August is Family History Month

Rotorua Library has Genealogy books and other sources

Have you thought of using old newspapers online to search for birth and death notices? 

National Library of NZ has a fabulous reliable online resource called Papers Past, although not all births, marriages and deaths are published this is still a very good place to start for all of New Zealand's newspapers that are digitised. 

Here are just a few samples of what you may find :

WAIRARAPA AGE, VOLUME XXXII, ISSUE 10697, 19 AUGUST 1912

Brief and to the point : Hastings Standard, 14 November 1898

Wedding of Miss Nora Curtis of Rotorua in
King Country Chronicle 15 March 1909

A Rotorua Silver Wedding in Evening Post 21 September 1939

For more information click the link to Papers Past at the top of this post.

Also check out previous posts for Family History Month

Genealogy Tips

Births, Deaths & Marriages 

There are a number of sources to find this information when trying to piece together you family tree.

• Newspapers through the ages have had notices published when the families have been able to afford it, so in some cases there won't be a notice. 

Rotorua District Library has the Daily Post and its predecessors back to 1895 (The Hot Lakes Chronicle) with gaps between 1905 & 1931 due to an unfortunate fire when the then Editor kept the back copies in a shed.

Papers Past is a free website where you can search across a wide range of New Zealand newspapers 

Papers Past contains more than three million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1839 to 1948 and includes 119 publications from all regions of New Zealand.

          Public Libraries have (most libraries) on microfiche lists of  Births, Deaths and                         Marriages 1840-1990, they only have the names and dates and a folio number which               you need to send away to the following  address to purchase a copy of the certificate :   
          Births, Deaths, Marriages and Citizenship, PO Box 10-526,  Wellington 6143 

          ** Note there are costs involved.

• Ancestry.com the Library Edition also has records, however the NZ records able to be searched on Ancestry.com have not been provided by Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) New Zealand.

New Zealand Birth, death and marriage records available on this website  BDM Online  are historical as follows : 

• 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.

Ask a Librarian on the 2nd Floor for any help you may need or come to the New Zealand Genealogists drop in session on the 2nd Wednesday of every month except December.