Meanwhile, on the Polish side of the Family . . .

I wonder if the organisers of the following event knew just how many of Johann Rheinhold Forster's descendants live in New Zealand  today - and I wonder how many of the descendants would have loved to have been there for this event, had they known about it - or  that they even were his descendants.   My revelation came through an ancestry website, otherwise I doubt I would ever have found out.  Yay for our ancestress Maria Mueller  (married name Baucke) and her thoroughly interesting forebears!

From  12 December, 2017 Southland Times: an article about the first Polish people in New Zealand  being acknowledged  245 years after their arrival here with Captain Cook on the Resolution. The event also celebrated 40 years of Polish - New Zealand diplomatic relations.

A plaque was placed on the Manapouri waterfront on Monday to remember a Polish father and son, whose discoveries included more than 100 New Zealand plants.

Part of The Polish Trails in New Zealand project, the plaque was in commemoration of Johann Reinhold Forster and J. Georg Forster who arrived in New Zealand on board Captain James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific.
The plaque was officially unveiled by Poland's New Zealand ambassador Zbigniew Gniatkowski and Southland District mayor Gary Tong at Pearl Harbour in Manapouri.

Photo: Barry Harcourt

Southland Mayor Gary Tong and Polish Ambassador Zbigniew Gniatkowski unveil the plaque celebrating two Polish botanists at Manapouri.

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Tong said the turnout was "very good", with Polish people coming from Invercargill and Winton to attend the ceremony.

Gniatkowski is believed to be taking in the scenery and "getting a feel" for the place the two men arrived at so many years prior.

Two hundred and forty-five years ago, Captain Cook's expedition ships the HMS Resolution and the HMS Adventure set sail for the Pacific.

Johann was an anthropologist and Georg, a writer, and while in New Zealand, they discovered 119 plants and 38 bird species in Dusky Sound, Fiordland, and Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds.

Georg wrote about the journey in his book A Voyage Around the World. He was quickly considered one of the founders of modern scientific travel literature.

The plaque unveiling was designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Poland-New Zealand diplomatic relations.
Ten plaques issued in memory of famous Poles have been unveiled throughout New Zealand so far. The Forsters' plaque was a continuation of that historical trail.

Tong said the unveiling was special as it was believed the Forsters were the first Polish people to arrive in New Zealand.

The father and son duo went on to return to England after the expedition. Johann then returned to Germany and was appointed to a chair at the University of Halle. He died there on December 9, 1798.

Georg regularly published essays on contemporary explorations and continued to be a very prolific translator, writing about Cook's third journey to the South Pacific. Georg died in 1794 in his Paris home.