New Zealand Newspapers

Newspapers contain articles regarding current events in a given area. They may contain lists of births, marriages, deaths, and obituaries, regardless of individual religious affiliations, that may not exist in any other records. They can also contain biographies, names of recent emigrants and immigrants, and records of court cases, and juror’s lists. These types of records can be of genealogical value in that they put a person at a certain place on a certain date, naming family members, ages, religion, cemeteries, and occupations.

The earliest newspapers in New Zealand were New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator and Advertiser and Bay of Islands Gazette, which began publication in 1840. Other early papers include the Sydney Gazette, the Hobart Town Courier or Gazette.

The National Library of New Zealand's PapersPast project to digitize newspapers currently includes online 44 papers from 1840-1915 representing all regions in New Zealand. Of these, 17 are keyword searchable. You can browse by date, region and title. To search these papers, go to:


 * Papers Past is a collection of digitised historic New Zealand newspapers which offers browsing and full text searching.

The New Zealand Digital Library project has made many Maori newspapers available online. To view this site, go to


 * Niupepa: Maori Newspapers:

Public libraries and newspaper offices keep back issues of newspapers, many of which have been microfilmed. The Hocken Library, for instance, has a significant collection. Researchers may wish to write directly to the archives. Information on surviving newspapers, along with addresses for newspaper offices or archives, can be found in:


 * Harvey, D. R. Union List of New Zealand Newspapers Before 1940: preserved in libraries, newspaper offices, local authority offices and museums in New Zealand. Wellington, New Zealand: National Library of New Zealand, 1985. (Family History Library book 993.1 B33h.)

The Family History Library has some indexes to vital records found in newspapers. They are found in the Family History Library Catalog, Place Search, under:

NEW ZEALAND - NEWSPAPERS - INDEXES

NEW ZEALAND - VITAL RECORDS - INDEXES

NEW ZEALAND - [TOWN] - VITAL RECORDS - INDEXES

Index to Christchurch Death Notices in "The Press" newspaper An Index to death notices in "The Press" newspaper is available on www.stuff.co.nz Click on "The Press" newspaper and then scroll down the page and on the right-hand side click on "Readers Services". Again on the right-hand side you will find a panel "Readers Services" which contains the death notice list of names 2000 to the present. This lists the name and date the death notice appeared in "The Press". For further information read the "hint and instructions" section on the website.

BIRTH, DEATH AND MARRIAGE NOTICES FROM NEW ZEALAND NEWSPAPERS www.oldnewsbios.co.nz With 14,512 names, Old News Bios is a database of notices that appeared in old newspapers mainly dealing with births, deaths and marriages. Among the newspapers included are: Bruce Herald The Bruce Herald was first published in November 1864 in Milton. Originally the newspaper was published weekly until the end of 1872 from which time it was published twice weekly. Copies of the Bruce Herald are also available online at www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. Included in index online: 1864 to 1882 - births, marriages and deaths Dunstan Times The Dunstan Times was published in Clyde. Included in index online: 1866 to 1900 - births, marriages, and deaths Mataura Ensign Copies of the Mataura Ensign are available online at www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. Included in index online: January to June 1883 - births, marriages, deaths, inquests The Oamaru Times / North Otago Times Available online at www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. Included in index online: 1864 to 1867 - births, marriages, deaths, funerals, obituaries, inquests January to March 1901 - births, marriages, deaths, funerals, obituaries May 1904 - births, marriages, deaths, funerals, obituaries Otago Daily Times Included in index online: 1870 - births, marriages, deaths 1871 - births, marriages, deaths, funerals, obituaries The Otago Witness Available online at www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. Included in index online: 1851 to 1853 - births, marriages, deaths, and inquests 1915 - obituaries, birthdays, anniversaries 1916 - obituaries, birthdays, anniversaries The Tapanui Courier Included in index online: 1876 to 1900 - births, marriages, and deaths The Wakatipu Mail This newspaper was published in Queenstown. Included in index online: 1863, 1864, 1873, 1875, 1879 and 1884 - births, marriages and deaths 1885 to 1888, 1890, 1892 to 1900 - births, marriages, and deaths University of Otago Magazine The alumni magazine for the University of Otago Included in index online: Issue 18 - October 2007 - obituaries External Links


 * http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/nz.htm
 * http://www.natlib.govt.nz/collections/types-of-items/newspapers
 * http://nzdl.sadl.uleth.ca/cgi-bin/library?a=p&amp;p=about&amp;c=niupepa&amp;l=en&amp;nw=utf-8