Chinese family history in Auckland

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Auckland is a multicultural city of around 1.7 million people. According to the 2023 Census, approximately 172,000 Aucklanders identify as Chinese. While many are recent migrants, Chinese communities have a long and significant history in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The first recorded Chinese migrant to New Zealand, Wong Ahpoo Hock Ting (better known as Appo Hocton), arrived in Nelson in 1842. Others followed, but it was not until the Otago gold rush of the 1860s, and the invitation extended to experienced Chinese miners in Victoria, Australia, that Chinese migration increased significantly.

Many of these early migrants came from Guangdong Province in southern China, particularly the districts of Panyu, Dongguan, Xinhui and Zhongshan. Most were sojourners who hoped to earn money before returning home. However, some settled permanently, establishing families, businesses and communities that would shape New Zealand's social and economic landscape.

Figure 1 Free Lance 7 January 1901 p7

As Chinese communities became more visible, they also faced significant prejudice. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a series of discriminatory laws and policies were introduced to restrict Chinese immigration. These included limits on the number of Chinese passengers allowed on arriving ships and, most notably, the poll tax imposed on Chinese migrants.

Introduced in 1881, the poll tax was intended to discourage Chinese immigration. Initially set at £10 per person, it was increased to £100 in 1896, a considerable sum at the time. The tax was accompanied by increasingly restrictive immigration measures that made it difficult for Chinese families to reunite and settle together in New Zealand. Although the poll tax was abolished in 1944, its effects were felt for generations. In 2002, the New Zealand Government formally apologised to Chinese New Zealanders and their descendants, acknowledging the injustice and hardship caused by these policies and marking a crucial step towards reconciliation.

Figure 2 Archives New Zealand Auckland Chinese poll tax certificate butts

Despite these barriers, Chinese migrants made substantial contributions to New Zealand society. They worked as miners, market gardeners, fruiterers, shopkeepers, and entrepreneurs, helping to supply growing settlements and cities with fresh produce and goods. In Auckland, Chinese market gardens became a familiar feature of the landscape, particularly in areas such as Parnell, Epsom, One Tree Hill, Māngere and later East Auckland.

Chinese communities also established clan associations, social networks and community organisations that provided practical and emotional support to new arrivals. These connections helped migrants navigate life in a new country while maintaining ties to their families, culture, and home villages in China.

The legacy of these early settlers can still be seen throughout Auckland today in family histories, businesses, community organisations, and cultural institutions. For many Chinese New Zealand families, researching family history involves tracing connections across both Aotearoa New Zealand and southern China, revealing stories of resilience, adaptation and belonging.

Understanding this historical context is important when researching Chinese family history. Immigration restrictions, the use of multiple names and spellings, village affiliations, and lengthy periods of family separation often shaped both the records that have survived and the stories passed down through generations.

Auckland's pioneering Chinese families

The story of Auckland's early Chinese community is closely tied to several pioneering families, including the Ah Chees, Looks, Yees, Wongs and Chans. Many originated from villages in Guangdong Province and built livelihoods through market gardening, fruit retailing, and trade. Their businesses supplied Auckland with fresh fruit and vegetables at a time when the city was expanding rapidly. Family and village networks helped new arrivals find work, accommodation, and community, creating enduring connections that can still be traced through historical records and family histories today. These families not only contributed to Auckland's economic development but also established multigenerational communities whose descendants remain an important part of Tāmaki Makaurau's cultural landscape.

Among the most influential were Chan Ah Chee and his wife Joong Chew Lee. Arriving in Auckland in the 1860s, Chan Ah Chee established the Kong Foong Yuen market garden in Parnell and built Ah Chee & Co into a successful enterprise encompassing market gardening, produce retailing, importing, and exporting. The business employed many Chinese workers and helped support newly arrived migrants establishing themselves in Auckland. Joong Chew Lee, one of the earliest known Chinese women to settle in the city, played a vital role in the family's success through her ability to speak both English and Cantonese and navigate between Chinese and European communities.

