Hello World

I was born in Raetihi, New Zealand in the shadow of Mt Ruapehu, while my parents were teaching at the local school. We moved to Wanganui where I went to primary and high school. I later moved to Palmerston North to attend Massey University.

Now I live in Wellington where I am working as a Software Engineer.

My Sisters

Kim, my older sister, is currently working as a teacher in China. Vivien, my younger sister, is raising her daughter, Nia, in Gisborne. Nia is the most recent arrival to my family, and I hope, in the future, she will be able to read this story and learn where she comes from as well.

Europe Settlement

Europe was settled by humans from the Middle East and Central Asia around 40,000 years ago. These settlers spread the Aurignacian culture and technologies. The origins of this culture can be located in what is now Bulgaria and Hungary and then extended through most of Europe. This culture created the earliest known cave paintings and developed bone, antler and stone tools.

Neanderthal and Climate Change

Europe was already inhabited by the Neanderthals when the new settlers arrived. The Neanderthals were displaced by the new more technologically advanced homo-sapiens. 55,000 years ago the weather began to fluctuate rapidly with extreme cooling that peaked about 30,000 years ago. The increased pressure from my ancestors and the inability to adapt to the extreme weather lead to the Neanderthals extinction.

Coastal migration

Generation by generation people spread along the coast from Arabia to India, then to South Asia around 50,000 years ago.

Australian migration

Due to the ice age, the sea levels were still low allowing people to spread to Australia around 50,000 years ago. This means that there were people living in Australia 10,000 years before people were living in Europe.

My Dad

My father, Deryk Arthur Jenson, was born in Mangakino. His family was living there while my grandfather was working on a dam nearby.

My Mum

My mother, Georgette Margaret Underwood, was born in Lower Hutt. She was the youngest of six children.

My Parents

They met at teachers college in Wellington and got married in 1975.

As a tunnelling superintendent his job required extensive travel. He travelled to New Zealand for projects such as the Rimutaka Tunnel

Discovery of America by Europeans

521 years ago, Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas. This was about 14,000 years after the migration south by the native Americans. In 100 years over 200,000 Spaniards settled in the American colonies.

British Colonisation

400 years ago the British started colonization in Jamestown, Virginia. This quickly expanded into the thirteen founding colonies. Within 200 years the colonies contained two and a half million people. They were prosperous and growing rapidly, and had developed their own culture.

Brief introduction

The colonisation of America is discussed by John Green in Crash Course here.

The first migration to America is usually divided into two chronologies:

1. Short Chronology, 15,000 – 17,000 years ago
2. Long Chronology, 21,000–40,000 years ago

What is known from genealogy is that the indigenous Americans emerged from a single ancestral population that evolved in isolation, likely in Beringia. The path from Beringia to Alaska would have been walked with relative ease as the straight was above sea level. Once in Alaska the journey south would have been more difficult.

James Cook

James Cook's first voyage to New Zealand aboard HMS "Endeavour", started 245 years ago. His charting of New Zealand's coastline, discovery of exotic locations and people, and subsequent journeys encouraged further exploration and settlement of the southern hemisphere.

The New Zealand Cmpany

176 years ago the New Zealand company was formed to promote the colonisation of New Zealand by the British. Due to the shady tactics used by the New Zealand company to purchase land, and the lawlessness of the settlers, the British government decided to take more control over New Zealand. This led to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840).

Population Explosion

At the time of the creation of the New Zealand company, the European population of New Zealand was about 1000 people. Within 50 years this population exploded to over 500,000. Some 400,000 settlers came from Britain, of whom 300,000 stayed permanently. Most of them were young people. 130 years ago, immigration slacked off and population growth was due chiefly to the excess of births over deaths.

Great great great grandfather arrives

166 years ago (1847) my great great grandfather (John Warren born in Castletan, County May, Ireland) was a British soldier. He was on-board the ship "Royal Tan", the first screw-steamer to enter the Mediterranean Sea. He was the Colour Sergeant of the 6th Company Royal Sappers and Miners when he was ordered to proceed to New Zealand on the ship "Ramilies" which departed Chatham Islands on the 12th April 1847. The 150 soldiers, on the ship, had finished their service and the English Government provided them with a shilling a day as pension and an acre of land with a two-room cottage. The soldiers were accompanied by their wives and children. My great grandfather, also called John Warren (born in 15th January 1844), was among them. The ship arrived in Auckland after a passage of 120 days, where they set up home in the barracks in Britomart.

