Share this page  

Civil Registration

The official recording of births, marriages and deaths in New Zealand, known as civil registration, began in 1848 for births and deaths and in 1854 for marriages.
It was not a requirement for Maori marriages to be recorded until 1911 and for Maori births and deaths to be recorded until 1913.

Online Indexes

New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs
Use this website to find births, marriages and deaths in New Zealand for the following dates:

Births	Marriages	Deaths	Format
1840-1909	1840-1929	1840-1959*	Website

* Deaths later than 1959 are searchable if the deceased’s date of birth was over 80 years ago

Other Indexes

We hold the following indexes in the Genealogy Centre on the 1st floor:

Births	Marriages	Deaths	Format	Location
1840-1990	1840-1990	1840-1990*	Microfiche	Drawers 155-165
	1836-1956		CD-ROM	Geneo 2

* There is a separate index to War Deaths 1914-1918

Keys to the New Zealand registration indexes have been produced which enable you to find the district where an event was registered from the folio number given on the microfiche:
District keys for births and deaths up to 1920
District keys for births and deaths 1920-1955

Ordering Certificates

New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs
It is recommended that printouts are purchased, rather than certificates, as they contain more information.They can be ordered from the Department of Internal Affairs. See their website for details of costs and how to apply.

What information will I find?

New Zealand birth, marriage and death certificates can contain lots of useful information for the family historian. Death certificates, in particular, can be very informative and often contain the place of birth and the length of time spent in New Zealand For a detailed breakdown of information recorded see our guide:
Information found on certificates for Australian states, New Zealand and the British Isles

Other Sources

Other useful sources of information include indexes to newspaper notices and church records. To find these, try searching our online catalogue using these keywords + new zealand:

• church records
• death notices
• marriage records
• obituaries
• registers of births
• wedding anniversaries