Births, Deaths & Marriages Index - Tips & Tricks

Records of Births, Deaths and Marriages can be a valuable resource when researching your family history. 

There are two main sources to use: 

Birth, Death and Marriage Historical Records - BDM Online

These historical records are provided by the Department of Internal Affairs. The database is searchable for births that occurred at least 100 years ago; stillbirths at least 50 years ago; marriages at least 80 years ago; and deaths at least 50 years ago or the person was over the age of 80 when they died. 

The Birth Indexes include parents names so are a useful way to find all the children born to a particular set of parents. These are indexes only so you will not be able to obtain the certificate but you can order one directly from the site.

 Birth, Death and Marriages Microfiche Indexes 1840-1990 

These can be found on Level 3 of Central Library.  There are separate sequences for births, deaths and marriages.  Each sequence is arranged by year then alphabetically by surname. 

For Marriages there are 2 sequences within each year – a brides section and a grooms section. 

Each entry will list the surname, first name and a number. This is referred to as the folio number. For Births and Deaths after 1957 entries will include more information such as the place the event is registered.  For Birth and Death records before 1957 you can check the folio number against the district key to identify the place and the quarter that the birth or death was registered in. The District Keys are kept near the indexes for easy reference.

Example of a District Key

The District Keys will list the registration district and the first folio number registered in that district in that quarter, so look for the number closest to the one you are searching for.  For example: the birth of Amy Peterson in 1886 has the folio number 3599.  The district keys for 1886 show 3597 was the first birth registered in Hamilton in the October to December quarter with the next registration district listed as 3605.  This tells us that Amy’s birth was registered in Hamilton between October and December 1886. There are no district keys past 1957 as more information was generally included on the fiche.  Marriage records were centrally registered so there is no district key for marriages.

Tip

Keep in mind that the date on the index is when the event was registered and does not indicate the actual event date. A child born in December may not have been registered until the following year.  Sometimes parents neglected to register their children’s births and their births are registered years later even as adults.

Further information valuable to your family history research such as parents names, place of birth, how long they've been in New Zealand and number of children might be found on the original record. These can be ordered from BDMOnline.  

Maaori Records

There were separate registration systems for Maaori from 1911-1960.  These indexes are located at the end of each Microfiche sequence.  Some Maaori may have been registered in the general sequence so it can pay to check both.

Further Resources

A useful guide to the information you can expect to find on a birth, death or marriage certificate can be found in A Beginner’s Guide to Family History Research in New Zealand and New Zealand Beginner’s Guide to Family History Research, both by Anne Bromell.

Other Sources 

Cemetery records can be a useful way to locate death records, many cemeteries now have indexes online.  Cemetery transcriptions compiled by the New Zealand Society of Genealogists can be found on Ancestry.com. Ancestry Library Edition is available at all Hamilton City Libraries branches. 

Newspapers often published birth, death and marriage notices. Historical newspapers for New Zealand can be found on Paperspast.