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Passenger Listings for Vessels

bound for New Zealand

If you know the vessel's name - check Gavin's website 'Immigrant Ships to New Zealand 1835 to 1910'  to obtain the arrival port and date in New Zealand.   Search index B/T 27 Outward -bound covering 1890 - 1960 on ancestorsonboard, a commercial site. Work out the name of the vessel by putting in a few of the home liner names.

Then do a ship search on the same site is see date she left the UK, add 45 days and find arrival in the NZ newspapers on  to see if a newspaper item exists for the arrival date. To save a newspaper page image hold down ALT + Print Screen at the same time.  Open a  document in an  image/photo editor or MS Word. Paste the screen shot by holding down CTRL and V at the same time, edit and save. Record the name of the newspaper, date and page number in the file name.

  Multiple Lists - over 4772 lists online on various website - 'only a drop in the bucket'
If a link is broken try Wayback

• NZ Immigration passenger lists images  (search first)
   - Canterbury 1855 - 1884
   - Wellington 1872 - Jun 1888
   - Auckland 1872 - June 1890
   - Otago 1872-1884
• Denise & Peter's Home Page comprehensive site over 1046 lists
• Southland and national wide passenger lists over 2411 Passenger lists, 239 ship photos and 30 shipboard diaries
• NZ Bound search site index & check individual ports 256 lists+ and cabin passenger lists
• Gavin's site Early immigrant ships to NZ 1835 -1910  116 lists & images
• Assisted English Immigrants 1870s  The Farthest Promised Land online
• AUSNZ Passenger Lists
• Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild over 22 lists
• Barbara's links
• Ships to NZ from Hamburg 1872 - 1876 
• Cornwall emigration to NZ pdf pdf born Cornwall
  Emigrations from St Keverne, Cornwall
  Isle of Man
• Channel Islands emigration to NZ
• NZ Pioneer Families
• Alphabetical  Sandra's site 19 lists broken listing E R S T U V W
• Alphabetical listing  Jan. 1840 to Dec. 1845
• NZSG - Shipping Database link broken
•   Shelia's emigration page broken link  (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sheila.jones/emigrant.htm) London to New Zealand 1875-1878 & Passenger Lists UK to NZ 1884 - 1910 over 700 vessels  ReproA 377 - 447 SS1 (Social Security Depart., Wellington)  Arrival dates are as shown in the Comber Index or NZ Herald Shipping News for ports other than Auckland. For Auckland, the date shown in the Auckland Harbour Master's Register of Inward Shipping (held at Archives NZ, Auckland)

AUCKLAND  

• Albertland & Districts Museum passenger lists 11+ lists

  Ship Name 		Depart  Date 	Arrival Date 
  Annie Wilson 		28 May  1863 	19 Sep 1863 
  Caduceus 		 1 Dec  1864 	 5 Mar 1865 
  Gertrude 		 4 Nov  1862 	 9 Feb 1863 
  Hanover 		29 May  1862 	17 Sep 1862 
  Ida Zeigler 		 3 July 1863 	 5 Oct 1863 
  John Duncan 		11 Oct  1863 	23 Jan 1864 
  Matilda Wattenbach 	29 May  1862 	 8 Sep 1862 
  Nimroud 		10 Aug  1864 	18 Dec 1864 
  Tyburnia 		 2 Jun  1863 	 4 Sep 1863 
  Victory 		 2 Sep  1864 	 4 Jan 1865 
  William Miles 		29 July 1862 	12 Nov 1862 

