There are no complete lists of passengers arriving in Otago during the 19th Century, this is partly due to a fire which in 1895 destroyed many of the immigration records for Otago. Today we rely heavily on the lists of passengers, which were published in the local papers. These records are not a complete list as the newspapers often neglected to name those passengers in steerage.

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Passenger Lists 1848-1850 from Contributions to the Early History of New Zealand (Otago), Dr. T.M. Hocken.
This has been updated and enlarged and covers many of the first ships arriving in the settlement of Otago

Newspaper Index to Passenger Shipping (N.I.P.S. Vol 1 & 2). 1848-1871 Index of passengers named in the Dunedin newspapers.

Assisted Immigrants

Between 1848 and 1888 a number of Provincial and National Government schemes were set up to assist immigrants to the Otago Settlement.

Assisted Immigrants to Port Chalmers 1848-1869 (Debtor's List) In 1869 an official list was published of all those people who had had part or all of their passage to Otago paid for by the Provincial Government since 1848 and who still owed any part of this money. These lists gives the name, ship and date of arrival and the amount of money still owed.

Assisted Immigrants to Port Chalmers 1856-1872 and Bluff 1862-1868 (Debtor's List) The same list as above, but published three years' later.

Otago Provincial Government Gazette of Assisted Passengers 1869-1875
These indexed lists covers some of the passengers assisted by the Otago Provincial Government in the early 1870's.

Otago/Southland Assisted Passengers 1872-1888
These lists are transcripts of all surviving passenger lists for assisted immigrants to the region by central government in this period. The original lists are held by National Archives, Wellington. They provide, in most cases, names, ages, occupations and counties or countries of origin. Not all passengers lists for government immigration ships have survived but these provide details of over 30,000 immigrants, who arrived at Port Chalmers and Bluff in these years.

Paying Passengers

New Zealand Shipping Company Paying Passengers to Port Chalmers and Bluff 1875-1882
Indexed list of paying passengers to Otago who came on vessels owned by the New Zealand Shipping Company. The originals are held by the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.

Index to Paying Passengers to Otago per the Patrick Henderson Shipping Company (Glasgow) 1871-1880 [MICROFICHE]
An index to passengers departing from Glasgow, Scotland.

Other Lists

Miscellaneous Passenger Lists
Pretty much as a last resort, this is a collection of 'odds and ends' of passenger lists ranging mainly over the early 1860's and covering some Bluff arrivals.

New Zealand Bound Passengers from Victoria, Australia 1852-1870 [MICROFICHE]
These lists have been compiled by members of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists from official embarkations lists preserved in Melbourne at the Victorian Public Record Office. Further years are in the process of compilation.

Due to the high interest in passenger lists for shipping arrivals we have a $15 search fee per family name. This can be requested online: please click the icon below.