Petone Settlers Museum Passenger Database

In 1990 the Petone Settlers Museum launched a database that contained information from primary and secondary sources about passengers and ships that arrived in Wellington between 1839 and 1895.

The primary data was presented in four chronological groups as follows:

• New Zealand Company Period (1839-1850)
• Provincial Government Period (1853-1865)
• Vogel Government Period (1871-1888)
• Social Security Period (1886-1895)

The data was mostly taken from immigration records held at Archives New Zealand. 

The secondary records were taken from a number of sources including local histories, theses and lists compiled by Wellington Public Library, Museum of Wellington City and Sea and the NZ Society of Genealogists. 

The database also included information about ships, including images. Additional text based records were available for voyages by New Zealand Company ships.

A feature of the database were family histories provided by the public. There were over 600 of these. They formed the Pioneer Family Register. 

The original database became inaccessible in 2021. Hutt City Libraries will be making some of the data available via this site starting with the Pioneer Family Register records.  

The original forms submitted by the public will be uploaded in batches from August 2022. Please note that the data in these forms may contain errors.      

For more information about the sources used see Grace Hutton, Petone Settlers Museum - Multi-media as a research tool (GRINZ Yearbook, 2000) or Touch history : Wellington arrivals, 1839-1895.