Searching for evidence written about or by women regarding past lives and experiences has raised challenges about what counts as an archive. Archives provide a form of connection between past and present and are a form of memory storing, memory-recording and memory-making. Records such as letters, diaries, and journals that may have been considered private in the past are now stored in archives as "public" accounts of the past. This paper discusses the act of research within archives, particularly for feminist historians, which the author contends is a political act seeking to reclaim women's historical presence in what has in the past been predominantly relegated to patriarchal figures. Also discussed are the topics of what constitutes an historical subject, who decides what material is worthy of donation or worthy of storage, where the archives are housed, who is in possession of the archives, and who lays claim to the knowledge produced by archives. The specific focus of the author's research are the letters and diaries of Marianne Coldham Williams (1793-1879) and Jane Nelson Williams (1801-1896), who were residents at the Paihia Church Missionary Society (CMS) station in New Zealand between the years of 1823 and 1835. (Contains 116 footnotes.)