Each month we look at a genealogy dataset in Australia or New Zealand. This month we look at New Zealand and the birth, death and marriage (Whānautanga, Matenga, Mārenatanga) records:
The historical indexes are free to search for the following time periods:
- Births that occurred over 100 years ago
- Stillbirths that occurred over 50 years ago
- Marriages that occurred over 80 years ago, and
- Deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago or the deceased’s age of birth was at least 80 years ago.
The New Zealand Government website to search the indexes is https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search.
If you find a record of interest and wish to order the certificate, this can be done from the same website. A choice is given of a certificate or a printout. The certificate is the official legal document. The printout is a copy of the information from the registration and may be handwritten or typed, it is not a legal document but is cheaper so is often used for research purposes.
Births and deaths were recorded from 1848 and marriages from 1854. Mäori marriages were recorded from 1911 and Mäori births and deaths from 1913. From 1914 the registers also included WWI deaths and from 1915 re-registration of a birth of a child subject to an adoption order was introduced. The timeline of various changes to the birth, death and marriage register is also helpful in ascertaining whether an event was recorded.
Should you need assistance of a record agent or genealogist to assist with your search, then you may wish to contact an AAGRA member.
