Family History

The Wairarapa Archive has a wide range of resources for those interested in researching their family history and whakapapa including:

• Archives and manuscripts - includes some baptismal and marriage registers, school records, many historic photographs and some personal papers, letters, diaries etc.
• Indexes for New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages Registrations 1840-1990 - held on microfiche.
• New Zealand Electoral Rolls - Lists the electors and their addresses and occupations for all of New Zealand from 1853 onwards.
• New Zealand Cemetery Records - Provides indexed inscriptions to the headstones as well as a geographical table for locating individual cemeteries.
• Newspapers - Wairarapa newspapers on microfilm from 1867 onwards. Some old newspapers are indexed , while we host an online index to the Wairarapa News and the Wairarapa Times-Age since 2001. The Wairarapa Daily/Times can also be searched online from 1879 to 1819 on Papers Past
• School, church and local histories - a large range of these particularly for the Wairarapa area.
• Directories - A collection of historical business, householder and phone directories, some back to 1896.
• Ancestry Library Edition - This genealogy database is only available only in the library and Wairarapa Archive. Wireless access is available for researchers to bring their own laptops.
• Maps - A good selection of maps for Wairarapa.