Claire Bruell's family has lived in Auckland, New Zealand since arriving there from Czechoslovakia as refugees in 1939. She has been actively researching family history since 1987 and has contributed many articles to publications such as AVOTAYNU, Kosher Koala, the journal of the Australian Jewish Genealogical Society, and The New Zealand Jewish Chronicle. She authored the chapter on researching Jewish genealogy in New Zealand to the Avotaynu Guide to Jewish Genealogy. Czech Jewish history and Holocaust studies are her particular areas of interest. She has been involved in creating and operating a programme recording interviews with Holocaust survivors in New Zealand. The interviews can be found in the Oral History Center at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington and in Auckland at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. More recently she has formed a Family History study group in Auckland.