Goldrush to the Thames by Kae Lewis - 1st June 2017: New Zealand 1867 to 1869 Abridged

NOTE: This is the abridged version. For serious genealogy research the complete version is required. It is listed separately at this site.

Goldrush to the Thames: New Zealand 1867 - 1869

Until now, little was known about who the miners were who came to the Thames during the early days of the gold rush in 1867. Still less was known about how they went about finding gold high in the ranges behind the Thames township. They flocked in, firstly from Auckland and then from all parts of New Zealand and the wider world beyond. Before long, there were thousands of hard-working diggers frantically excavating a vast network of underground tunnels, seeking those elusive quartz leaders and reefs that contained the gold. Some struck gold bonanzas and were set for life, others burrowed for months in barren earth and spent all their savings just trying to keep themselves from starvation.

This book documents many of the early claims in Thames, Tararu, Puriri and Tapu from 1867 to 1869 and is designed to link with the online database of Miner's Rights and claims in the "Goldrush Online web site at www.KaeLewis.com. The book describes the individual workings on each claim and the methods used to find and retrieve the gold. It goes a long way towards answering the questions: Who were the diggers? Where were their claims? How did they find the gold? Did they find any?

However, this book is much more than a collection of claim names. It is largely based on contemporary reports and stories from people on the goldfields. Some sources are archived letters and diaries while much of it comes from contemporary newspaper articles. The language in newspapers of that era is difficult for modern readers to wade through but skilful editing, interspersed with explanations, makes this book quite readable and fascinating while at the same time it is an important reference book documenting the life of the miners at Thames during the goldrush era of 1867-69. Numerous photographs and detailed maps add colour and detail.

The Author, Dr Kae Lewis

Kae has an interest in the New Zealand gold rushes going back decades. In 2003, she created her own website "Goldrush Online" at www.kaelewis.com. This includes an online database with about 70,000 names of New Zealand gold-miners (1861 to 1872) that she compiled from documents held in various government archives over many years. This led to the development of a website for The Coromandel Heritage Trust www.TheTreasury.org.nz as a seed for growing The Treasury to where it is now a modern archive for the preservation of old records from the Thames, Coromandel and Hauraki areas. She is webmaster and editor of the online journals to be found at both of these websites, including several articles that she has written herself. Her works on the history of New Zealand and Ireland have been published in numerous books and periodicals, including a chapter in a book about the history of Cork, Ireland. More recently she has written a chapter for a publication about WW1 called "From Goldmine to Firing Line", and several articles for the True Tales series, all published by The Treasury.

Kae's first degree was a B.Sc. in chemistry from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. After several years doing biomedical research in New Zealand, England and Germany, and over a year travelling through Africa, she returned to New Zealand and proceeded to a Doctor of Philosophy degree in biochemistry at the University of Waikato. After graduation with her doctorate, she did several research projects on cholesterol and lipid metabolism at the University of Miami, USA, and more recently became an embryologist producing human embryos for implantation at an IVF clinic. Between research projects, writing, embryology, web design and raising her own child, she has travelled with her husband to over 55 countries and visited goldrush era sites in many locations.