From a special find in her Mother’s glory box, Frances spent 30 years researching her German/Jewish ancestry. She talked to her mother, community elders and researched government archives. What Frances found out was that her great great grandfather Charles Fruean arrived in Samoa in 1840 and married Liani, the daughter of a chief from Lefunga village, in 1842. The couple had 7 children. Frances acknowledges that there will be many other families of ‘mixed blood’ in Samoa with important family histories yet to be documented. Her book entitled "Herr Charles Fruean Zimmerman and Descendants, A history of the Fruean family in Samoa" was published 2001 in Auckland, New Zealand. The first Fruean family re-union was held in Samoa in 2002 and attracted over 1000 people from around the world. Frances and her family have lived in New Zealand since 1984.