Ever wanted to know what your heritage is? Discover how your family or whakapapa got to be in Tāmaki Makaurau? Everyone has a story to tell, and our individual family histories are full of incredible stories.
Lockdown is a fantastic time to explore and delve into your past and see what you can discover about your family, community and city.
Thankfully, Auckland Council Libraries and museums have many great resources available online for free to help you do just that.
Where to start?
One of the best places to start is at Auckland Council Libraries online. There is a helpful starting guide to follow, including a generation chart and for Māori there is a whakapapa research guide to help.
Your library membership gives you free access to some incredible online family history resources like Ancestry.com and MyHeritage and Find My Past. Find a list of them here.
Kura Heritage Collections Online
If your family has lived for generations in Tāmaki Makaurau, explore the wealth of Auckland Libraries' heritage collections on Kura Heritage Collections Online. With photographs, heritage maps, manuscripts, rare books, local history and incredible historical gems, Kura brings to life the times and places that your forebears experienced. Who knows, you may even stumble across a photograph of an ancestor.
Auckland War Memorial Museum
Dive into this online collection and learn more about Auckland and New Zealand's history, explore the archives of photos, video and articles, and discover the stories of our brave men and women who served New Zealand in times of war. The Online Cenotaph is particularly helpful for those in your family tree who spent time in the military.
NZ Maritime Museum
For those whose forebears came to Aoteroa by sea, New Zealand's maritime heritage comes alive with the Maritime Museum’s online collection of articles, galleries and videos covering notable events and figures across history. It’s a great resource to explore for anyone who has an interest in all things nautical too.
Highlights from the NZ Maritime Museum