Great great grandfather

My great great grandfather grew up in Auckland and after his father died (from previously sustained military wounds) his mother began making cloths. In 1860, when the Maori War broke out in Taranaki, he was ordered to join a militia. After he sustained an injury on a march, he was found unfit for duty and moved to Christchurch. During his lifetime he was a carpenter, a builder, and a gold miner, living in Christchurch, Auckland and Gisborne (where he died aged 75 in 1919).

Here is a link to it from the Dominion newspaper.

Here is an auto-biographical account of my great great grandfather from the Auckland city government website, record number NZMS 1722.

The Death of James Cook

The interesting life and curious death of James Cook is described by John Green in Crash Course here.

Human Evolution

Homo sapiens evolved to anatomically modern humans in Africa, between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago. Using the human genome, scientists have hypothesised all people alive today have common genetic heritage. We have inherited the same mitochondria (a piece of human genome) from a woman who lived in Africa about 160,000 years ago. All men living today have inherited their Y chromosomes (another piece of human genome) from a man who lived 140,000 years ago.

African Migration

The oldest known anatomically modern humans were found in Ethiopia. Over the next 100,000 years humans spread out around Africa and eventually moved northward.

Earlier Human Evolution

The earlier evolution of homo-sapiens is well described by Hank Green in SciShow here.

Leaving Home

The date of the earliest successful "out of Africa" migration (earliest migrants with living descendants) has generally been placed at 60,000 years ago as suggested by genetics, although migration out of the continent may have taken place as early as 125,000 years ago according to archaeological finds of tools in the region.

Most likely, early humans left Africa through the present-day Bab-el-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea. Our world was entering the last ice age and water was trapped in the polar ice caps, so sea levels were much lower. Though the strait was never completely closed, there may have been islands in between which could be reached by simple rafts. It has been estimated that only a small group, possibly as few as 150 to 1,000 people, crossed the Red Sea.

Tākitimu

My ancestors can trace their lineage to the Waka (Maori Canoe) Tākitimu which came from Rarotonga and landed in the Tauranga, Bay of Plenty. It was captained by Tamatea.

Ngāti Kahungunu Founded

Kahungunu is the great grandson of Tamatea. Born in present-day Kaitaia, Kahungunu journeyed south, eventually ending on the East Coast. He eventually settled with Rongomaiwahine, also of royal lineage, in the Māhia Peninsula where Kahungunu's main pa was situated. The Ngāti Kahungunu are the descendants of this marriage. Kahungunu was known for his expertise in military strategy, pa construction, agriculture and fishery. His advice was sought after by many in his time. He died an old man well over 80 years of age.

Maternal Great Grandparents

Grandfathers Parents

This a photo of my maternal grandfather's parents (my great grandparents). My great grandfather was of English decent, and my great grandmother was Cherokee.

This photo is not dated. However, as my grandfather was born in 1898, this photo was likely taken in the early 20th century. This may be the oldest photo of one of my ancestors.

Grandmothers Parents

This is a photo of my great grandmother Pango Aranui (1875-1959). She and her husband Renata Waihape (1856-1926) had 15 children, dozens of grandchildren and now many great grandchildren.

Paternal Great Grandparets

Grandfathers Parents

William Jenson was born 19 April 1896, and Grace Warren (daughter of the earlier described William Warren) was born 6 June 1891. William was an electrical engineer with Downer Civil Engineering and worked on many projects around New Zealand. Grace worked in Napier and Wellington, and after William died in 1953, she worked in Upper Hutt. She eventually returned to Gisborne in 1960 to the home where my parents currently live. She was part of a generation that still called England their home. Grace died in 1984.

