I have had a huge road block with my Luff family (as you can read in previous posts) and wanted to thank the lady who helped me get through the brick wall and out the other side. Her name is Brooke Marshall and she is a professional genealogist living in the Christchurch area. She doesn't just specialise in Christchurch however - she can trace any New Zealand family with ease! Click HERE for her website.
Even if you are a long time researcher, Brooke knows about databases which you may never have heard of. She can give you the next step you need to take to move forward. For example she told me about the intention to marry records at National Archives which I wasn't aware of. I couldn't find a marriage record for my Luff ancestors and these other records had my family! Then she managed to find the actual marriage certificate from looking at a couple of sites and marrying up the date, number and one of the names (the husbands name is totally wrong, hence why I couldn't find it). Now she is suggesting there was a major transcription error and I am going to the actual parish records in Hokitika for information. Thanks to Brooke I have found a marriage for this couple and they weren't living in sin!!! I can't thank her enough.
Brooke can research a specific ancestor for you and write a biography, do a search for a family name and find when they came out to New Zealand and many other searches. She has helped many families find out about their past and has helped solve many mysteries. She LOVES what she does and is well worth hiring for anything you want to find out. Her extensive experience means she can tell you what your ancestors might have been up to at that time in history, which adds depth to the whole story of your family.
