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Birth, Death and Marriage Records - Australia

Web Sites for Genealogists - An Australian gateway site for tracing your family history by Cora Num
Also see
BDM Registrar addresses and current certificate costs
BDM Online Indexes
Online Publications: Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes for online Birth, Death and Marriage Notices.

National
Ancestry.com. This commercial site has a variety of subscription options available and offers access to:
• Australia Birth Index 1788-1922 covering New South Wales(1788-1910), Northern Territory(1870-1910), Queensland (1829-1910, 1915-1919), South Australia (1842-1922), Tasmania (1803-1910), Victoria (1836-1910) and Western Australia (1841-1905)
• Australia Death Index 1787-1985 covering New South Wales (1788-1945), Northern Territory (1870-1913), Queensland  (1829-1959), South Australia  (1842-1970)
Tasmania (1803-1919), Victoria  (1836-1985) and Western Australia  (1841-1980)
• Australia Marriage Index 1788-1949 covering New South Wales (1788-1945), Northern Territory (1870-1913), Queensland (1829-1935), South Australia (1842-1937), Tasmania (1803-1919), Victoria (1836-1920) and Western Australia (1841-1950)
Check if there is free access to Ancestry.com in a public or family history library near you.

The Ryerson Index is an index to death notices appearing in current Australian newspapers. It also includes some funeral notices, probate notices and obituaries. This ongoing project currently contains over 3.3 million entries from 199 newspapers.   See Newspapers and Newspaper Indexes for further details. Updated

Obituaries Australia, hosted by the National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University, is a digital repository of obituaries published in newspapers, journals, magazines and bulletins. Here you will find the life stories of Australians from the earliest times to the present. There is also the opportunity to submit obituaries to this site. 

Australian Obituaries This site is posting obituary, death and funeral notices appearing in Australian newspapers. There is a free basic search facility with the full text of the notice returned, but not the reference to the original source (newspaper). Notices are available from August 2006. 

Obits.com.au Australian death and funeral notices plus obituaries obtained from funeral directors or though contributions by members of the public. Notices are available from January 2006. The Obits Quick Search only searches recent notices so check the Archived Notices also. 

The Last Post. This site lists basic information about funerals as submitted by funeral directors on behalf of their clients. The searchable database currently contains 78,400+ entries.

Graham Jaunay's site. The Free Help - AUS Info has a page showing What you can expect to see on an Australian BDM certificate over any given time period. 

Australasia Births, Deaths and Marriages Exchange. A free resource for sharing details on Australian and New Zealand certificates. A surname search is available plus links to 40+ international BDM exchanges.

Australian Capital Territory
Office of Regulatory Services, Births, Deaths and Marriage Unit  with details of birth, death and marriage registration plus online access to the ACT Historical Death Index (1930-1973)

New South Wales
NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. There are details of the services offered to family historians including the online ordering of certificates. Online Historical Indexes are available for births (1788-1911), deaths (1788-1981) and marriages (1788-1961). Updated

State Records New South Wales, Indexes Online, Court, Police & Prison include an Index to Divorce Case Papers 1873-1930. This ongoing index records petitioner name, respondent and co-respondent (if named), divorce number, year and remarks. A photocopy of the file can be ordered online for a fee. 

State Records New South Wales, Indexes Online, Inquests - Coroners' 1796-1824. This index lists name, date, locality, SRNSW  reference numbers and remarks (indicates if the person is the deceased or a witness). 

Ancestry.com offers access to New South Wales, Registers of Coroners' Inquests, 1796-1942. The registeres are fully indexed with access to digital copies of the original records which, depending on the date, can contain the following: name of deceased, age,  birthplace, estimated date and place of death, date and location of Inquest, verdict of inquest (probably cause of death), name of the coroner or magistrate, name of doctor, occupation of deceased and personal property belonging to deceased. This commercial site has a variety of subscription options available.

Hawkesbury on the Net - Church Registers. This ongoing project offers online access to transcripts of selected church registers for St James, Pitt Town; St John's Wilberforce; St Joseph's, Macdonald River; St Matthew's, Windsor; St Philip's, Clydesdale and St Thomas, Sackville Reach.

Joy Murrin Family History Services offers NSW birth, death and marriage transcriptions for births to 1911, deaths to 1981 and marriages to 1961. An overseas certificate service is also available. Updated

Transcriptions.com.au.  A transcription service for NSW Birth, Death and Marriage certificates by Marilyn Rowan. Transcripts are available for births to 1911, deaths to 1981 and marriages to 1961. Updated

Turtle Consolidated Services. Transcriptions of NSW Birth, Death and Marriage Records by Laurence Turtle. Transcripts available for births to 1911, deaths to 1981 and marriages to 1961. Also offers transcripts for Tasmanian records up to 1899.Updated

Northern Territory
Northern Territory Government Department of Justice with birth, death and marriage details.

