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Web Sites for Genealogists - An Australian gateway site for tracing your family history by Cora Num
Archives and Libraries
Archives New Zealand  with details about the Archives, holdings, publications and Archway for online searches. An excellent series of Reference Guides can be downloaded (PDF). These cover personal identity (BDMs, probate etc), citizenship, war, migration, education and mental health. 

National Library of New Zealand, Digital Collections include Timeframes with one million+ images from the Alexander Turnbull Library, Papers Past with digitised pages from 68 New Zealand newspapers and periodicals (1839-1945) and a wide variety of other online material. Updated

Directory of New Zealand Libraries with contact details and information for New Zealand libraries.

University of Auckland Library's Early New Zealand Books Project provides keyword-searchable text of significant books (currently 116 titles) published about New Zealand in the 19th century.

Auckland City Libraries Digital Library's history and genealogy online databases include Auckland passenger arrivals and vessels; city street names; crown grants; Auckland police census; cemetery records; 1881 electoral rolls; photographers, armed constabulary plus much more.

Matapihi searches for pictures, sounds and objects from New Zealand's archives, galleries, libraries and museums.

The Community Archive, previously known as the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts, is a hub for New Zealand's archival organisations to manage and showcase their collections. It is a free, easy to use mini archive management system. Contributors range from individuals and small local organisations through to large institutions with nationally significant collections.

Birth, Death, Marriage and Probate Records
Birth, Death and Marriage Historical Records where you can search New Zealand Government records. These include births that occurred at least 100 years ago; stillbirths that occurred at least 50 years ago; marriages and eventually civil unions that occurred 80 years ago and deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago or the deceased's date of birth was at least 80 years ago.     

New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages Office site which details their services.

Presbyterian Church Archives of Aotearoa online searching of  New Zealand Presbyterian marriage (1848-1930) and baptism (1848-1920) registers.

New Zealand Obituaries with obituary, death and funeral notices from New Zealand newspapers (2006-). The free basic search returns the full text of the notice but no reference to the original source (newspaper). 

FamilySearch by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This site features free searchable Historical Record Collections. The record collections for Australia and New Zealand include: New
• New Zealand, Probate Records.
This collection includes digital images of probate records from the Archives of New Zealand. An index is available at the Archives  http://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/. This is an ongoing project with images added as they become available. 
 
Cemeteries
Interment.net New Zealand cemetery record transcripts. Complete listings or significant partial listings are available for: Arundel (part); Te Puke (Bay of Plenty); Houhora, Mount Camel, Hukerenui, St Saviours, Kaitaia, Towai, Waiharara and Pipiwai (Northland Province); Lawrence (Central Otago); Kelvin Grove (Palmerston North-part) and Eastern Cemetery (Invercargill-part).

Christchurch City Libraries List of Online New Zealand cemeteries and cemetery records.

Auckland City Libraries Digital Library includes cemetery records for Hillsborough, Onetangi, Waiheke Island, Otahuhu Public and Waikaraka. There is also databases for St Stephen's (1849-1982) and Symonds Street, Auckland's main cemetery until 1886.

Ashburton District Council site for cemeteries at Ashburton, Methven, Rakaia, Chertsey, Mt Somers, Ruapuna, Alford Forest, Winslow, Hinds, Waterton, Barrhill, Dorie, Windermere, Coldstream and Cracroft. This site offers an alphabetical online search.

Cambridge Museum Cemeteries Index online includes Cambridge cemetery burials and headstones to 1910, Pukerimu cemetery to 1981 and Leamington cemetery.

Central Hawke's Bay District Council online burial search for Waipawa, Waipukurau, Takapau, Onga Onga (Forest Gate), Tikokino (Hampton), Otane (Kaikora North), Porangahau, Ashley Clinton, Makaretu and Elsthorpe.  

Christchurch City Council Cemeteries Database includes the following: Addington cemetery, Avonhead Park cemetery, Barbadoes Street, Belfast cemetery, Bromley cemetery, Linwood cemetery, Memorial Park cemetery, Ruru Lawn cemetery, Sydenham cemetery, Waimairi cemetery, Woolston cemetery and Yaldhurst cemetery.

Dunedin City Council cemetery database for Dunedin Cemeteries

Hamilton City Council Online Cemetery Database for Hamilton Park, Hamilton East and Hamilton West cemeteries.

