Selected websites
The internet is a valuable aid to research into family history.
These Australian sites contain a variety of information relating to family history and genealogy including guides, indexes and digitised images of documents. They also provide links to other informative sites both in Australia and overseas and pathways to make contact with other family historians via indexed family trees, mailing lists and bulletin boards.
Further online resources for family history can be located via eResources, although some of these subscription resources are only available for use in the National Library reading rooms.
State and Territory libraries
State and territory libraries hold family history collections specialising in resources for their jurisdiction and a selection of material relating to other areas of Australia and overseas.
- Australian Capital Territory Heritage Library
- Northern Territory Library
- State Library of New South Wales
- State Library of Queensland
- State Library of South Australia
- State Library of Tasmania
- State Library of Victoria
- State Library of Western Australia
National, State and Territory archives
The National Archives of Australia holds the records of the Commonwealth government. State and Territory archives hold the records of government for their respective jurisdiction. Some archive websites allow users to freely search indexes to the material held in that archive eg. immigration, convict records, census, court records, hospitals, divorce, land, patents etc.
- National Archives of Australia - with State/Territory offices
- Archives Office of Tasmania
- Northern Territory Archives Service
- Public Record Office Victoria
- Queensland State Archives
- State Records Authority of New South Wales
- State Records of South Australia
- State Records Office of Western Australia
Family history societies
Membership of a family history society may greatly assist your research.
Local societies may hold specialist collections of material for that specific area as well as family history material from other regions and countries. Family history societies also provide education in family history research skills and information and assistance in tracing your family tree.
Check also telephone directories under 'Genealogy', 'Historical research' and/or 'Family history'.
Australian indigenous family history
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) Family History Unit specifically assists Link-Up caseworkers in family tracing and reunion for Indigenous people who were removed. AIATSIS also assists anyone of Indigenous heritage with their family history research
- Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) - Family history unit
- Indigenous Australia - National Archives of Australia
Births, marriages and deaths
Indexes to Australian births, marriages and deaths may be found at local, state, national and genealogical society libraries on microfiche and CD. The National Library has extensive holdings of these indexes which are listed in our guide to Australian birth, marriage and death records. In addition, some Registrars' websites include free or fee-based index search facilities. Certificates may be ordered from the Registrar of the appropriate state or territory. Online ordering and delivery of certificates is available on some Registrars' web sites. Death information may also be obtained from inquests, wills, newspaper and other indexes.
- Birth, death and marriage records - Australia - State registrars' contact list
- The Ryerson Index - index of contemporary death notices and obituaries in Australian newspapers (primarily NSW)
- South Australian deaths and burials - indexes names from cemeteries, SA government gazettes and SA newspapers
- Colonial Tasmanian Family Links database
- Newspaper indexes
Cemeteries
Listings of burials and/or monumental inscriptions may be found on websites for cemeteries. Local councils, local and state libraries and family history societies may hold indexes to burials on microfiche or CD-ROM. Some cemeteries and other agencies may provide a 'look-up' service where online indexes are not available.
- Australian Cemeteries - a gateway site for Australian cemeteries
- Australian Cemeteries Index - indexes/digitised records of headstones from cemeteries around Australia, with an emphasis on New South Wales
- Australian Cemetery Geolocations - provides longitude and latitude and a map for each cemetery.
- Cemetery records: Print Resources
Immigration
Indexes and lists of immigrants to each state are available in a variety of formats including microfiche, microfilm, book and electronic formats. Some are available on the internet. Local, state and family history libraries may hold material relevant to that state and other areas of Australia. The National Archives hold records of immigration after 1923 when immigration became a Commonwealth Government responsibility.
