Genealogy
Who do you think you are? These are some of the resources you can use to help you find out more at your library. Our heritage librarians are here to help you go deeper and they love a good challenge.
Family in Kāpiti
Your local library contains books about the history and people of the Kāpiti Coast. Using Paraparaumu Library’s heritage collections you can also find more about your family by engaging with photographs, audiovisual material, school magazines, jubilee publications, journals, archives and local history files. Contact our heritage librarians in advance and we can do some preliminary searching for you.
Ancestry.com
Ancestry Library Edition is one of the largest family history databases in the world. It’s available free on library computers.
It covers the entire world and is one of the easiest ways to find New Zealand records like births, deaths and marriages, war records, and electoral rolls along with a vast number of records from the UK and USA.
Births, deaths and marriages
On the Births, deaths and marriages website, you can search New Zealand Government records for births, deaths and marriages (BDM) and order official copies of certificates.
The historic data available for you to search is limited by date to protect people who are still alive. Information available includes:
- Births that occurred at least 100 years ago
- Stillbirths that occurred at least 50 years ago
- Marriages and Civil Unions that occurred 80 years ago
- Deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago or where the deceased's date of birth was at least 80 years ago.
Family history groups
The Kāpiti Branch of New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG) holds its resources at the Alison Procter Family Research Centre at Paraparaumu Library. The Ōtaki Family History Society holds its resources at Ōtaki Library.
To access these resources you must be a member of the group that owns them. Non-members are welcome to use the collections in the libraries.
The Kāpiti Branch runs a drop-in help session on a Wednesday at Paraparaumu between 10-12pm. If you’re just starting out researching your family history, or wanting help with a brick wall, this is for you.
Resources include:
- Births, Deaths and Marriages - microfiche
- Family History Newsletters from overseas
- New Zealand Cemetery Records - microfiche
- Wises Post Office Directories.