Hastings District Council Cemetery Search for Hastings, Havelock North, Mangaroa and Puketapu.

Hauraki District Council Online Searches for Paeroa (Pukerimu) cemetery, Waihi cemetery and Hauraki Plains Memorial Wall.

Horowhenua Library Trust with access to the Horowhenua cemeteries database.

Hurunui District Council Cemetery Database for Balcairn, Cheviot (Homeview), Culverden, Glenmark, Hanmer Springs, Hawarden (Horsley Down), Rotherham, Waiau and Waikari cemeteries.

Kapiti Coast District Council. Click on Public Facilities then Cemeteries for alphabetical lists of interments at Awa Tapu-Paraparaumu, Paraparaumu Beach, Waikanae and Otaki cemeteries.

Kawerau District Council burial records can be downloaded as a PDF file.

Mackenzie District Council (Fairlie) offers an online cemetery database search.

Manawatu District Council Cemetery Search for Feilding, Rongotea, Halcombe, Sandon (Sanson), Kimbolton, Rangiwahia, Waituna West and Pohangina.

Manukau Memorial Gardens (formerly Papatoetoe cemetery) online database.

Masterton District Council Cemetery Archives' search for Archer Street and Riverside cemeteries.  

Nelson City Council's online cemeteries database.

New Plymouth District Council online cemetery database.

Norsewood Cemetery & Settlers' Genealogies Project. The graves of many Scandinavian immigrants, predominantly Norwegians, can be found here. Online data is available.

North Shore City Council cemetery search for Albany Village, Birkenhead-Glenfield, Mt Victoria, North Shore Memorial Park, O'Neill's Point, Pompallier and St Mary's Pioneer cemeteries .

Palmerston North City Council. Online Services include a  Cemetery and Cremation Search for Ashhurst, Kelvin Grove and Terrace End cemeteries. 

Porirua City Council with online searches of Porirua and Whenua Tapu and Pauatahanui cemeteries.

Purewa Cemetery & Crematorium (Auckland) offers a burial & cremation search.

South Taranaki District Council's site offers access to cemetery records for Eltham, Hawera, Kaponga, Manaia, Okaiawa, Opunake, Otakeho, Patea and Waihi.

Tararua District Council's online cemeteries search. 

Tasman District Council cemetery search.

Taupo District Council's cemetery database online.

Thames Coromandel District Council. Online burial records for Bufallo, Christ Church (Anglican), Colville, Mercury Bay, Omahu, Shortland, Tairua, Tararu, Totara Memorial Park, Whangamata.

Timaru District Council's online cemeteries database.

Upper Hutt City Council online search of Akatarawa cemetery.

Westland District Council cemeteries online.

Whangarei District Council cemetery records online.

Immigration and Shipping
Archives New Zealand Migration Reference Guide (PDF) covers shipping records, immigration 1840-1970, special group/nationality migrations, other immigration sources and emigration.

New Zealand Society of Genealogists Resources includes an
 Online Shipping Database 1840-1975.

Ancestorsonboard.com database to Outward Passenger Lists for voyages departing the British Isles 1890-1960 for Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and USA. The free name search lists names, age, sex, departure year and port, destination port and county plus details of transcripts and images which are available for a fee. 

FamilySearch by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This site features free searchable Historical Record Collections. The record collections for Australia and New Zealand include:New
• Immigration Passenger Lists, 1855-1973
These passenger lists include immigrants arriving mostly from the British Isles, and also from Western Europe, Asia, and Polynesia. These records are indexed and linked to images of the original passenger lists. This is an ongoing project with data being added as it becomes available. 

Ancestry.com offers access to New Zealand, Naturalisations, 1843-1981. This database contains an index of persons who were naturalised or given citizenship in New Zealand. Citizenship did not begin until 1949, but persons who were not born within the British Commonwealth and applied for naturalisation were given British citizenship prior to 1949. Depending on the register, the records may include: name of individual, age or birth date, birthplace, place of residence, former nationality, naturalisation date, file number, certificate register and register page number. There is a free name search with various subscription options available.
Images of the records are not available due to privacy restrictions.
New

New Zealand Immigrant Shipping from Hamburg 1872-1876. This site lists Danes (including those from the former Schleswig area) emigrating to New Zealand. It includes passenger details from the original passenger lists (held by the LDS) plus details gathered by the Danish Authorities. A comparison chart highlights any differences between the information from the passenger list and that gathered by the police authorities in Denmark.  This allows more accurate identification of names (by spelling) and the last place of abode in Denmark. CDs with the data are available.

