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Genealogy

We have historical resources which are useful for genealogists, plus guides to genealogical research in the general non fiction collection

Our resources are categorized by organization and type of information (e.g., wills, passenger lists). However, we don’t maintain a specialized genealogy collection or provide specific genealogy services. For whakapapa research, please refer to our Māori research page.

Elma Turner Library resources

At Elma Turner Library, our resources include:

  • Nelson Heritage Collection: This collection contains published materials relevant to genealogy in the wider Nelson region. It includes local and family histories, local directories, and electoral rolls.
  • Newspapers: We hold Nelson region newspapers dating back to 1842

Online resources

Library Databases

  • Ancestry Library Edition (access in the library only)
    Explore your family history through over 1.5 billion names across 4,000 collections, primarily focusing on US and UK census and BMD records.
  • British Newspaper Archive (access in the library only)
    The British Newspaper Archive, a collaboration between the British Library and FindmyPast, offers approximately three million fully searchable newspaper pages dating back to 1800.
    You also need to create a free personal account from this link:
    https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/account/register (with a free account, you can save, take notes on, and bookmark interesting papers, making it easy to revisit them during your next session).
  • FamilySearch
    Nelson Public Library is an Affiliate Library. With a personal login, you can access digitized microfilm collections within the library, as well as freely available family history resources outside the library. This database is curated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
  • FindmyPast (access in the library only)
    Explore a wide range of family history resources, including the 1921 British Census. Not sure where to begin? Use FMP's "getting started" resource.
    Note: Only one user can access the resource at a time. If you encounter the message “It appears that all seat allocations are already in use,” please try again later.

Nelson

New Zealand Resources

General information

Births, Marriages and Deaths

  • Births Marriages and Deaths Online - see the Historical Records section for births more than 100 years ago, marriages more than 80 years ago and deaths more than 50 years ago.
  • Cenotaph database
    This database honors over 33,000 New Zealanders who served in war and conflict, including those who died due to war service and some who have passed away since.
  • A Memory Tree
    A commercial site for people to record remembrances, which includes a free database of all the names published in NZ newspaper death notices since December 2006.
  • New Zealand Herald Bereavements
    Death notices and obituaries published in the New Zealand Herald over the last few year.

Census

Although official Census forms were not consistently kept until recently, certain returns have been preserved in regional repositories.

Alternative sources that list the names and details of large sections of the population ("census substitutes") include:

  • jury and militia lists, which name adult males of qualifying age in the 1840s and 1850s (see Ancestry Library)
  • electoral rolls, which name those registered to vote since 1853 (see Ancestry Library)
  • postal directories, which name householders from the 1860s to the 1950s, and in the main cities until about 1980 (see Wises Directory on Ancestry Library)
  • school admission and attendance registers, which name children of school age since the 1870s (occasionally earlier) (see Archives New Zealand, Ancestors Attic Library, Church archives as relevant)
  • telephone directories, which name subscribers since the 1880s (although most households didn’t have a phone before the 1950s) (held Nelson Public Libraries)

International Resources

General

Public and civil records

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