Births, deaths and marriages: Australia, New Zealand, England and Wales
Guidelines for birth, death and marriage research
Work back from yourself, from the known to the unknown. Start with your own full birth certificate. The information it provides will lead you to information on your parents and the means of identifying their certificates. From their certificates, you can find information on the earlier generation.
Major BDM Indexes available at State Library of Queensland
| Place | Births | Deaths | Marriages | Integrated Indexes | Civil Registration |
| QLD | 1829-1919 | 1829-1964 | 1839-1939 | 1829-1914 | Mar 1856 |
| NSW | 1788-1918 | 1788-1978 | 1788-1958 | 1788-1945 (births to 1918) | Mar 1856 |
| Vic | 1837-1920 | 1837-1985 | 1837-1942 | 1836-1920 | July 1853 |
| Tas | 1803-1905 | 1803-1919 | 1803-1919 | 1803-1899 | December 1838 |
| SA | 1842-1928 | 1842-1970 | 1842-1937 | None | July 1842 |
| WA | *1829-1905 | 1829-1980 | 1829-1965 | 1841-1905 | Sept 1841 |
| NT | 1870-1918 | 1870-1913 | 1870- 1913 | None | August 1870 |
| ACT | - | 1930-1949 | - | - | - |
| NZ | 1840-1990 | 1848-1990 | 1840-1990 | None | 1848 approx |
| England & Wales | 1837-2001 | 1837-2001 | 1837-2001 | None | July 1837 |
* For 1829-1840 consult "Access to Ancestors" MFPAM 929.3941 1990. Ask at desk
NOTE:
- Check New South Wales records for Victoria pre 1851 and Queensland pre 1859
- New South Wales indexes post 1945 are on the web only
- Many of the Birth Death and Marriage indexes are also available on CD-ROM. The Victorian marriage index 1921-1942 is available on CD-ROM only. Consult the catalogue/CD-ROM information booklet for the latest details of our holdings.
- Some Queensland, Victorian, New South Wales, Western Australian and ACT indexes are on the Net. See NetLinks
- Index and certificate information varies among the States. For details, Ask a Librarian or consult Graham Jaunay's site Adelaide Proformat [new window]
- Search ancestry.com (library ed.) to find English and Welsh civil records to 2001 (available onsite at the State Library). See also Info Guide 3.5 - England and Wales: birth, death and marriage indexes.
- New Zealand births, deaths and marriages index is now available online with some date restrictions. For more information go to New Zealand Birth, Death and Marriage Historical Records [new window]
Other useful indexes
- The International Genealogical Index (IGI) [new window] is compiled by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and available on fiche and CD-ROM. It contains millions of baptismal and marriage entries from civil and church registers from around the world but mainly from Europe and the Americas. It is wide-ranging and an access point for many original records. For privacy reasons it does not cover deaths, nor births and marriages for the last 100 years. Current emphasis is on British and American sources. However a range of materials is available, good links and email facilities.
- The State Library holds some parish registers for New South Wales (including Queensland), Tasmania and Western Australia, as well as some British indexes on microfilm and CD-ROM. Ask at the Desk or consult our CD-ROM list for the latest arrivals. Vital Records for North America, Western Europe and Scandinavia are valuable birth and marriage indexes. There are also some indexes for other Queensland registers.
Helpful hints
- Use primary source material such as birth, death and marriage certificates. The indexes alone are not enough. Certificates issued since the introduction of compulsory civil registration provide a lot of helpful information and clues for further research,including place of birth, parents’ names, address, length of spent time in the colony, occupation, religion and details of other family members.
- Names were spelt variously. In a period of limited literacy a person might spell his/her name many ways, and immigrants from non-English speaking backgrounds were at the mercy of the registration clerks’ interpretations of their accents
- Ages could vary markedly. In a time when there were fewer personal written records, it was easier for people to be “flexible” about their age, based on what the immigration authorities required, what was deemed suitable for marriage purposes etc.
- Find as many records as possible in Australia before commencing a search overseas: it is easier and cheaper.
- Check what others are researching. Consult resources such as the Genealogical Research Directory (FAMHIS 929.1072), an international register of family historians. This source is published annually and is available for perusal in the State Library.
-
Cross-check information as much as possible.
Consider the following:- Church records
- monumental inscriptions and other cemetery records
- undertakers’ records
- probate records
- indexes to newspaper birth, death and marriage records.
-
Maintain records of your sources.
- Use a research log. This is useful for checking information and finding errors. Always record the details of records you have checked – you may need them again!
- Samples of research logs may be purchased from family history societies, found in handbooks, or downloaded free from websites such as the Ancestors site [new window]
- Prepare family group sheets and descendant charts to record relationships other than the direct line. There are plenty of sources from the Net, societies, and in handbooks.
-
Find out more about the lives of your family in their historical, geographical, social and occupational contexts.
- Directories, newspapers, maps, gazetteers, electoral rolls, government and local records are valuable sources of information. Check the Family History Info Guides for more details about our holdings of these resources.
More information
If you have a family history enquiry, you can contact us in any of the following ways:
Last updated: 15th October 2009
Creatively linking Queenslanders to information, knowledge and each other