Datamarine's War Brides Index to war bride passenger lists for ships bound for Canada, United States, Australia and New Zealand 1946-1947. A search returns name and destination country. Fees apply for further details.

New Zealand Yesteryears provides 19th Century History Resources for Genealogists. This ongoing site has 942+ ships listed plus 2434+ passenger lists online. It also includes ships' images and diaries where available. A site search engine enables surname searching. 

Auckland City Libraries Digital Library includes Auckland Area Passenger Arrivals (1838-1886; 1909-1921) and Auckland Passenger Vessels (1838-1885).

The New Zealand Maritime Record m aintained by the NZ National Maritime Museum offers access to The Maritime Histories -Ship Index which  includes 1,500+ images and details of migrant liners in the Antipodean service, historic New Zealand vessels, preserved New Zealand ships of historic interest, alpine lake steamers, wrecks and hulks of Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand maritime disasters, distinguished ocean liners plus links to other sites about ships with a specific NZ connection.

Voyager New Zealand Maritime Museum, New Zealand Maritime Index allows you to search for vessels, organisations, subjects, and people, mentioned in a number of publications currently being indexed by the Museum.

New Zealand Bound. A gateway site for locating emigrant ships arriving in New Zealand. Includes links to passenger lists online plus links to other shipping sites.

Our Stuff lists 1000+ Passenger Lists for ships to New Zealand. Arrivals and departures for coastal shipping are also listed, some with passenger lists.

Immigrant Ships to New Zealand (1835-1910). Lists the movements of ships. Some passenger lists are available.

Passenger arrivals at Port Chalmers, March 1848 to January 1851. Includes a corrected version of Dr Hocken's appendix to his 1898 book Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand (Otago) which lists passengers from Great Britain to Otago (Port Chalmers) 1848-1851.

The NZ Ireland Connection. This site highlights the connections between New Zealand and Ireland. A list of New Zealand's Irish Immigrants is available online (contributions welcome).

Resources and Link Sites
Papers Past Papers Past contains more than one million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1839 to 1945 and includes 61 publications from all regions of New Zealand. 

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography offers 3000+ biographies online (deceased persons only).

Goldminers of New Zealand 1861-1868. This site, by Kae Lewis, has a searchable database to 20,000+ gold-miners. Many of these gold miners came for a short time from Australia.

New ZealandGenWeb with regional projects for Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes' Bay, Taranaki, Wanganui, Manawatu, Wellington, Nelson and Bays, West Coast, North Mid Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago and Southland. There is also an extensive resources list.

University of Waikato, Databases-New Zealand  offers online searching of Bibliography of New Zealand Bibliographies, Bibliography of Published New Zealand Family Histories and New Zealand Titles of Genealogical Interest.

NZ Genealogy Databases offers those with a kiwi connection the opportunity to submit genealogical data as a GEDCOM file and to view data submitted by others. Currently has 14.5+ million people on family trees, many of them linked to documents and other resources. There is free registration to search the database. A subscription is required to view the records.

Stratford branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists. This site has an extensive set of useful Genealogy Links for all aspects of family history research in New Zealand.

New Zealand History Online's Llist of Websites for family history research.


Our Stuff: This site focuses on New Zealand and contains online resources such as lists of passengers, publicans, barmaids and juries plus naturalisations, directories, pioneer rolls and much more.

The Otago Nominal Index to the names of people in documents held by the Hocken Library, Dunedin. It includes local directories, electoral rolls, police gazettes and jurors' lists.  

Land Information New Zealand’s geographic place and street names search


Funeral notices, obituaries and other items from New Zealand newspapers (1840s-1980s).

RootsWeb New Zealand Mailing Lists (14). A great way to find others with similar interests.

Societies
New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

Bay of Islands (Kerikeri) branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

Gore branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

Hamilton branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

New Plymouth branchNew Zealand Society of Genealogists.

South Canterbury branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

Southland branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

Stratford branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

Te Awamutu Genealogy Society.

Whangarei branch, New Zealand Society of Genealogists.

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© Cora Num 1997-2012. Last updated 10 January 2012