OCEANIA
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According to the last censuses, almost 4 000 New Zealanders and 900 000 Australians claim to have Italians origins, either ancestors or as Italian citizen. Of course, they only represent 2.5% of the Oceanian population but we notice that Italian is currently the second most spoken language in Australia with 300 000 speakers.
For the past 150 years, it is estimated to 450 000 the number of Italians having crossed the oceans to reach Australia and few thousands to New Zealand.
In order to help you in your research and find the tracks of your relatives having immigrated to Oceania, please find below a summary of useful information:
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National Archives of Australia
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The National Archives of Australia is the Australian agency in charge of preserving and providing the public with governmental and historic documents.
In Australia, the first census was made in 1881 and it has been regularly renewed since 1911. Nevertheless, most of them were destroyed once data was collected because of individual privacy protection policy which force us to turn towards others documents such as passenger lists or naturalization registers.
The portal of the Australian archives offers an access online to an important number of historic documents such as military registers, naturalization registers or even passenger lists having immigrated to Australia.
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National Library of Australia
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The National Library of Australia based in Canberra is the largest library of the country.
It is responsible of the upholding and the development of the national collection of materials. Especially a huge collection of registers linked to Australia and the Australian people.
The library allows the access to a genealogical online database named TROVE as well as many sections dedicated to genealogical research, immigration (naturalization registers, passenger lists, etc.), military archives and so on.
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Italian Historical Society in Australia
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The Italian Historical Society is an association established in 1980 in Carlton, a Melbourne neighborhood whose aim is to collect, preserve and analyze the Italian Australians history and legacy.
The access is on site and on appointment only. We can find a large collection of photographs, letters, newspapers or historical objects relating the arrival of Italians in Australia. Most of those objects are gifts from immigrates.
The association offers an access to many online documents, especially an index of Italian civilians locked up in Australia during World War II as well as multiple diplomatic archives.
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National Archives of New Zealand
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Archives New Zealand is the New Zealand agency in charge of preserving and providing the public with governmental and historic documents.
Few documents are available online: the majority of them are dispatched through the different regional branches in the country and are only available for consultation on site.
The portal allows to discover online the 6 million documents kept by the agency, their location and also offers some links and references to others research sites.
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Birth, Death and Marriages in New Zealand |
Birth, Death and Marriage is the official website of the New Zealand government for the online application for birth, death and marriage certificates of the country.
The site offers access to a database of almost 11 million of miscellaneous certificates covering the period from 1848 to the present day. These ones, originally established by the colonial office, mainly concern birth in the country but also others certificates such as abroad marriages or deaths during war time.
Two types of access to the online database are proposed. One is free of charge and restricted to historical research (birth certificates over 100 years old, marriage certificates over 80 years old and death certificates over 50 years old). The other one, requires the creation of a charged account and allows access to all the documents and certificates, old and recent ones.
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New Zealand Society of Genealogists |
The New Zealand Society of Genealogists is an association with several branches over the country whose aim is to assist its members in their genealogical research.
The family research center is located in Auckland. Several online research supports are available to understand the history of New Zealand and to guide its genealogical research through the different registers available in the country (Cemeteries, passenger lists, parish registers, etc ...).
The association also offers access to an online library containing a few free documents and others media to be ordered (DVD, books, K7 audio). In order to take advantage of the entire online offer, registration to become a member is required.
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Various search engines on the web |
Australian Bureau of Statistics is the national Australian agency in charge of coordinating the statistic activities in the country. It provides all official statistics related to economic and social domain as well as population and environmental issues. For instance, we can find statistics regarding all national censuses from 1996.
StatsNZ is the national New Zealander agency in charge of coordinating the statistic activities in the country. It provides all official statistics related to economic and social domain as well as population and environmental issues. For instance, we can find statistics regarding all national censuses from 1996.
FamilySearch is the largest genealogic organism in the world. It offers an online access to a huge database of records and allows also to find « Family History Centers » everywhere in the planet where it is possible to consult digitized registers. We can also find on the website, a huge amount of references of genealogic sources for each country.
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