Genealogy
The Genealogy Room on the third floor of the City Library houses many resources for finding New Zealand family history and whakapapa information.
Besides documentation of birth, deaths, burial and marriage, there are many other places to look.
We can help with street directories, business directories, electoral rolls, military and civil lists, school magazines and printed family histories.
Supplementing these genealogical resources are books in the McNab New Zealand Collection, such as district, church and school histories. These give valuable background to our ancestors’ lives.
Newspapers give the flavour of an age, reflecting community concerns and attitudes. Our local and regional newspaper card index and its successor since 1993, the Southern Regional News Index, are very useful for finding stories about local people and places.
The first-floor non-fiction section also has useful resources, including family research guides.
The pages on the sidebar list the most important, fundamental resources of genealogical interest in the Collections.
Heritage Collection staff are available daily on the third floor to help with the use of material.
Experienced volunteers from the New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG) are also available to help researchers at drop-in clinics. Please ask for the current days and times. NZSG resources can also be consulted in the Genealogy Room during normal Library hours.
Research can be done for out-of-town customers (a fee applies for searches taking more than thirty minutes).
Links to digital resources can be found here
Links to lots more useful genealogy websites can be found here