Genealogy

Online resources

Library Databases

• Ancestry Library Edition (access in the library only)
  Explore your family history through over 1.5 billion names across 4,000 collections, primarily focusing on US and UK census and BMD records.
• British Newspaper Archive (access in the library only)
  The British Newspaper Archive, a collaboration between the British Library and FindmyPast, offers approximately three million fully searchable newspaper pages dating back to 1800.
  You also need to create a free personal account from this link:
  https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/account/register (with a free account, you can save, take notes on, and bookmark interesting papers, making it easy to revisit them during your next session).
• FamilySearch
  Nelson Public Library is an Affiliate Library. With a personal login, you can access digitized microfilm collections within the library, as well as freely available family history resources outside the library. This database is curated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• FindmyPast (access in the library only)
  Explore a wide range of family history resources, including the 1921 British Census. Not sure where to begin? Use FMP's "getting started" resource.
  Note: Only one user can access the resource at a time. If you encounter the message “It appears that all seat allocations are already in use,” please try again later.
  

Nelson

• Top of the South Regional Repositories, (2022) compiled by New Zealand Society of Genealogists Nelson Branch.
• Nelson Cemeteries Database - see also Tasman District Council Cemeteries
• Papers Past
  Searchable historical national and regional newspapers
• Nelson Photo News, a monthly magazine published by Logan Publishing between 1960 and 1974, is available as a full-text digital archive.
• The Prow features historical and cultural stories from Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough.

New Zealand Resources

General information

• Bibliography of Published New Zealand Family Histories - available through FindNZ Articles.
• ConnectionsNZL - a site with information and resources to help NZ people separated by adoption reconnect
• Family Search
  Family history, family tree, and genealogy records and resources from around the world provided by the Church of the Latter Day Saints.
  Important NZ resources are: New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839-1973 and New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998, New Zealand, Civil Records Indexes, 1800-1966
• Geneaological Links
  A collection of the best websites for family historians provided by nzhistory.net. From nzhistory.net
• New Zealand Cemeteries
• New Zealand telephone books
• NZMuseums
• Public Record Office (UK) - New Zealand Company records (Australian Joint Copying Project)
  This project has digitised the New Zealand Company: Original Correspondence, etc., 1837 – 1861, which includes emigration records:
  • Register of emigrant labourers applying for free passages, 1839 - 1842 (File 272. AJCP Reel No: 1480) -
  • Register of emigrant labourers applying for free passages, 1842 - 1850 (File 273. AJCP Reel No: 1480) -
  • Original applications for free passage and list of emigrants (File 274. AJCP Reel No: 1480-1481) -
  • Alphabetical list of applications for passage and embarkation orders (Index to 272 and 273) (File 275. AJCP Reel No: 2569) -

Births, Marriages and Deaths

• Births Marriages and Deaths Online - see the Historical Records section for births more than 100 years ago, marriages more than 80 years ago and deaths more than 50 years ago.
• Cenotaph database
  This database honors over 33,000 New Zealanders who served in war and conflict, including those who died due to war service and some who have passed away since.
• A Memory Tree
  A commercial site for people to record remembrances, which includes a free database of all the names published in NZ newspaper death notices since December 2006.
• New Zealand Herald Bereavements
  Death notices and obituaries published in the New Zealand Herald over the last few year.

Census

Although official Census forms were not consistently kept until recently, certain returns have been preserved in regional repositories.

Alternative sources that list the names and details of large sections of the population ("census substitutes") include:

• jury and militia lists, which name adult males of qualifying age in the 1840s and 1850s (see Ancestry Library)
• electoral rolls, which name those registered to vote since 1853 (see Ancestry Library)
• postal directories, which name householders from the 1860s to the 1950s, and in the main cities until about 1980 (see Wises Directory on Ancestry Library)
• school admission and attendance registers, which name children of school age since the 1870s (occasionally earlier) (see Archives New Zealand, Ancestors Attic Library, Church archives as relevant)
• telephone directories, which name subscribers since the 1880s (although most households didn’t have a phone before the 1950s) (held Nelson Public Libraries)

International Resources

General

• Cyndi's Huge List of genealogy websites
• RootsWeb
  Information on family research and lists of web sites

Public and civil records

• Births, deaths and marriages - New South Wales
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Free BMD (UK)
  An ongoing project to provide free access to the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records.
• General Register Office - Ireland
• General Register Office - Northern Ireland
• The National Archives (UK)
  Births, Marriages and Deaths, Census etc.
• UK 1901 Census Online
  Free search of this census