Emigration to New Zealand followed in the footsteps of the European explorers, such as Captain Cook (1769-70): first came sealers, whalers, missionaries, and traders. By 1838, the British New Zealand Company had begun buying land from the Maori tribes, and selling it to settlers, and, after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, many British families set out on the arduous six month journey from Britain to Aotearoa to start a new life. Early immigrants include:
Eriksen Settlers in New Zealand in the 19th Century
Christopher Eriksen, aged 28, a farm labourer, who arrived in Wellington, New Zealand aboard the ship "England" in 1872 3
Bertha Maria Eriksen, aged 28, who arrived in Wellington, New Zealand aboard the ship "England" in 1872 3
Miss Caroline Christine Eriksen, (b. 1847), aged 25, Scandinavian maid servant travelling from Hamburg aboard the ship "Palmerston" arriving in Dunedin, Otago, South Island, New Zealand on 12th December 1872 4
Mr. Peter Eriksen, (b. 1838), aged 34, Scandinavian labourer travelling from Hamburg aboard the ship "Palmerston" arriving in Dunedin, Otago, South Island, New Zealand on 12th December 1872 4
Gustap Eriksen, aged 34, a farm labourer, who arrived in Wellington, New Zealand aboard the ship "Duke of Edinburgh" in 1873
Contemporary Notables of the name Eriksen (post 1700) +
Leif Eriksen (1940-2024), Norwegian football player and coach
Odd Eriksen (1955-2023), Norwegian politician for the Labour Party, Governor of Nordland (2006-2013), Minister of Trade and Industry (2005-2006)
Mr. Anthon Eriksen (d. 1914), American Third Class Passenger from Chicago, Illinois, United States who was traveling aboard the Empress of Ireland and died in the sinking 5
HMS Dorsetshire
Edward Anders Eriksen (d. 1945), British Ordinary Seaman aboard the HMS Dorsetshire when she was struck by air bombers and sunk; he died in the sinking 6
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)