American in New Zealand?

My wife's grandfather apparently spent some time in New Zealand - his
children remember him talking about the place as if he had been there.

He was born about 1884 and this probably happened in his college years,
certain before he married my wife's grandmother in 1915.

ecunningham...

Chris: Possibly a "Round the World" Tour? Have you checked the US
entries
on both east & west coast to catch him coming or going? Does he have
a name?
ecunningham@att.net

Any suggestions on ways to verify this?
Are the passenger lists from this time in any organized sort of form?
Is the ancestry passenger list database a good source?

David J Grimshaw...

Hi Chris,
I suspect that your man may have visited around 1902 or there a bouts,
this would have made him 18 years old, this being the case the only way
you will get him is if you are lucky enough to find a passenger list for
the time period that has been transcribed from the news papers of the day.
Do you know if your man visited Family here in New Zealand?

As to the passenger lists being in an organised form the answer is yes
and no.
Yes they are organised by date of the vessels arrival in the local news
paper of the day and you have to search each News paper to find them.

As for there being a national index that's a big no.

You will need to know what Island, North Island or South Island he
visited and his port of arrival plus date month and the year to get his
arrival, yes rather frustrating, bit like which came first the hen or
the egg.

I would expect this to have been one of the ports, starting in the North
Island and working south on the East Coast,these being, Auckland,
Tauranga, Napier and Wellington the only West coast port in the North
Island that he may have arrived in is New Plymouth as for the South
Island starting at the top and working down the East coast, Nelson,
Picton, Lyttleton, Port Chalmers ( Dunedin ), Invercargill or Bluff and
the only West coast port being Westport, Westport would be unlikely.

I would expect your man may have arrived at one of the following Ports;
Auckland, Wellington, Lyttleton and Port Chalmers, these are the main
ports of the country.

Ancestry will not have much that covers New Zealand and I suspect little
in the way of Passenger lists so do not waste your money there.

You could put your query in the New Zealand Genealogical Societies
magazine that is publish bimonthly.
Otherwise this will remain a brick wall for quite sometime.

Hopefully you now understand the situation.

I doubt that there is a national database on arrivals even now.

Happy hunt those relations.
David