Family historians
Convict transportation registers database
Search for a convict on our new British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database.
You can find details for over 123 000 of the estimated 160 000 convicts transported to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries - names, term of years, transport ships and more.
On this page you will find information about accessing the resources of the State Library of Queensland's Family History services and links to electronic resources and Internet sites that will help you with your genealogical research.
Before you begin you may like to read our Info Guide, 3.1 How to trace your family tree, available at the Family History Info guides webpage.
Check here for a list of frequently asked questions about family history
The State Library of Queensland collects a number of family and local history resources. Please check our South Bank Collections catalogue for location and availability details.
Major resources | Info guides | Electronic resources | Visit us
Major resources held include:
- Births, deaths and marriage indexes for Australia, New Zealand, England and Wales
- Electoral rolls for Australia and New Zealand
- Convict records
- Immigration and shipping
- Cemetery records
- Post office directories and almanacs
- Biographical collections
- Newspapers on microfilm
- British government records relating to the Australian Colonies (Australian Joint Copying Project - AJCP)
- Irish land records (Census substitutes)
- Naturalisation indexes
- An extensive collection of printed books for family and local historians
- Photograph collections
- Newspaper clippings files
What's new in family history: latest resources available for family history research.
Info guides to the collection
Check these guides for more information about our resources and tips for researching your family and local history. These Info guides and more are availabe at the Family History Info guides webpage.
- Adoption
- Births, deaths and marriages
- Censuses and musters
- Directories, almanacs and gazetteers
- Electoral rolls
- Immigration and shipping: getting started
- Immigration and shipping : more than lists
- Orphans
- How to trace your family tree
- Convict information : getting started
- Convict information : finding out even more
- British Army in Colonial Australia
Electronic family history resources
A number of the State Library print indexes are available online.
- Index to appointments and removals of Queensland railway employees (1890 - 1901)
- Index to appointments and removals of employees of the Southern and Western Railway, Traffic Branch, Queensland (1866 - 1876)
- Index of miners involved in Queensland mining accidents (1882 - 1900)
- Index to persons called before Queensland Government Committees - Part 1 (1860 - 1901)
- Index to persons called before Queensland Government Committees - Part 2 (1902 - 1920)
Other Internet sites
Check our NetLinks for a collection of quality sites selected by information professionals for family and local historians.
Internal databases
Useful family history CD-ROMs and databases are available for use within the State Library.
Related sites
Materials relating to your family and/or local history may be found in other parts of the Library's collections such as:
- Picture Queensland for images of Queensland - its people and places, past and present.
- Manuscripts Queensland to search the finding aids to the original material collections held in the John Oxley Library
- Information for Indigenous people
- John Oxley Library
- Maps
- Local History and Small Archives
Visiting us
State Library's Family History service is located in the Micrographics area on Level 3 of the South Bank building. Visitors to the library can browse through the extensive family and local history reference collection and view indexes and newspapers on microfilm and microfiche.
More information
If you have a family or local history enquiry, you can contact us in any of the following ways:
For in-depth or urgent enquiries:
- Contact the State Library's commercial research service BR+SQ.
For general enquiries:
- Ask at your local Queensland public library
- Other libraries [new window http://www.nla.gov.au/libraries/ ]
If you are having difficulty downloading or viewing documents, please refer to our help page.
Last updated: 18th June 2008
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