Wairarapa Archive

If you want to find out about the history of the Wairarapa, the Wairarapa Archive should be your first port of call.

Led by District Archivist Gareth Winter, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of people, places and things that make up the Wairarapa's past, they have a wide selection of resources available, including:

a very large online digital photo collection - Picture Wairarapa,
on-line catalogue. Quick Search. Advanced Search
photographs and negatives
architectural plans and maps
records of community organisations
Newspapers – Wairarapa newspapers on microfilm from 1867 onwards. Some old newspapers are indexed, while we host an online index to the Wairarapa News and the Wairarapa Times-Age since 2001. Some old Wairarapa newspapers can also be search on Papers Past
family information and histories
film, video and oral recordings
Archives and manuscripts – Includes some baptismal and marriage registers, school records, many historic photographs and some personal papers, letters, diaries etc.
Indexes for New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages Registrations 1840-1990 – Held on microfiche and also searchable online.
New Zealand Electoral Rolls – Lists the electors and their addresses and occupations for all of New Zealand from 1853 onwards. Some available for search online.
New Zealand Cemetery Records – Provides indexed inscriptions to the headstones as well as a geographical table for locating individual cemeteries. We also have a searchable database within the Archive. Masterton cemetery records are available here.
School, church and local histories – A large range of these particularly for the Wairarapa area.
Directories – A collection of historical business, householder and phone directories, some back to 1896.
Ancestry Library Edition – This genealogy database is only available only in the library and Wairarapa Archive. Wireless access is available for researchers to bring their own laptops.
Maps – A good selection of Wairarapa maps.