Preface

“WHENCE WE CAME” – the title came to me so easily, at the drop of a hat one might say. It seemed to encapsulate all that I wanted in a book title, for the recording of my research about the path of the Elers family back into the depths of history. 

A title that seemed to lend itself to an upper-class English family, a landed gentry, maybe even a sense of properness, a sense of correctness about it. Whence, a word that I have not encountered very often in New Zealand and so, in my mind, leans towards being an aristocratic word used by the learned folk in earlier England days.

Rightly or wrongly, that was the title that said it all for me. So WHENCE WE CAME it is and is the result of my research that I now present to you, my beloved New Zealand whānau as a keepsake for future generations to hold dear to your hearts. Those future generations need not do any painstaking research, it is all done for you, as accurately as I am able to achieve.

However, I appeal to you to understand, I am a total amateur when it comes to researching family history; and even more of an amateur in writing and formatting a book. So please, allow me to make errors in grammar and also errors in my research. The book has been presented in such a manner that additions/ alterations/ deletions may be actioned in future. It becomes a never-ending exercise.

So when and how did the decision arise to compile a book on the history of the Elers family? You will note I use the term “family” and not “whānau”. I may be wrong, but to me a book that outlines the history of our European ancestors – that is a family history. It is not a history of our Māori tūpuna, so it is not whakapapa in my mind. Such terminology should be reserved for the analysis of our Māori ancestors?

As far back as I can remember, the only research I ever encountered was about our Māori whakapapa. In particular Uncle Pani Himona and Cousin Huria Robens seemed to have boundless knowledge on our whakapapa. But nowhere could I find a comprehensive history of our English heritage.

Then quite by chance in the early 2000’s I came across the Burke’s peerage book, which summarised eighteen generations from Carew Thomas Elers (1829-1870), my 3rd generation great grandfather, back to King Edward I of England.

Wow, there it all was on a single page. It heightened my interest – these people must have had a story to tell and must have had siblings; I needed to know about all of them.

And so began the long process of fleshing out the members of each generation to really find out about our heritage.

About three years later I produced a scroll that I felt reasonably confident in its accuracy, so my thirst for knowledge, I thought, had been quenched.

However a local genealogist, Gillian Allison, soon dampened my enthusiasm. She suggested that to provide authenticity to all the data I had recorded, I needed to include in my research, the actual copies of certificates of birth, marriage, death etc.

Furthermore, she recommended that if I am going to publish my research in a book format, then finding stories about my ancestors (both good and not so good), will remove the boredom of just reading dates of birth, death etc.

So a further seven years has elapsed, and I now present to you my finished product. I apologise for not being able to find interesting stories about each of the ancestors. It was not through a lack of trying. In some cases a simple statement of birth, marriage, and death is all I could find.

You will note that each generation has a person in red script. This signifies the person within each family from whom we directly descend on our march from King Edward I in the fourteenth century.

Interestingly, I have helped three relatives in USA and UK understand where they fit, in relation to we Kiwis. They join our tree at various points along the way via a sibling of one of our direct ancestors. That has been a very satisfying by-product of this exercise.

At this point I wish to acknowledge the help of cousin Rev Dr Steve Elers in research methods. His ability to find details that were far beyond my capabilities has been most appreciated. In fact, many times I questioned myself about handing the project over to him. However, he is a very busy man and I thought it best to carry on and do the best I can and tap into his brain when necessary. It was Steve’s brainwave to come up with the electronic book concept, rather than hard copy. I am forever indebted to him for his foresight. Thanks also for spending months in uploading the site with my research material.

To cousin Anne Nicholls for her unwavering support to me on this journey, thank you Cuz.

To cousin Anita Elers-Cooper for stepping up to help ensure all the late stages of the uploading of data was done in a timely manner to meet the book launch date, thank you Cuz.

To all my relatives who have frequently asked about when the finished product will be ready for release, thank you for your ongoing interest. It has been a long journey; a journey on which I did my utmost to present to you a reference document that is as correct and as interesting as I could possibly achieve.

My thanks to Richard McOnie for the design of the book cover.

Finally, I present to you a whakataukī that says it all for me:

Inā kei te mōhio koe ko wai koe, i anga mai koe i hea, kei te mōhio koe, kei te anga atu ki hea

If you know who you are and where you are from, then you will know where you are going

I now dedicate this book to our family, all of us who descend from Carew and Meri Elers. We are a very special, close-knit unit.

Tony Elers

Book and website launched 19 April 2025 at NZCIS (NZ Campus of Innovation and Sport), Upper Hutt, NZ.