The family's influence extended well beyond the nineteenth century. Their descendants became prominent figures in New Zealand business and public life. Grandson Sir Tom Ah Chee was one of the founders of the Foodtown supermarket chain, while another grandson, Raymond Ah Chee, was active in Auckland's sporting and civic life, standing as a National Party candidate for the Ōtāhuhu electorate in the late 1970s and contributing to both the Auckland rugby community and the Tāmaki Yacht Club. The Ah Chee family's story reflects the wider contribution of Chinese New Zealanders to Auckland's development and growth over multiple generations.

Resources for researching Chinese family history

Researchers of Chinese family history today are fortunate that many important sources are now available online. Together, immigration records, newspapers, passenger lists, electoral rolls, cemetery records, and birth, death and marriage registrations can help trace individuals, families, and communities across generations. In some cases, records include photographs, fingerprints, and details of a migrant's home village in southern China, providing valuable links between family histories in New Zealand and China. 

Key records include:

  • Chinese immigration records held by Archives New Zealand, including poll tax certificates, certificates of exemption, photographs and fingerprint records. These can provide names, ages, occupations, places of origin, dates of arrival and departure, and family connections. 

  • Passenger lists, shipping records, birth, death and marriage registrations, electoral rolls, directories and cemetery records, which can help identify when an ancestor arrived in New Zealand, where they lived and worked, and their family relationships over time. Auckland Libraries provides access to many of these resources through Kura Heritage Collections Online. Other libraries in New Zealand may also have similar resources in their collections online and on the shelves.

  • Newspapers and community records, including PapersPast, Chinese association records and community archives. These sources can reveal details of businesses, social activities, family events, migration networks and connections to ancestral villages that may not be found elsewhere. 

Useful online resources

  • Auckland Libraries' Kura Heritage Collections Online is a valuable starting point for researching Chinese family history in Tāmaki Makaurau. It provides access to immigration record indexes, passenger arrival records, electoral rolls, cemetery databases and other Auckland-focused family history resources. Researchers can also search Kura's extensive oral history collections, which include interviews with Chinese New Zealanders and their descendants. 

One particularly significant resource is the Chinese New Zealand Oral History Collection, which was used as the basis for a major exhibition exploring the experiences of early Chinese migrants and their families. The collection contains interviews that document migration journeys, family life, work, community networks and experiences of discrimination and belonging in New Zealand. There are many more oral histories of Chinese individuals and their families in Kura.

Researchers can also view the 23-minute documentary Being Chinese in Aotearoa, which draws on these oral histories and incorporates historical photographs and archival footage to tell the story of Chinese settlement in New Zealand. Together, the oral histories and documentary provide valuable personal perspectives that complement official records and help bring family histories to life.

  • DigitalNZ brings together material from libraries, museums, archives and heritage organisations throughout New Zealand. Researchers can discover photographs, manuscripts, oral histories, newspapers, immigration documents and community records relating to Chinese New Zealanders. 

  • National Library of New Zealand offers a comprehensive guide to Chinese resources, including books, photographs, manuscripts, oral histories, association records, poll tax material and published family histories.

  • My China Roots is a specialist Chinese genealogy website that helps researchers trace family origins in China. It provides access to clan genealogies (zupu/jiapu), immigration records, overseas Chinese community records and newspapers, and offers expert assistance with identifying ancestral villages and translating Chinese records. 

  • Chinese Poll Tax Heritage Trust supports projects that preserve and promote Chinese New Zealand history, language and culture. While not a genealogical database, its publications, exhibitions, oral histories and community heritage projects provide valuable context for understanding the experiences of early Chinese settlers and their descendants. 

Auckland Libraries provides free access to the internet via the library’s public PCs or over the Wi-Fi using your own device. Free access is then available to genealogy websites such as Ancestry, Findmypast, The Genealogist and MyHeritage (the latter you can also access from home if you log in to your account on the library website). Auckland Libraries is also a FamilySearch affiliate library which gives access to more online records than the general website. Heritage newspapers are also gold for researching family.

Come along and see our Family History display for Family History Month (August) in the Atrium on L2 of Central Library and see examples of resources that you can use for your own family history / whakapapa research – both on the shelves and also online. Our own fabulous Kura – Heritage Collections Online is massive collection of digitised resources connecting some of our manuscripts, rare books, photographs and indexes with books, microform, and other resources on the shelves.

Further reading

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

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