Grandmothers Parents

Alexander McLaughlans was born in Hoggan Field, Lanarkshire, Scotland 1893. He was a soldier in first world war and an officer in the second world war (though in WW2 he never went overseas). He became a judge in the land court in Wellington.

Clara Waterson was born in Daledield in 1895, her parents were farmers.

Repeated Settlement of Britain

Modern humans lived on Britain tens of thousands of years ago. However, due to the extremely cold temperatures about 30,000 years ago they were driven south off the island. There is evidence of people living there once again 14,000 years ago, but the fluctuating climate may have repeatedly driven people out.

Around 10,000 years ago the ice age finally ended and the recession of the glaciers finally allowed human settlement of Britain to stick.

British Culture

An iconic structure of early British culture is Stonehenge that was built around 4,000-5,000 years ago. This was the time of the Neolithic culture, traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age. Most of what is known about these cultures is from archaeological study, as no written history exists till Roman invasion.

Agriculture

Around this time people moved from hunter-gatherers to agriculture based societies. This move, and its positive and negative effects, are explored by John Green in Crash Course World history here..

A large-scale expansion into the pacific began around 7000 to 4500 years ago primarily fueled by population growth in Asia. These first settlers may have landed in northern Philippines, intermingling with the earlier settlers who had inhabited the islands for tens of thousands of years.

Over the next thousand years, people migrated southeast to the rest of the Philippines, and into the surrounding islands. After this, 3200 years ago, people sailed eastward, and spread to the islands in Melanesia and Micronesia. These migrants voyaged east across the Pacific, carrying with them domesticated plants and animals, to create settlement in their new island homes.

Maternal Grandparents

George Underwood was born in 1898 in Butler, Missouri U.S.A. His father's ancestors were from England and his mother was part of the Cherokee Nation. He worked on river boats, at sea, and for a short time at a circus before becoming a tunnelling superintendent. He helped build many of the major dams and tunnels in U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, and New Zealand. He retired to Molokai, Hawaii.

Makere Waihape was born in 1912. She was already a mother of five children when she met George. My mother is the youngest of six children. I have not met either George or Makere, as they died before I was born, in 1981 and 1966 respectively.

Paternal Grandparents

Warren Jenson (born 6 June 1924) and Brenda Jenson (born 6 October 1926) met in the church choir in Whangarei and got married in 1950. They had three sons and a daughter. Warren was a well regarded civil, mechanical, and chemical engineer, and Brenda was a loving, very warm mother.

Both Warren and Brenda passed away in 2011 in Upper Hutt.

My Grandfather the Engineer in Africa

I have been told that of all my relatives I am most like my Grandfather Warren. I only hope that I can do half the things he has accomplished.

His impact can be described with his story in Zaire. In 1988, while using a round-the-world ticket he was awarded by his engineering company for long-term service, he decided to visit some missionaries he had helped raise money to set up a hospital. Instead of going on holiday he travelled to people in rural Africa to offer some help.

While there, he saw the need for reliable electricity. So, using makeshift equipment (a piece of string, a protractor, and a measuring tape) he carried out a survey of a local stream.

When he returned to New Zealand he conceived, designed, constructed, shipped, and installed an operating hydro electric project that was used for a number of years to provide power to an entire village.

Some pictured taken by my grandfather.

Movement South

Travelling south from Alaska to the rest of North America would have posed significant challenges. The two main possible routes south are down the Pacific coast, or by way of an interior passage along the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains.

Both routes were likely impassable at different times because of the Cordilleran ice sheet (which reached from the Pacific shore to Alberta). The mountain route would have been open between 30,000 and 22,000 years ago, while the Pacific coastal route was open between 23,000 and 15,000 years ago. Both paths would have been dangerous and difficult, but the expansive uninhabited lands were the reward.

Cherokee become a Nation

Once North America was settled groups and cultures started to develop. One such group is the people of my great grandmothers people the Cherokee. These people are from the South-eastern United States, principally Georgia, the Carolinas, and East Tennessee.

They either arrived there current location thousands of years ago, or only a few hundred. They could have come from Mississippi, moved from the Great Lakes, or from North Carolina. The history of these people is recorded in oral traditions, and written since early European contact.