Hi everyone on this 2006 Waitangi Day Holiday, My query is as follows, it has to do with information that my cousin was given last week in Kew, England when she was attempting to find an ancestor of ours who appears in the 1871 English Census and has no other documentation until he married in 1887 in the Christchurch (NZ) Registrar's Office. Walter GOULDS (born GOLDS) m. Emily Jane GROVE, both usually resident in Rakaia, Canterbury. We are trying to work out when and how he arrived in New Zealand and when my cousin enquired at Kew last week she was informed that : "...passenger lists to NZ do not exist before 1890..." As we know, there are Passenger Lists prior to 1890, is it simply that Kew hasn't kept them so don't have them. Where have the lists that are available on the internet come from? Is it the sterling efforts of volunteers that have provided them, and is Kew talking about official lists. As you see above, my great grandfather Walter GOULDS was originally GOLDS, we have confirmation of this but don't know which name he travelled under, maybe he swam here :) He was from a very poor family in the village of Washington, Sussex so wouldn't have travelled in a cabin. Cheers, Brenda