Search New Zealand, Hillsborough Cemetery

This record set includes over 17,000 transcripts. While the amount of available information varies, most transcripts include the following:

• First name(s)
• Last name
• Gender
• Birth year
• Death date
• Age
• Occupation
• Denomination
• Residence
• Years in province
• Place where last from
• Native place
• Burial date
• Cause of death
• Officiating clergy
• Informant
• Headstone inscription – contains the original New Zealand Society of Genealogists (NZSG) inscriptions done in 1986-87. These monumental inscription records have been updated up to early 2010.
• Area, block, and lot number
• Remarks – contains general comments, including where articles and obituaries can be found, the names of the parents of stillborn infants, and information regarding variant spelling of names.

Information regarding the following fields has been obtained from photocopies held by the Auckland Public Library and have not been substantiated as of yet: Occupation, residence, cause of death, last came from, denomination, native place, years in province, date of burials, officiating clergy, and informant. The Auckland Public Library holds burial records dating to September 1974.

A note on some of the abbreviations you may find in these records:

• U/K, sometimes listed under gender, stands for ‘unknown.’
• S/B, which is sometimes recorded under age, is shorthand for ‘stillborn.’

Hillsborough is a large Auckland City cemetery. The first burial took place in 1916. There is now only room for cremated remains in the cemetery.

A plan of the cemetery can be viewed in our Useful Links & Resources section.

A wealth of information regarding your ancestors can be obtained through these transcripts. For example, we can learn that John Henry Davis, a ticket inspector, died on 30 August 1923 from gas poisoning at the age of 53. His headstone, we read, was erected by his fellow railway men. Furthermore, we learn that he was a Presbyterian and a native of New Zealand, living on Disraeli Street in Mt Eden. He was buried on 3 September 1923 and Reverend Halliday was the officiating clergyman.

Within these records is found Captain Cyril Stennart Pepper, who served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) during World War II. He succumbed to severe head injuries at the age of 31 on 30 May 1943. He was a native of New Zealand and resided on Allison Avenue in Takapuna. He was buried on 2 June 1943 with Reverends Isherwood and Monteith officiating.

Bobby Leach, the second person ever to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, is also buried in Hillsborough cemetery. Remarkably, his claim to fame was accomplished while in his early fifties. He made his trip over Niagara Falls on 25 July 1911 and it landed him in the hospital for six months as he recovered from injuries sustained, including two broken knee caps and a fractured jaw. From his cemetery records, we learn that he died at the age of 69 on 28 April 1926. His occupation was listed as showman and his denomination as Roman Catholic. He had been in the province four months before his death. His headstone inscription reads, in part, “World famous by his trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.”