- NSW: Immigration and Shipping - New South Wales Assisted Immigrants arriving in Sydney and Newcastle 1844-1859, Sydney 1860-1896, Moreton Bay, 1848-1859, Port Phillip 1839-1851
- NSW: Unassisted Immigrants 1844-1855
- Unassisted Passenger and Crew Arrivals 1854-1900 - indexes primarily New South Wales unassisted arrivals including coastal shipping to Sydney (incomplete)
- Ships Musters 1816-1825 - passengers and crew departing from Sydney
- National Archives of Australia - post 1923 immigration records
- Queensland assisted immigration 1848-1912
- South Australian passenger lists - from precolonisation to 1850+ (incomplete)
- Victoria: Index to registers of assisted British immigrants -indexes assisted immigrants from Britain to Victoria, Australia between 1839 and 1871
- Victoria: Index to unassisted immigration to Victoria - lists of unassisted passengers to Victoria, Australia from overseas ports (including New Zealand) between 1852 and 1923
- Victoria: Outward passengers to interstate, UK, NZ and foreign ports 1852-1901
- Irish famine memorial - lists, by ship, Irish Orphans girls brought to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in the 1840s & 1850s (incomplete)
Convicts
Indexes and records of convicts are available in a variety of formats including microfiche, microfilm, book and CD. Some indexes and guides are available on the internet and generally provide information for further research in convict recordsl in State Archives and libraries.
- Convict transportation registers 1787-1867
- Convict records at State Records NSW
- Convicts to Australia: a guide to researching your convict ancestors
- First Fleet online
- Ireland-Australia transportation records, 1791-1853
- Irish convicts to NSW 1791-1836
- Ships of the First Fleet
- South Australian transported convicts 1837-1851
- Swan River convicts 1850-1868
- PRO Victoria - Convict records
- Index to Tasmanian Convicts - index and digitised records
- Index to convict applications for permission to marry 1829-1857 - Tasmania
- Cascades Female Factory (Tasmania) Historic Site
- Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674-1834 - records of trials held in the Old Bailey
- Claim a convict
Military/Service records
These are useful sites for locating military records and other information about Australians who served in military conflicts and records of British soldiers in Australia in the early days of settlement.
- AIF Project - provide details on the 330,000 men and women who served overseas in the (First) Australian Imperial Force, 1914-1918.
- World War II Nominal Roll - provide brief details of WW2 service personnel.
- Nominal Roll of Australian Veterans of the Korean War - provides information from the service records of individuals who served during the Korean War
- Australian War Memorial - provides biographical databases such as nominal commemorative and honour rolls, honours and awards, Australian Army war diaries, wounded missing and prisoner of war files and general information about Australian involvement in overseas conflict and peacekeeping.
- Mapping our Anzacs - investigate Australian WW1 service personnel by locality of birth or enlistment
- Debt of honour register (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) - lists details of men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars and Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action in the Second World War
- Australian War Graves in South Africa 1899 - 1902 - a searchable database of information from Australian Boer War memorials
- Oz-Boer database
- Soldiers and marines index 1787-1830
- Australia's redcoat settlers
- Military Historical Society of Australia
- Digger History - an unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Services
Other Australasian resources
- Genealogy online - web sites for genealogists
- Family search Internet genealogy service - International Genealogical Index (IGI)
- Australian family history compendium
- South Australian family history and genealogy
- Internet family history association of Australia (IFHAA)
- Cyndi's list of genealogy sites on the Internet - Australia
- Rootsweb - Australian and New Zealand records
- Genealogy and family heritage
- National Archives of New Zealand
- VICNET family page with links to Family History and Genealogy
Worldwide resources
The resources provide access to links to overseas countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Canada, European and other countries.
- Ancestry.com - subscription website, a library edition may be viewed at the National Library of Australia.
- A2A: Access to archives
- National Archives (UK)
- FreeBMD - free searching of English & Welsh BMD indexes, incomplete
- FreeCen - free online census for England, Scotland & Wales, incomplete
- Cyndi's list of genealogy sites on the Internet
- Family search Internet genealogy service - International Genealogical Index (IGI)
- FGS, Society Hall - comprehensive directory of genealogical and historical societies on the web
- Genealogy and family heritage
- The English census website - 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 census for England and Wales. Free index, fees apply for image viewing
- Scotlands people - the official government source of genealogical data from Scotland, includes births, deaths and marriages, old parish registers, census records and wills and testaments. Fees apply.
Research services
For those who need family history researchers to undertake their research, these sites provide a list of professional researchers and their fees. Many of the sites listed above also offer fee-based research services. Please check these sites for details.
- Australasian association of genealogists and record agents
- A select list of private researchers and valuers in the ACT and NSW
- Australian family history compendium
Check also telephone directories under 'Genealogy', 'Historical research' and/or 'Family history'.
