Family research inspires biography
Napier woman Lyn Sturm’s eyes shine when she talks about her great-great-grandfather Frederick William Christian Sturm.
What began as family tree project three years ago has blossomed into a self-published book about “Freddy”, whom she believes has finally got the recognition he deserves.
“I started doing a family tree and about six months into it I suddenly realised that there were all these things about Freddy that I was coming across. It just came to me that I was going to write Freddy’s story.”
German-born Freddy was a naturalist, botanist and nurseryman who arrived in Ahuriri in 1839, making him the earliest permanent European settler in northern Hawke’s Bay.
Among his achievements was sailing with Charles Darwin aboard the Beagle, which arrived at the Bay of Islands in New Zealand after setting off from England in 1831.
Their journey had taken them around the world, as detailed on a map in the biography, and this spirit of wonder and adventure took him to many places throughout New Zealand over the course of his life, lived out the rest of his days in the Hawke’s Bay region.
He established a nursery in Sturm’s Gully on Bluff Hill, Napier, which went on to be named after him, and later he moved the nursery to Mangateretere.
Ms Sturm, a retired accountant and bus driver, said she picked up where Freddy left off; her greatgreat- grandfather having attempted to write his story when he was alive.
“I’ ve been on a magical journey. Freddy had two goes at trying to write his story, his memoirs. In 1877 there was a big flood and he lost all his writings but being the man that he was, he picked himself up and started again.
“Then in 1884 his house burnt down and he lost them again and gave up, he was 73-years-old. So I feel it’s just been amazing.”
Meeting Hawke’s Bay historian Patrick Parsons was a pivotal moment in her project and she went on to become somewhat of a detective in her quest to prove Freddy’s achievements through archival information.
“He [Mr Parsons] sent me off to the Hastings Maori land court to get a copy of the Porangahau hearing. That’s been my founding document and because I’ve used it it’s actually enabled Freddy to tell part of the story himself.”
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of her project was finding friends in unsuspecting places and drawing her wider f amily together.
The 71- year- old has selfpublished 1000 copies of her book, Forgotten Footprints F. W. C. Sturm, and hopes to donate a copy to each high school in the district, on one condition.
“I want time to talk to the children about Freddy. They don’t get the book for nothing.”
She has already sold several copies at $40 each — one in Sturm’s Gully itself when she met with Hawke’s Bay Today photographer Duncan Brown earlier this week.
When shooting photographs for a story about her book she was approached by a local resident, well-known as the self-proclaimed “mayor” of the reserve, who insisted he dash home to get $40 cash to purchase her book when he found out she had written one.
Ms Sturm said she was holding a family reunion at Club Hastings next Saturday and would be planting trees at the Tomoana Showgrounds the following day; Freddy having supplied trees to the Nelson brothers when they first established the property.
She wanted to pay particular thanks to Stephanie Drew of Hastings for her editing, design and layout of the book.