Social Services & Social Sciences
Grant, Julia
Grant was born George Roberts, the eldest of eight children. His mother was an alcoholic and his father a fisherman who was seldom home. From about the age of 12 he looked after his brothe... [more]
Hakiwai, Reremoana
Hakiwai was the fourth child born to a farming family at Manutuke. As a baby she became the tamaiti whangai of Tamati Pewhairangi of Tokomaru Bay, where she stayed until she was sent to a b... [more]
Hobsbawm, Eric
Hobsbawm's British and German-Jewish parents died when he was 12 and 14 years old, in central Europe, and he was then raised by relatives. He came to England after Hitler came to power, and... [more]
Hurston, Zora Neale
Hurston was born in the all-Black and Black-governed town of Eatonville, Florida. Her father, a carpenter and minister, and his wife had eight children. When her mother died she was nine... [more]
Iti, Tame
Iti was taken as a baby to be a tamaiti whangai of Hukarere and Te Peku Purewa, who had 14 children born to them and fostered 26 others, including Iti's birth father. Activism in support... [more]
Lear, Frances
Lear was born to an unmarried teenager and relinquished for adoption. Her adoptive mother was cold and cruel and her father, whom she loved, died when she was 10. Her step-father sexually a... [more]
Lehmann, Henry
Lehmann was captured aged 11 by two Apaches, Billy Chiwat and Pinero, and lived with the Apaches until 1879. His account of his life with them is one of the major primary sources about the ... [more]
Lifton, Betty Jean
Lifton was adopted aged two. When she was seven her mother told her she was adopted, but it was so shameful that she should never let anyone know, and she must never let her father know she... [more]
McKenzie, Richard B.
McKenzie's mother committed suicide and his alcoholic father was unable to care for him, so he was placed in the Barium Springs Home for Children in North Carolina at the age of 10. He reme... [more]
O'Connell, James F.
According to his story (first published 1836) O'Connell was a crewman on the ship John Bull, which was wrecked in the 1820s. He and a few fellow crewmen then sailed in an open boat, landing... [more]
