Local histories can sometimes provide information on specific individuals and where they lived, but even general histories can be of use to fill in the background of your ancestors' lives.
![High Street, Christchurch [between 1945 and 1950]](https://christchurchcitylibraries.com/heritage/photos/disc16/IMG0077.jpg)
Book resources
- A good start for Christchurch and Banks Peninsula is Christchurch City Libraries' publication, Local History Resources, an extensive annotated bibliography of published sources on the history of Christchurch, Lyttelton and Banks Peninsula.
- For other areas, search our catalogue.
Try searching our catalogue for keywords like Kaiapoi History
or West Coast genealogy
or a subject search such as Dunedin N.Z. History or Southland N.Z. Genealogy.
- School and church histories - sometimes contain information on individuals and families.
- Try a catalogue search, for example: Oamaru school or Nelson N.Z. church.
Newspapers
- The library has back runs of many Canterbury papers, including a complete run of The Press and the Lyttelton Times, and short runs of the Nelson Daily Examiner and West Coast Times. See our Newspaper Guide for more information.
- There are microfiche indexes to the Lyttelton Times or The Press from 1861-1994, and an online Papers Database, which covers The Press from 1995 and The Star from 14 October 1998. The indexes cover Canterbury topics only.
- Papers past: online versions of a number of nineteenth century New Zealand newspapers.
- Microfilmed newspapers available from the National Library through interlibrary loan.
More about Newspaper Resources
Museums and Historical societies
Our community database CINCH provides contact details for Christchurch and North Canterbury historical associations
Databases and websites
Our community database CINCH provides contact details for genealogical groups in the Canterbury area
