude
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1835?–1923Presbyterian church leader, philanthropist
Jane Burns was baptised in the parish of Monkton, in Ayr, Scotland, on 24 February 1835, the second daughter of the Reverend Thomas Burns, early religious leader of the Free Church settlement in Otago, and his wife, Clementina Grant. Her future husband, William Bannerman, was also of Scots...
Story: Bannerman, Jane
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1829–1893Catholic nun, teacher, religious founder
Adèle Euphrasie Barbier was born at Caen, Normandy, France, on 4 January 1829, the child of Louis-Désiré Barbier, a shoemaker, and his wife, Jeanne Adèle Le Cler. She worked for a time as a laundress before entering religious life.
In 1848 she joined a small, recently founded religious...
Story: Barbier, Adèle Euphrasie
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1819–1873Doctor, photographer
Alfred Charles Barker was born in Hackney, London, England, on 5 January 1819, the fifth child and fourth son of Joseph Gibbs Barker and his wife, Sarah Pritchett Bousfield. Barker was descended from a fifteenth century gentry family, the Barkers of Aston, Claverley, in Staffordshire, and...
Story: Barker, Alfred Charles
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1898–1994Newspaper journalist and editor, local politician
Harry Heaton Barker, one of eight children of John Heaton Barker, an accountant, and his wife, Martha Annie Johns, was born in Nelson on 18 July 1898. The family had moved to Wellington by 1902 and then to Auckland by 1912. John Barker eventually founded the Four Square grocery organisation....
Story: Barker, Harry Heaton
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1831–1911Writer
Mary Anne Stewart was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, on 29 May 1831, the eldest daughter of Walter George Stewart, Jamaica's last island secretary, and his wife, Susan Hewitt. Mary Anne Stewart seemed destined for a life of travel, being sent back to England (where she received her education)...
Story: Barker, Mary Anne
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1887–1970Tram conductor, trade unionist, socialist
Tom Barker was born on 3 June 1887 at Crosthwaite, Westmorland, England, the eldest child of Thomas Grainger Barker, a farm labourer, and his wife, Sarah Trotter. As a boy he worked on farms, attending school part time, but left home after his mother died in 1897. Tom did farm work for several...
Story: Barker, Tom
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1886–1958Lawyer, politician, parliamentary Speaker
William Edward Barnard was born in Carterton, Wairarapa, on 29 January 1886, the son of Ellen Banks and her husband, Charles Leonard Barnard, a watchmaker. He attended Levin School and at 13 began work as an office boy for a local lawyer. He later studied law at Wellington’s Victoria College...
Story: Barnard, William Edward
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1902–1991Law clerk, political activist
Freda Ellen Jacobs, who was always known as ‘Fuzz’ because of her exceedingly curly hair, was born on 12 August 1902 in Lyttelton, the eldest of six children of English-born parents Jane Ellen Ransley and her husband, Frederick Charles Jacobs, a qualified electrical engineer. She spent most of...
Story: Barnes, Freda Ellen
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1908–1995Clerk, athlete, military aviator, prisoner of war, politician, sharebroker, sports administrator, community leader
James George Barnes was born in Dunedin on 24 September 1908, the younger of twins. In a long lifetime in the city, he began as a telegraph delivery boy and finished as an MP and mayor, knighted for his community service and honoured for his wartime bravery. His father, Richard Rodwell Barnes...
Story: Barnes, James George
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1827?–1918Blacksmith, labour reformer
William Henry Barnes was baptised on 8 April 1827 at Manchester, Lancashire, England. He was the son of Jane Bonsell and her husband, George Barnes, a labourer. William, also known as Bill or Billy, had some education; his few surviving letters are well written. He may have served an...
Story: Barnes, William Henry
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1867–1938Organist, choirmaster, pianist, composer, conductor
John Maughan Barnett, born in Leamington, Warwickshire, England, on 21 March 1867, was the son of Maria Gibbs and her husband, John Barnett, a lawyer's clerk. He was educated at a private school and learned the organ from the local parish church organist. He studied piano and composition at the...
Story: Barnett, John Maughan
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1865–1946Surgeon, university professor
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 24 March 1865, Louis Edward Barnett was the fourth of seven children of Alfred Abram Barnett, an auctioneer of Jewish extraction, and his wife, Julia Joshua. He attended Thorndon School, and from 1879 Wellington College where he was a member of the cricket XI...
Story: Barnett, Louis Edward
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1901–1979Physicist, meteorologist
Miles Aylmer Fulton Barnett was born in Dunedin on 30 April 1901, the son of Louis Edward Barnett, a surgeon, and his wife, Mabel Violet Fulton. After attending Christ’s College, Christchurch, he went on to the University of Otago, where he gained the Beverly Scholarship in physics and higher...
Story: Barnett, Miles Aylmer Fulton
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1872–1922Secretary, interpreter, mountaineer, journalist
Constance Alice Barnicoat was born on 27 November 1872 in Richmond, Nelson, New Zealand. She was the last of seven children of Rebecca Lee Hodgson and her husband, early farming settler John Wallis Barnicoat, a member of the Nelson Provincial Council and of the Legislative Council. As the...
Story: Barnicoat, Constance Alice
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1887–1971Librarian
John Barr was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 28 July 1887, the son of John Barr, a tinsmith, and his wife, Rebecca Witherington. He was educated at St David's School, and from about the age of 13 was an assistant in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, where he gained certificates in librarianship...
Story: Barr, John
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1809–1889Poet
John Barr was born on 24 October 1809 at Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, the son of a manufacturer, James Barr, and his wife, Rebecca Barr. He was educated at a parish school before entering the engineering trade, eventually establishing the firm Barr and McNab, which took on large...
Story: Barr, John
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1861–1951Accountant
Peter Barr, son of Dunedin's first chief postmaster, Archibald Barr, and his second wife, Sarah Hepburn, was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 9 July 1861. He was educated at Middle District School and then at the High School of Otago from 1875 to 1877. Barr left school at the age of 16 and...
Story: Barr, Peter
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1924–2006Doctor, cardiac surgeonEarly life and training
Brian Gerald Boyes was born in Wellington on 13 January 1924, the second of three children of Edna Myrtle Barratt and her husband, Gerald Cave Boyes. Gerald Boyes was an accountant at the Avery Motor Company. He later contracted tuberculosis, and died in 1944.
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Story: Barratt-Boyes, Brian Gerald
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1822–1897Pharmacist, artist
Charles Decimus Barraud was born in Camberwell, London, England, on 9 May 1822, the 10th child (of 12) of William Francis Barraud and his wife, Sophia Hull. Barraud wanted to become a doctor, but his father, a clerk in the Custom House, London, died when Charles was only 11 years old and his...
Story: Barraud, Charles Decimus