• Auckland area inward passengers 1838-1886 with a few for 1887 to 1889 from newspaper and those for the 1909 and 1915-1921 periods are courtesy of Archives New Zealand although largely it is from late 1915 onwards. Also, newspaper reports for Kororareka, Russell and New Zealand Company settlements from 1838 to 1845.  Trans-Tasman migration not included except the RMS. Often those in steerage were also not included in the newspaper reports. To obtain a full listing just entered the name of the ship and the year. Try different spelling variations. Also vessel newspaper reference. Comprehensive site   Check for spelling variations by doing a search like BR*
• Old Colonists Association Register
• Mariners and Ships in Australian Waters 150 lists from New Zealand Herald
• Genies' Jottings Sydney to Auckland, London to Auckland arrivals
• Shamere's {Pam's P} Auckland arrivals in 1860 + Fencible ships 40+
• Sooty's 16 lists Tauranga and Auckland
• Pearl's site recreated (wayback)  over 17 lists
• GENEoNZ - early Auckland, 20 lists & Nelson lists, 13 lists, and early Bay of Islands ship arrivals 
• 1863-65 Auckland  (wayback) 14 lists
• Carter Family - Auckland & Lyttelton 8 lists
• Vessels Doric (Feb. 1885),Ganges (1865), Swiftsure, Fernglen, Star of India (1st Waikato Militia) 13 lists
• Clipper and Sailing Ships to Auckland

Lower NORTH ISLAND 

• Taranaki - passenger arrivals and departures from the newspaper Taranaki Herald 1852 to 1885 
  - under first name try Captain, Major, M.H.R., servant, women, men, children
  - under surname try Regiment, Royal, Artillery, file, sappers, miner, men, etc.
• Petone Settlers Museum Passenger Database Wellington only between 1839-1897 and Wellington as first port of call 
• Lindel's Pad  arrivals no longer online had 21 New Plymouth arrivals.
• Emigrants Manchester Block, Wellington Province 18  lists
• Helen's lists 26 lists plus miscellaneous listings
• Pam's site (wayback) 50+ lists for Wellington

SOUTH ISLAND 

• Nelson Passenger lists 1841-1850 pdf
• Nelson - NZ Company passengers & shipping lists published in newspaper 1841-1850  (covers 70 vessels)
• Nelson 5 lists Anne Longton, Edward Thornhill, Ocean Mail, Opawa, Slains Castle 
• Emigration to Canterbury : Shipping Lists 1856-1874  42 lists  Christchurch Library site
  A guide to some 19th cent. passenger lists in newspapers, on microfilm, and some other sources held at Christchurch City Libraries
• Request a search: Passenger Lists into Lyttelton 1855 - 1870 
• Canterbury Association manifests
• Bev's site The Star newspaper shipping intelligence 77 lists & growing
• South Canterbury arrivals     search 19 lists
• Arrivals for the Otago Settlement, 1848-1851 20  lists
• Bluff   40 lists
• "Invercargill" into Pt. Chalmers 1878 diary

Miscellaneous 

• Trish's site Aurora   Cuba  Duke of Roxburgh  Lord William Bentinck  Queen Bee  Rotomahana  Sir Edward Paget  Zealandia.
• Wageners Down Under Shipping Pages 18 lists  [wayback]

Shipping Outward from NZ [25 lists]

• UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960 Pay for view, free to search. This database is an index to the Board of Trade's passenger lists of ships arriving in the United Kingdom from foreign ports outside of Europe and the Mediterranean from 1878-1888 and 1890-1960.  Many of the pre-1890 lists were irregularly destroyed by the Board of Trade in 1900. Therefore, there are not many lists included in this database that date from these earlier years. From the 1930s entries included the abbreviation, T, if the visit was for the purpose of tourism.
  Keyword results:
  Timaru 853
  Oamaru 130
  Lyttelton 23,986
  Christchurch 2,045
  Dunedin 5,897
  Auckland 113,483

Please report any invalid links & email addresses. Always double check the information with the original list as the flamboyant handwriting maybe faded, difficulty to read and you might be able to work out who was travelling together. 

An Adult
The ships and masters were limited, by the "The Passenger Acts" (different Acts for different countries at different times, but all along the same vein with the result being better conditions for the emigrant), to 2 tons displacement per passenger. ( varied for different time/countries). As part of the Act(s), children were considered an adult, for under 14 (sometimes under 12) and 1/3 an adult under 7.  Infants were free.  As you can imagine, this sometimes caused Captains to "fudge" the ages, to cram more on board, but it also caused the parents to do the same, because the fares for children were rated with the same percentage.  This is why some people find their "rellies" with an age two or three years younger than they expect!! Ages on passenger lists are subjective with the compiler writing down what he was told. No proof of age was required. Information courtesy of  Sue Swiggum  co-owner TheShipsList.

Page last updated March 17, 2020