Invercargill City Libraries

Browse the Calendar

Family History

Tracing your family history

This page is intended to assist you in your search for family records, and will include access to online databases and websites that hold relevant information, as well as listing some of the resources that we hold in our collections in Information Services. If the following information doesn't tell you what you need to know in order to take the next step, please give us a call on (03) 211 1444, or come in and chat to our friendly research librarians on the first floor.

Online databases, directories,  and websites

Ancestry access from library only - Provides access to census records, military records, land records, probate records, church records, directories, passenger lists and more. It includes New Zealand electoral rolls 1853-1981 and maori electoral rolls 1908 and 1919.

Te Puna Web Directory provides a list of genealogy websites curated by the National Library of New Zealand.

Invercargill Cemetery Search allows you to search the Eastern, Bluff, Green Point, and Saint Johns Cemeteries, and the Invercargill Crematorium databases.

Births Deaths and Marriages Online provides historical data only.

Manuscripts and Pictorial collections of the Alexander Turnbull Library.

Local Collection, databases and directories

The local collection includes items relating to Invercargill and Southland. This includes family histories, school magazines, local histories, maps, music and various other items. Offers of donated material will be considered within the guidelines of our Collection Development Policy.

In addition, by visiting the Library you can access many other resources, including war, school, and Government records; a large collection of historical newspapers, in paper and microform formats; electoral rolls; passenger lists of early immigrants; genealogical research directories, and more. For more specific details about the collection, please look here.