Nelson City Council

The library does not have a dedicated collection or services for family historians. It does, however, hold historical resources which are useful for genealogists, plus guides to genealogical research in the general non fiction collection.

Resources for researching whakapapa are listed on our Maori Research pages

Elma Turner Library resources

• The Nelson Heritage Collection - holds a rich collection of published items about the wider Nelson region of relevance to genealogiests.
  These include local and family histories, local directories and electoral rolls.
• Newspapers - Nelson region newspapers are held from 1842. Click here for a full description of the print, archival and online news sources.

(Also see the online resources  in the list of Heritage sites)

Library subscription database

• Ancestry Plus *  (library database for use in the library only)
  Trace your family history across more than 1.5 billion names from over 4,000 collections (mainly US and UK census and BMD records).

Nelson and region

• Bloodline
  Directory of local sources of information for genealogists
• Early Settlers records
  Early ship records for Nelson immigrants
• Nelson Cemeteries records
• Nelson & Bays GenWeb
  A community generated list of resources, including indexes of births, names, passenger lists, regional cemetery records etc.
• Papers Past
  Searchable historical national and regional newspapers 
• Tasman Cemetery records

New Zealand Resources

General information

• Auckland City Libraries - family history pages
  Includes general information about how to research family history and useful NZ resources - some, but not all, accessible only to library members
• Bibliography of Published New Zealand Family Histories - available through FindNZ Articles.
• Christchurch City Libraries family history pages
  Resources and information about finding your family history
• The Community Archive
  NZ National Register of Archives and Manuscripts. An index of collections in museums, institutions and personal archives.
• Geneaological Links
  A collection of the best websites for family historians provided by nzhistory.net. From nzhistory.net
• Libraries around New Zealand
  A listing from the National Library - some libraries have links to searchable databases including cemeteries.
  Also see the New Zealand Libraries' Catalogue http://nzlc.natlib.govt.nz/ - a catalogue of NZ Library holdings
• New Zealand Cemeteries
  Websites of NZ Cemeteries
• New Zealand telephone books
• NZMuseums 
  Find Museums around the country

Births, Marriages and Deaths

• Births Marriages and Deaths Online - see the Historial Records section for births more than 100 years ago, marriages more than 80 years ago and deaths more than 50 years ago.
• Cenotaph database
  A database of over 33,000 New Zealanders who served in war and conflict from the South African War to the present day, and who are now deceased. It is primarily a roll of honour of those who died as a result of war service, but also includes some personnel who have died 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. 

NZ Digital collections of interest to Genealogists

• National Library Digital collections 
  Access the National Library's digital collections of text, pictures, objects and manuscripts, or search across all at once: http://find.natlib.govt.nz/
• Digital New Zealand
  Find NZ digital content from a wide range of collections and sites
• Early New Zealand Books 
• New Zealand Electronic Text Centre
  

Genealogical resources from other countries

• Cyndi's Huge List of genealogy websites
• Family Search  
  Family history, family tree, and genealogy records and resources from around the world provided by the Church of the Latter Day Saints
• RootsWeb
  Information on family research and lists of web sites
• Worldwide telephone directory 

Public and civil records

• Births, deaths and marriages - New South Wales
• British origins
  Various datasets of British records (pay per view). 
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour register
• FindmyPast.com
  UK family history records
• 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