Vanuatu Genealogy

United States Pacific  Vanuatu

Guide to Vanuatu ancestry, family history, and genealogy: birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, parish registers, and military records.



General Information

 * Pacific Island Guide

Vanuatu (New Hebrides) Island group republic that helps to separate the Coral Sea from the South Pacific Ocean. Vanuatu is east of the northern part of Australia, west of Fiji, and northeast of New Caledonia.

Multiple waves of colonizers, each speaking a distinct language, migrated to the New Hebrides in the millennia preceding European exploration in the 18th century. This settlement pattern accounts for the complex linguistic diversity found on the archipelago to this day. The British and French, who settled the New Hebrides in the 19th century, agreed in 1906 to an Anglo-French Condominium, which administered the islands until independence in 1980, when the new name of Vanuatu was adopted.

This archipelago is made up of over 80 islands where over 113 languages are spoken, including ''English and French. Bislama, a Pidgin English,'' is also spoken there. The ni-Vanuatu follow traditional custom, or “kastom,” which has been passed on for generations. It is an ongoing cycle of ritual from birth, to initiation, to marriage, to death. The population is about 190,000. 94 percent are ni-Vanuatu, of Melanesian descent. The rest are European, Vietnamese, Chinese, and other Pacific islanders. The population’s religious groups include Anglican, Catholic, and Presbyterian.

Resources Available

 * In Vanuatu, records are difficult to figure out because of the condominium government.
 * Until the 1970's, France and Great Britain were joint colonizers of the island. Records are in both languages. Jurisdiction of records is mixed between religious and government entities.
 * Resources available are similar to French Polynesia in record keeping practices, which means that you must get someone who knows French, English, and your native language to help us to find and use the records.

The FamilySearch Catalog lists under Vanuatu—Church Records, the minute books, 1857 - 1938 of the New Hebrides Presbyterian Mission Synod (Vanuatu) as VAULT INTL Film 1368977. Also, South Sea Evangelical Mission, formerly Queensland Kanaka Mission, archives microfilm numbers FHL BRITISH Library Attendant’s Window 2203013, 2203014, 2203015, 2203016, and 2203017. Also, Birth Records for Tongariki Island, Vanuatu, 1927 - 1987. VAULT INTL Film 2224140 item 5.