Ancestry

You can access the website Ancestry.com from the Chromebook computers in both the Waipukurau Library; Knowledge & Learning Hub & Waipawa Library.

This link will only work within the Library. Ask library staff for assistance if needed

Recollect

Recollect provides easy online access to a rich store of heritage material relating to Central Hawke's Bay, its people and events

It provides the ability to view all types of content such as heritage photos, documents, maps and related ephemera reflecting the district’s past, all within one platform.

Share your content with your community, whether it be old family photos or valuable documents, allow others to access your history.

Together we can grow this collection to connect our shared heritage. We encourage you to explore, to comment, and to share your stories.

Genealogy & Family History Studies

Want to investigate your family history? Here are some tips and guides.

First steps

Gather the information that you already have.

Research principles

• Work from the known to the unknown
• Starting with yourself, work backwards through each generation.
• Interview relatives
• Write or talk to family members. Ask them about family names, where the people lived, when and from where they emigrated. Some records may be in family homes: e.g. letters, school yearbooks, wills, photographs, birth, marriage and death certificates.
• Write down what you find and where
• What institution? Which collection of records? What volume and page number? Which microfilm reel? Record the sources searched, even if the results are negative.
• Search every possible spelling
• Especially of names, including phonetic and typographic errors.
• Re-check material already gathered
• Clerical errors creep into documents and dates may have been entered incorrectly.
• Bromell, A. Tracing family history in New Zealand
• Bromell, A. Tracing family history overseas from New Zealand
• Henry, R. Find your family on the internet: a New Zealand guide. A wide-ranging introduction to online genealogical searching from a New Zealand perspective.
• Various family history charts recommended by the New Zealand Society of Genealogists can be downloaded from their web site.
• Local family history groups can give advice and support.

Recommended books

Start your charts

National Resources

Other organisations who may be able to assist in your search for New Zealand family history information include:

• Alexander Turnbull Library
• Anglican Archives
• Archives New Zealand
• Auckland City Libraries Research Centre
• Canterbury Museum - Documentary Research Centre
• Land Information New Zealand
• Methodist Archives
• Presbyterian Archives
• Caring for family papers and photographs: A brief guide to caring for precious family records and links to further sources of information

Next Steps

Decide what information to look for now. Keep filling in the details while following the basic research principles above.

When and where they arrived in NZ?

Try:

• Shipping and passenger arrivals - will provide a year of arrival
• Naturalisation records - can provide a year of arrival
• Electoral rolls - can help trace when a person was first entered on to the roll
• Burial records can state how many years a person resided in NZ

What were the names of their children?

Try:

• Death registration certificates will provide the names of children of deceased
• Funeral notices can sometimes mention names of children
• Church registers of baptisms
• Electoral rolls for children of voting age living at same address with parents

What were the names of their parents?

Try:

• Birth registration certificates
• Church registers of baptisms
• Marriage registration certificates
• Death certificates

What was the name of their spouse?

Try:

• Marriage registration certificates
• Church registers - marriage records
• Electoral rolls for people with the same name at the same address
• Street directories for people with the same name at the same address
• Death registration certificates will include the name of their spouse
• Death notices in newspapers can sometimes mention names of children

Can I get hold of a birth, marriage or death information?

See:

• Birth, Baptism and Adoption
• Marriage and Divorce
• Death and Burial

Where were they buried?

Try:

• CHB Cemeteries database
• Tombstone transcripts
• Church Registers - Burial entries
• New Zealand Cemetery Records

Cremations

• Can I find a will or probate for someone?

Deceased Estates

Can I find out where they lived?

Try:

• Street directories will list individual if they were noted as the main resident of a household
• Electoral rolls will be of use if eligible to vote
• Land resources to help identify where they owned land
• Where was the land they owned?

Try:

Land resources

What was the school or church they attended?

Try:

• School records
• Church records & histories

Are there any details of hospitals or children's' homes they attended?

Try:

Hospitals
Orphanages

Is there any information about their work or company?

Try:

• Employment
• Company information

What other biographical information can I find?

Try:

• Cyclopaedias published in early 20th century
• War records - try our New Zealanders at War guides
• Newspapers
• Alexander Turnbull biographies
• Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Can I get hold of police or court records?

See:

Justice

What can I find about someone who was in the war?

See:

• NZ Military Records
• NZ Soldiers in the First World War

Still looking for further information?

Where to next - other national and international organisations and resources which may be able to help

Writing a family history

Contact the Professional Historians' Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa. They provide contact details for people experienced in researching and writing family histories.

Guides to writing a family history:

Rosier-Jones, J. Writing your family history: a New Zealand guide
Beaumont, J. How to write and publish your family history: a complete guide for Australia and New Zealand.

Much of this information is courtesy of Christchurch City Libraries. You will find the most comprehensive guides to genealogy study in NZ on their website