KEY RESOURCES

NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES Papers Past, on the National Library of New Zealand’s website at paperspast.natlib.govt.nz, is a free-to-use online newspaper collection. This was where Frances found the first clue that her great uncle had moved to New Zealand. You can see a worldwide list of online newspaper archives at bit. ly/onlinenewspaperarchives.

NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT RECORDS

If your forebears lived in New Zealand, the family history research page on the government’s site at bit.ly/nzgovt-records is a great resource. It provides links and information about how to order birth, marriage and death certificates; locate wills, burial records, arrivals in New Zealand by ship, electoral rolls and land ownership documents; track down soldiers’ military records; and much more.

PASSENGER LISTS

If an ancestor has dropped off the radar, search for them in online passenger lists in case they have left the country. They can include name, age, occupation, origin and destination, and arrival date. There is an extensive collection on ancestry.co.uk, including ‘New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant Passenger Lists, 1828– 1896‘, while findmypast.co.uk and genesreunited.co.uk both have ‘Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890–1960’, and familysearch. org has ‘Archives New Zealand, Passenger Lists, 1839–1973’.