New Zealand Emigration and Immigration

Online Records

 * Passenger Listings for Vessels New Zealand Bound, Rootsweb
 * 1642-1845 Shadows of Time: Early New Zealand Settlers Each ship name is a clickable link.
 * 1800-1900 New Zealand Yesteryears: Passenger Lists 1800-1900
 * 1838-1921 Auckland area passenger arrivals 1838-1889, 1909-1921 and passenger vessels 1838-1886, index of passengers and ships.
 * 1839-1973 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
 * 1839-1850 Emigration lists, 1839-1850 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1840-1880s New Zealand, passenger lists, Canterbury provincial assisted immigrants, 1840-1880s at FamilySearch Catalog; index & images
 * 1848 1851 Passenger arrivals at Port Chalmers, New Zealand
 * 1853-1885 Emigration to Canterbury : Lyttelton shipping lists, 1853-1885 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1855-1871 Passenger lists from foreign ports to Canterbury 1855-1871 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1858-1884 Cornish Emigrants to New Zealand: Passenger Lists 1858 - 1884, index
 * 1861-1872 Goldrush Online Search over 70,000 records of goldminers from the goldrushes of New Zealand spanning the years 1861 to 1872. Index.
 * 1871-1888 Passenger lists from British Isles to New Zealand, 1871-1888 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1872-1892 Passenger lists of vessels bringing assisted immigrants to New Zealand, 1872-1892 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1879-1882 Blenhein depot masters' records book of arrival of immigrants 1879-1882 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1883-1973 Passenger lists (New Zealand), 1883-1973 at FamilySearch Catalog; images only
 * 1890-1960 Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960 at FindMyPast; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of New Zealand
 * 1904-1914 Germany, Bremen Passenger Departure Lists, 1904-1914 at MyHeritage; index & images ($); includes those with Destination of New Zealand
 * 1946-1971 Free Access: Africa, Asia and Europe, Passenger Lists of Displaced Persons, 1946-1971 Ancestry, free. Index and images. Passenger lists of immigrants leaving Germany and other European ports and airports between 1946-1971. The majority of the immigrants listed in this collection are displaced persons - Holocaust survivors, former concentration camp inmates and Nazi forced laborers, as well as refugees from Central and Eastern European countries and some non-European countries.
 * Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild Choose a volume and then choose New Zealand under "Listed by Port of Departure" or "Listed by Port of Arrival".
 * Shadows of Time Passenger Lists and Information

Finding the Town of Origin in New Zealand
If you are using emigration/immigration records to find the name of your ancestors' town in New Zealand, see New Zealand Finding Town of Origin for additional research strategies.

New Zealand Emigration and Immigration
"Emigration" means moving out of a country. "Immigration" means moving into a country. Emigration and immigration sources list the names of people leaving (emigrating) or arriving (immigrating) in the country. These sources may be passenger lists, permissions to emigrate, or records of passports issued. The information in these records may include the emigrants’ names, ages, occupations, destinations, and places of origin or birthplaces. Sometimes they also show family groups.

Immigration to New Zealand

 * The Māori were the first people to reach New Zealand, followed by the early European settlers.
 * Following coloniszation, immigrants were predominantly from Britain, Ireland and Australia because of restrictive policies.
 * There was also significant Dutch, Dalmatian, German, and Italian immigration, together with indirect European immigration through Australia, North America, South America and South Africa.
 * Net migration increased after the Second World War; in the 1970s and 1980s policies were relaxed, and immigration from Asia was promoted.
 * In 2009–10, an annual target of 45,000–50,000 permanent residence approvals was set by the New Zealand Immigration Service.
 * In the 2018 census, 27.4% of people counted were not born in New Zealand, up from 25.2% in the 2013 census.
 * Over half (52.4%) of New Zealand's overseas-born population lives in the Auckland Region.
 * The United Kingdom remains the largest source of New Zealand's immigrant population, with around a quarter of all overseas-born New Zealanders born *Other major sources of New Zealand's overseas-born population are China, India, Australia, South Africa, Fiji and Samoa.

Emigration From New Zealand
While most New Zealanders live in New Zealand, there is also a significant diaspora abroad, estimated as of 2001 at over 460,000 or 14 percent of the international total of New Zealand-born. Of these, 360,000, over three-quarters of the New Zealand-born population residing outside of New Zealand, live in Australia. Other communities of New Zealanders abroad are concentrated in other English-speaking countries, specifically the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, with smaller numbers located elsewhere.

Types of Records
Archives New Zealand has produced the useful Migration Reference Guide to the history of migration in New Zealand and the records generated.

Passenger lists are not the only types of records generated by emigrants/immigrants. Emigration and immigration records are those generated by people leaving one country (emigrating) and coming into another (immigrating). These records include: The information in these records may include: Some records have been known to include:
 * Permissions to emigrate
 * Records of passports issued
 * Correspondence
 * Statements of sponsorship
 * Records of assisted immigrants
 * names of the emigrants,
 * ages,
 * occupations,
 * destinations, and
 * sometimes the place of origin or birthplace of the emigrant.
 * the names of the parents of adult emigrants,
 * whether living or deceased,
 * their places of birth, and
 * occupations.
 * Where immigrants were sponsored, the information on the sponsor is included. These sponsors were either family members or future employers and provided information on the location of eventual settlement in New Zealand.

In addition to their usefulness in determining where an emigrant lived in the country before leaving their country of birth, these records can help in constructing family groups.
 * Single adults sometimes emigrated with siblings, children usually came with parents, and as mentioned above, some records give even further family information.
 * It was also a common practice to emigrate to a place a relative had already settled, so extended family members can also be found.
 * If not going to a relative, many emigrants joined people from their home town, thus communities may be known for predominantly German, Danish, or English settlement.
 * Sometimes the determining factor was religion, where a congregation would move almost en masse to a new country to escape either real or perceived persecution, or in an attempt to more fully live their religion in a country not yet bound by religious tradition.
 * In some cases, immigration was assisted by a company which needed workers to develop and work the land that the company had purchased.