Queensland
Department of Justice and Attorney-General, Queensland  with birth, death and marriage registration details.  Historical Indexes are available online for births (1829-1914), deaths (1829-1964) and marriages (1829-1934).  

Queensland State Archives  Index to Queensland Divorces 1861-1899. Supreme Court of Queensland divorce files usually contain petitions, marriage certificate (not always on earlier files), affidavit of service and identification, certificate of Registrar, notice of trial, decree nisi and decree absolute. The index lists name and references. Copies of the files are available from QSA for a fee.

Queensland State Archives Index to Inquests 1859-1886. A search returns surname, given names, file date and number plus QSA references. Document copies are available from QSA for a fee.

South Australia
South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society - SA BDM Certificate Transcription Service for births 1842-1928, deaths 1842-1967 and marriages 1842-1937. Note the date range may vary for districts other than Adelaide.

South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society - SA Deaths & Burials Databases which include: cemetery indexes, SA Government Gazettes (1845-2000) and newspaper deaths (1975-2007 incomplete). A search returns surname, given names, date and source. The Society offers a lookup service for a small fee.

Family History South Australia by Barry Leadbeater has searchable databases for South Australian, births 1836-1854, deaths 1836-1851 and marriages 1836-1855.

FamilySearch Community Trees includes lineage-linked genealogies from specific time periods and geographic localities around the world. The South Australia Community Trees project (ongoing) contains information from the South Australian birth, marriage and death indexes, overseas sources and notes from the South Australian Biographical Indexes.

Adelaide Co-operative History Databases include South Australian and Northern Territory (to 1910) gazetted deaths 1845-1941 and WWI deaths of South Australian servicemen.

South Australia Office of Consumer and Business Affairs with information on the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Office. Family history information available but no online indexes.

Tasmania
Tasmania Department of Justice - Births, Deaths and Marriages with details of family history services.

Turtle Consolidated Services. Transcriptions of Tasmanian Birth, Death and Marriage Records by Laurence Turtle up to 1899.

LINC Tasmania brings together the State Library of Tasmania, the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office (TAHO) and others. Online name indexes include:
• Colonial Tasmanian Family Links database links individuals with other members of their families living in Tasmania in the 19th Century. The information (not necessarily verified) about individuals is based primarily on records of births, deaths, and marriages and similar events. 
• Divorces Index (1861-1920) lists petitioner, respondent, co-respondent, reference, year and number. Copies of the records are available from TAHO.
• Inquests - index of records of inquests into people's deaths (c.1828-c.1930). These records vary from full files documenting the process to only the formal statements of the coronial findings. Inquests into fires are in the general index. Digital images of the records are available online.

Victoria
Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria offers access indexes and digital images for births (1836-1910), deaths (1836-1985) and marriages (1836-1942). There are also Marine Indexes and digital images for births, deaths and marriages on board ships to Victoria (1853-1920). Access fees apply. 

FamilySearch Community Trees includes lineage-linked genealogies from specific time periods and geographic localities around the world. The Victorian Community Trees project (ongoing) contains information from birth, marriage and death indexes, other primary record sources and newspapers. 

Index to Royal Women's Hospital (formerly Melbourne Lying-In Hospital ) Midwifery Book no 1 (1856-1876). This index facilitates access to the Royal Women's Hospital (Victoria) digitised Midwifery Book (1856-1876) which is freely available on   The Royal Women’s Hospital site

Divorce Index Victoria (1861-1900) by Sue McBeth and Wendy Baker. This index to divorce case files held by the PROV lists the names of both parties, any co-respondents and file references. 

Public Record Office Victoria Online Resources online digitised Index to Divorce Cause Books 1861-1924 lists names of the petitioner, respondent and any co-respondents plus Supreme Court case numbers.

Places Names in Vic BDM Indexes by Susie Zada. Use this site to take some of the guesswork out of the abbreviated place names used in Victorian BDM indexes. There is some great advice and tips.

Victorian Place Name Abbreviations by Carolyn Harris. This list is useful when using the Victorian civil registration indexes as the place names are often abbreviated.

Victorian Place Name Abbreviations by Sally Routledge. This alphabetical list can be downloaded as a PDF  file. It can help identify place names that are abbreviated on the Victorian BDM indexes.

Western Australia
Department of the Attorney General - Births, Deaths & Marriages offers online access to Western Australian Historic Indexes  for births (1841-1932), deaths (1841-1970) and marriages (1841-1936).  

Reverse Western Australia Marriage Lookup 1906-1965 by the Perth Dead Persons Society. The WA registry site (above) offers online marriage indexes to 1936. This site offers searches beyond this date and identifies both husband and wife, something that is not possible using the microfiche index 1906-1965. There is also a county marriages index available 1951-1965.

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© Cora Num 1997-2012. Last updated 10 January 2012