Archives New Zealand offers a Research and Copying Service to assist researchers intending to visit or unable to visit. In order to be as specific as possible with your enquiries, we recommend that you undertake background research at local libraries and consult Archives New Zealand’s publications, online reference guides and our online finding aid, Archway before contacting us. Each office of Archives New Zealand has printed copies of the reference guides which can be obtained free of charge.
A reading room service, which includes guidance from trained staff, is also available at all four offices of Archives New Zealand. This service is free, except for copying charges.
Family historians should note that all New Zealand birth, death and marriage certificates are available from the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
We try to respond within 15 working days of receiving an enquiry, but during times of high demand for the service, we may not be able to meet this deadline. An extra urgent search fee of NZ$27 per request may be available on request. This would involve your enquiry being processed within five working days.
Archives New Zealand is unable to carry out extended research assignments into records on your behalf and you may need to employ a private researcher. Staff however are able to check available indexes and registers to records to locate records for you and to provide copies of records.
We suggest you contact the following groups if you want to consider hiring a private researcher:
New Zealand Society of Genealogists
http://www.genealogy.org.nz/
Professional Historians’ Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa
http://www.phanza.org.nz/
Email can be used to contact all four Archives New Zealand offices to make enquiries. Alternatively you can post or fax your enquiry to us. Please note that we do not accept enquiries over the telephone. You will also need to select the office to which you want to direct your enquiry.
The inclusion of your full postal address in all enquiries (including email) is essential, and your request will not be processed until we have this information.
If you would like to make an enquiry via email to our Wellington office, please go to our online request forms and select a relevant form. Please note that some fields are mandatory and need to be completed correctly to enable your request to be processed.
Auckland Regional Office
Email: auckland@archives.govt.nz
Christchurch Regional Office
E-mail: christchurch@archives.govt.nz
Dunedin Regional Office
E-mail: dunedin@archives.govt.nz
All enquiries are subject to the pre-payment of a research fee, which must be made whether or not the search is successful. We charge flat rates for some records, or NZ$25 per half hour of research undertaken on other subjects. We are able to do a maximum of an hour of research (NZ$50) for an individual client. People wanting more extensive research to be done on their behalf will need to employ a private researcher.
Payment can be made by faxing, phoning or posting your credit card details to us (Visa, Mastercard and Bankcard only).
Please do not email these details as we cannot guarantee the security of your email outside our computer system.
Alternatively, New Zealand researchers can pay by cheque, and international researchers by international money order, payable to Archives New Zealand. Our charges, in New Zealand dollars, are outlined below:
Flat Rate Charges (per item)
| New Zealand Defence Force personnel record: | $25 per record |
| Probate file: | $20 per record |
| Intention to Marry notice: | $8 per record |
These charges include up to 40 scanned or photocopied pages
General Research (per request)
| All other enquiries: | $25 per half hour |
This charge includes up to 20 scanned or photocopied pages per half hour of research.