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Henry Levestam

New Zealand politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ16062643 ↗
Source-derived summary

Henry Augustus Levestam (1833 – 11 February 1889) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament from Nelson, New Zealand.

Early life

He was born in Böel, Schleswig-Holstein, when it was still part of Denmark in 1833, the son of Doctor Arnold Levestam and Henriette Fraenckel. Levestam's grandfather Matthias Levestam was born Moses Salomon Levi. In 1809 he was baptised in Moscow and took a new name.

Career

Levestam served his time at a Copenhagen engineering business. He then moved to London where he continued his mechanical studies. In about 1855 he sailed on the steam ship Lord Ashley as second engineer. The ship was one of the fleet belonging to New Zealand Steam Shipping Company. He was transferred to the Airedale and sailed on her until he settled in Nelson.

He married Elizabeth Hargreaves, the daughter of one of Nelson's pioneer settlers in January 1861.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Henry Levestam” as new Zealand politician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Henry, Levestam and Zealand.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1833, 1889, 1809, 1855—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1833. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Henry, Levestam and Zealand providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Henry Levestam”, the useful work is to connect “new Zealand politician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16062643. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1833, 1889, 1809 and 1855.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Henry Levestam”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Henry Levestam primary sources, Henry Levestam archive and Henry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Henry Levestam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.