Genealogy Websites

New Zealand resources

• Waimakariri District Council cemetery database
• Christchurch City Council cemetery records
• NZ Births Deaths and Marriages historical records - search for births that occurred at least 100 years ago, stillbirths that occurred at least 50 years ago, marriages that occurred at least 80 years ago, deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago, or the deceased's date of birth was at least 80 years ago.
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission - lists the men and women of the Commonwealth who died in the first and second world wars.
• Cenotaph database - details of NZ service men and women from the 19th century until today.
• NZ Society of Genealogists shipping database ( requires NZSG member login)
• Papers Past - searchable database of 19th century until today.
• Archives New Zealand - Archway is the database of over 1.5 million records held in four Archive offices.
• FindNZarticles - search for your ancestors in the Bibliography of Published New Zealand Family Histories.
• A Memory Tree - a free database of all names published in NZ newspaper death notice since December 2006.
• New Zealand history online - has an extensive list of web links for family history research.
• New Zealand Yesteryears - has an extensive range of shipping passenger lists and shipboard diaries.
• Christchurch City libraries - have a wealth of information and a beginner's guide to researching your family history.
• Websites of New Zealand cemeteries - links to cemeteries with online searchable databases.
• Genealogy place map - database of places in New Zealand of interest to genealogists and historians, including cemeteries, churches, crematoriums, orphanages, memorials and funeral directors.
• The National Library of New Zealand - has a very good guide to researching family history.
• New Zealand Society of Genealogists - has printable forms and charts to help you record your research.
• The Cyclopedia of New Zealand - full-text volumes of The Cyclopedia of New Zealand from the NZ Electronic Text Centre.
• Genealogy links - links to NZ military and passenger shipping lists, Maori genealogy, plus much more.
• Our Stuff: Denise and Peter's homepage - NZ war medal roll, naturalisations lists, pioneer rolls and much more.
• New Zealand genealogy forum - contact others researching family names.
• New Zealand bound - identifies genealogical resources to assist in locating which New Zealand bound ship an immigrant ancestor was aboard.
• Emigration to Canterbury: Shipping list1856-1874 - passenger lists for ships to Canterbury which carried assisted immigrants - from the Christchurch City Libraries archive collection.
• Caring for family papers and photos - from Christchurch City Libraries.
• Digitising family history and whakapapa - excellent guide from DigialNZ on scanning, digitising or digitally copying aold family pictures, records and documents.

New Zealand War Histories

New Zealand war histories can provide background information about the times and places of your ancestors. These are available online from the NZ Electronic Text Centre.

• The Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War - from the NZ electronic text centre
• New Zealand World War One history - from the NZ Electronic text centre

Resources from other Countries

• Ancestry.com - is a very extensive family history website. The Ancestry database provides access to millions of records from around the world. You can access the database within the libraries on library computers or using your own device with library wi-fi. For a limited time only you can also access the database from home, using your library card and pin number. Ancestry.com gives access to a wide variety of content from British, American, European and Australian sources such as census records, birth registers, immigration records etc. Ancestry.com also has some very good guides for people starting out in genealogy.

Usually Ancestry Library Edition is only available when you visit the library - but for a limited time the kind people at ProQuest are making it available to all our library customers at home.

• FamilySearch - is the largest genealogy organisation in the world, with an extensive database of family records that can be accessed free
• RootsWeb - great resource for family research, with links to thousands of websites
• The Ryerson Index - an index to death notices appearing in Australian newspapers
• Findmypast.co.uk - UK family history search site
• FreeBMD - contains the civil registration index information for England and Wales from 1837 onwards
• FreeCEN - is a searchable database of UK census returns from 1841 to 1891
• FreeREG - is an index of baptism, marriage and burial records transcribed from parish and non-conformist registers of the UK
• UK BMD - links to all the UK local BMD projects
• Dustydocs - links to free websites in The British Isles containing parish records
• Genealogy Gateway - a conduit to genealogy information online with regular updates
• OZ Gen Online - Australia's family history server
• Scotland's People - births, deaths, marriages, census records, wills and testaments, 1513-now
• Irish Family History Foundation - an extensive database if you are researching your Irish ancestors.
• Expert Links: English Family History and Genealogy - comprehensive list of English genealogical sites
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - a vision of Britain 1801-2001 including maps, statistical trends and historical descriptions
• Deceased Online - a rapidly expanding database of burial and cremation records for the UK, Ireland and Scotland
• Scottish Post Office Directories - 700 digitised directories from 1773 to 1911
• Cyndi's list of genealogy sites on the internet - shipping lists, maps, gazetteers and geographical information etc.
• GENUKI - provides a virtual reference library of genealogical information of particular relevance to the UK and Ireland
• England IGI batch numbers - International Genealogical Index batch numbers for England counties
• Historical Directories - is a digital library of local and trade directories for England and Wales from 1750 to 1919
• BBC family history site - has excellent tutorials on getting started in family history research and the next steps
• The National Archives - catalogues and online records -  includes records held by The National Archives, TNA records digitised on other websites, and records held in other archives