About Audrey
Audrey Barney traces her Chisholm family in New Zealand from her great grandfather, Joseph Wilson Chisholm, who arrived in Wellington, via Australia from Sheffield, Yorkshire as a single young man in 1854. Further links for his family go back another two generations on the Yorkshire coal fields, but as yet a Scottish link in the 18th century is only theory!
Her interest in Chisholm family history goes back to her teenage years, when staying with her very deaf grandfather, she listened to his stories of his family’s early days in New Zealand and wrote many of them down.
University study, marriage, children, and work as a librarian intervened in her chase for Chisholms, but a daughter doing school projects rekindled her interest, and later came the formation of the NZ Clan Chisholm Society!
With her husband lecturing in the University system, periods living in London, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Greensboro, North Carolina fostered a strong interest in travel. Since her husband’s retirement, she and David have traveled extensively worldwide from Mongolia to Bhutan to the Sudan to Chisholm Gatherings in Inverness.
Audrey was appointed NZ Clan Chisholm Historian at their first meeting in 1994. Since then, she has been very active building up NZ Chisholm archives with family information, developing family trees for all New Zealand Chisholms, and writing several books on NZ Chisholms. Her database of Chisholms in New Zealand and their ancestors has topped the 8,000 mark.
