New Zealand Genealogy

Guide to New Zealand ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.

Country Information
New Zealand is an island country in the Pacific Ocean. Its closest neighbours are Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. It is part of the British Commonwealth. The official languages are English and Māori.

Getting Started


Finding Your Ancestors' Town in New Zealand

 * Genealogical records are organized by geographical locality. Civil registration (government birth, marriage, and death records) and church records (christenings/baptisms, marriages, and burials) were kept at the local level. To search these records, you must know the town where your ancestors lived.
 * If you do not know your ancestors' town, follow the advice in the Wiki article, New Zealand Finding Town of Origin, to search a variety of records that might provide that information.

Regions
Regions in New Zealand:

More New Zealand Research Tools
Research tools can include resources that assist in locating correct records to search and determining the correct locality to search in. Below are links and Wiki articles to research tools in the New Zealand.
 * Cemetery Locations Murray Lynn's New Zealand Cemetery Database
 * Birth Marriages and Deaths online records
 * Births, Marriages and Deaths for Whānautanga, matenga, mārenatanga
 * Papers Past at https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
 * Digital New Zealand at https://digitalnz.org/
 * Archives New Zealand
 * New Zealand History Online
 * New Zealand's Family History Fair An annual genealogy event which celebrates family, social &amp; local history. Held every August, during Family History Month at Claudelands Events Centre, Hamilton.
 * Images of New Zealand and the Pacific from the National Library of New Zealand
 * Canterbury Transcriptions
 * 1800 - 1966 - at FamilySearch — index
 * 1839 - 1973 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1840 - 1981 - at FamilySearch — index
 * 1943 - 1998 - at FamilySearch — index and images
 * 1862 - 1962 - at FamilySearch — index and images

FamilySearch Resources
Below are FamilySearch resources that can assist you in researching your family.
 * Facebook Communities - Facebook groups discussing genealogy research
 * Learning Center - Online genealogy courses
 * New Zealand Births, Deaths, and Marriages Online
 * Historical Records
 * Family History Center locator map