How To Search

Can't find the person you're searching for? Here are some tips to help your searching:

Our records are based on the information supplied to us, so sometimes there are inaccuracies in the information in the registers. A common reason for a search failure is that a person may be known by one name, but their birth, death or marriage record is in a different name. Our searches are exact spelling searches e.g. Thompson will only return Thompson, not Thomson.

Some quick ways to refine your search include searching variations of a name, such as:

Abbreviations, e.g.

• Elizabeth - Liz, Lizzie, Beth, Eliza, Bessie
• Helen - Ellen, Nellie
• Kathleen - Kath, Kate, Katy, Katie.
• Catherine - Katherine, Kath, Kate, Kathryn
• Alan - Allan, Allen.
• John - Jack.
• James - Jim, Jimmy.

Transliteration, e.g.

• Hone - John
• Stephen - Tipene
• Or using double vowels

Please note: You are not able to search using macrons, e.g. Māori, however if the record contains macrons it will be returned with the macrons.

Too many results

• Try entering closer 'To' and 'From' date years.

Name variations, e.g.

• Spelling variations e.g. Thompson, Thomson, Thomsen
• Dropping the ""O"" from surnames like O'Connor to form Connor or Conor
• Variations on 'Mac,' 'Mc', or 'van de', 'Vander', 'van' etc.
• Joining two words from a name together, e.g. Van der Horn to Vanderhorn

Births

If the child's parents had not been married at the time of the birth the registration could be in either the father's or mother's family names. Try searching both family names.

Deaths

Death notification is the responsibility of the person in charge of the burial or cremation. If the person responsible for this does not register the death there will be no record of that death. The death record also includes deaths occurring outside New Zealand if a person was serving as a member of the NZ Defence Forces or United Nations Peace Keeping Forces. WW1 war deaths were all recorded in 1918 and WW2 war deaths were recorded in 1945.

Marriages

When searching for a woman's second or subsequent marriage, the bride's details may be recorded under her family name at birth or any of her previous husbands' family names.