Local History
Explore local history - the people and places of Ōtautahi.
Ancestry Library Edition
Free remotely until 31 August. Trace your family history. Includes records from U.S., U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Featured event
Christchurch Family History Expo Fri 14 & Sat 15 August
Come along to Tūranga for two days of family history events.
Local and family history events
Featured local history
The Samuel Anstey Collection - Canterbury Stories
Images of the early 1900s from the Samuel Anstey collection are now in focus on digital heritage site Canterbury Stories.
Pestilence parallels - The 1918 influenza pandemic
Joyce looks at what the papers had to say during the Influenza epidemic of 1918 and sees some parallels with the current global pandemic.
Christchurch history
Books to read if you want in introduction to the history of Christchurch. A Christchurch City Libraries list.
Popular resources
Popular resources
Picturing Canterbury
Paper cranes for Hiroshima Day: Picturing Canterbury
Japanese students at Christchurch Polytechnic with paper cranes in remembrance of Hiroshima Day, 1991. An image from the Discovery Wall.
Eel fishing at Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora, 1968
Eel fishing Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora. Selwyn (Sel) Lockie on left, 1968. An image from the Discovery Wall.
Margaret McKinlay on her 100th birthday
Margaret McKinlay celebrating her 100th birthday at the Nurse Maude Hospital in Merivale, 1982. An image from the Discovery Wall.
Discovery Wall
Tūranga is the home of NZ’s largest digital touchwall. Find out more, and how you can contribute to this unique heritage resource.
Tī Kōuka Whenua
Explore the vibrant past of Christchurch and the wider Canterbury region that extends back many hundreds of years before 1850.
