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 and also searchable online.
  • New Zealand Electoral Rolls – Lists the electors and their addresses and occupations for all of New Zealand from 1853 onwards.  Some available for search online.
  • New Zealand Cemetery Records – Provides indexed inscriptions to the headstones as well as a geographical table for locating individual cemeteries.  We also have a searchable database within the Archive.
  • 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. Some old Wairarapa newspapers can also be search 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 Wairarapa maps.

All the staff are well trained is assisting you with family history quests – just pop in and ask!