Ask yourself three questions to help identify the arrival of an ancestor. If you don't know the answers to any or all of these, you can still make an educated guess.
The questions are:
Where did they 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 from North America from the 1860s, and large numbers came from Victoria, in the 1850s and 1860s.
Three excellent books on the immigrant experience are The farthest promised land by Rollo Arnold, The immigrants by Tony Simpson, and Over the mountains of the sea by David Hastings.
Where did they arrive?
The main Auckland region ports were:
- Auckland (Waitemata Harbour)
- Onehunga (Manukau Harbour - mainly coastal)
- Bay of Islands (mainly pre-1845)
- Hokianga (mainly pre-1840)
When did they arrive?
Calculate this from:
- family stories
- death registrations after 1875. These include details of 'How long in New Zealand.' Refer to finding family history records on the Births, Deaths and Marriages website.
- 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, Wellington. These indicate 'how long resident in district'.
- first appearance in directories and electoral rolls. See our family history page about voting rights 1853 - present.
- naturalisation records, if they were not British any other evidence of residence in New Zealand
Did they arrive before 1838?
Try:
Did they arrive after 1838?
Try:
- Online Auckland passenger lists for 1838-1886 and October 1915-1921 (plus some for 1887 - 1889 and 1909). Those for 1838-1889 are from our newspaper collection while those for the 1909 and 1915-1921 periods are courtesy of Archives New Zealand. We also have annual sequences on index cards from 1890 to 1899, again from our newspaper collecftion, and newspapers until the late 1930s still have some passenger lists (not indexed). For 1890 onwards use Ancestorsonboard. This is a pay to view site. However, you can search the index free.
- Records of Fencible settlers of south and east Auckland
- Passenger lists, Victoria, Australia outwards to New Zealand, 1852 onwards
- Papers Past can be searched full text for “shipping intelligence” and other passenger lists, e.g. New Zealander to 1852 and Southern Cross to 1876. Note the Evening Post is also searchable to 1915 for Wellington inwards passengers - some may have come on to Auckland.
The Puhoi Settlers' Index gives names of Bohemian settlers, and descendents to 1990, including dates of birth, marriage and death, and names of father, mother and children, where appropriate. A few personal details have been added. We also hold New Zealand Shipping Company passenger records 1875-1950 (Auckland bound indexed online 1875 - 1886, but mainly Canterbury and Otago).
Archives New Zealand in Wellington and Auckland have records for:
- Manukau and Waitemata Company 1841-42
- Auckland Provincial government 1853-1876, assisted (indexed)
- General government 1870-1888, assisted (indexed)
- Social Security Department passenger lists, Auckland and Wellington 1883-1909/1910 (some gaps but indexed) and then 1915 onwards.
What about elsewhere in New Zealand?
We have some information for other parts of New Zealand, but according to the port of entry you may need to contact the Petone Settlers Museum, Otago Settlers Museum, Puke Ariki (New Plymouth), or Canterbury Museum.
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