Te haere manene mai ki Aotearoa Immigration to New Zealand

In your journey to complete your family tree, you might need to think about when your ancestors moved to New Zealand and find the answer to the following questions.

Where did your ancestors come from?

Until the end of the 1840s, Auckland arrivals were mainly from New South Wales and Tasmania, and then primarily from Great Britain. Mail steamers did bring some immigrants from North America from the 1860s, and large numbers came from Victoria in the 1850s and 1860s.

Recommended reading:

• The farthest promised land by Rollo Arnold
  

• Over the mountains of the sea by David Hastings.

Where did your ancestors arrive in New Zealand?

The main Auckland region ports were:

• Auckland (Waitematā Harbour)
  
• Onehunga (Manukau Harbour - mainly coastal)
  
• Bay of Islands (mainly pre-1845)
  
• Hokianga (mainly pre-1840).
  

We have some information for other parts of New Zealand, but depending on the port of entry you may need to contact:

• Petone Settlers Museum  
  

• Toitū Otago Settlers Museum  
  

• Puke Ariki (New Plymouth)  
  

• Canterbury Museum  
  

• Archives New Zealand 

When did your ancestors arrive in New Zealand?

You can find this information from:

• family stories
  

• death registrations after 1875, which include details of how long the person was in New Zealand
  

• obituaries
  

• marriage date or birth date of first child in New Zealand, and/or last child born before emigration
  

• 'Intention to marry' registers at Archives New Zealand 
  

• first appearance in directories and electoral rolls
  

• naturalisation records. If your ancestors were not British, other evidence of residence in New Zealand.
  

Did your ancestors arrive before 1838?

If your ancestors arrived in New Zealand before 1838, the following are excellent rauemi resources :

• Roll of early settlers and descendants in the Auckland Province prior to the end of 1852 (1940)
  

• Index to ship musters 1816 - 1825 passengers & crew departing Sydney [microform] (1990)
  

• Index of passengers and crew in and out of Sydney from Sydney newspapers [microform] (1997-1998).

Did your ancestors arrive after 1838?

If your ancestors arrived in New Zealand after 1838, try the following rauemi:

• Auckland area passenger arrivals lists  (1838-1889 and 1909-1921) - now in the Passengers and Vessels collection in Kura Heritage Collections Online
  

• Ancestry
  

• Find My Past (1890 onwards)
  

• Records of fencible settlers  of south and east Auckland
  

• Passenger lists, Victoria, Australia outwards to New Zealand, 1852 onwards [microform]
  

• Papers Past can be searched for “shipping intelligence” and other passenger lists, e.g. New Zealander (to 1852), Southern Cross (to 1876), Auckland Star and New Zealand Herald (to 1945), and the Evening Post for Wellington inwards passengers (to 1945)
  

• New Zealand Shipping Company passenger records 1875 - 1950

• Archives New Zealand  
  

  • Manukau and Waitemata Company 1841-42

  • Auckland Provincial government 1853-1876, assisted (indexed)

  • General government 1870-1888, assisted (indexed)

• Social Security Department passenger lists in FamilySearch