As I perused my social media sites this morning I came across this post on Facebook from my US mate, Bill West.
The Four Ws, Who, What, Where and When popped into my head when I read this. Without knowing what it is Bill's friend wants to find it is difficult to suggest specific sites. So what I will do is share some of my favourite sites for Aussie research (in no particular order). As my ancestors lived in New South Wales my favourites are biased towards this state, other states will have similar resources.
I won't include sites that outline the principles of genealogy research as these are universal and Bill will be able to assist his friend in this regard. I would also suggest that Bill's friend join a local genealogy or historical society for the localities in which he has interests. Many small rural societies have valuable records and home grown databases that are not available online.
Free Sites
The Four Ws, Who, What, Where and When popped into my head when I read this. Without knowing what it is Bill's friend wants to find it is difficult to suggest specific sites. So what I will do is share some of my favourite sites for Aussie research (in no particular order). As my ancestors lived in New South Wales my favourites are biased towards this state, other states will have similar resources.
I won't include sites that outline the principles of genealogy research as these are universal and Bill will be able to assist his friend in this regard. I would also suggest that Bill's friend join a local genealogy or historical society for the localities in which he has interests. Many small rural societies have valuable records and home grown databases that are not available online.
Free Sites
- Australian Cemeteries Index (Good for country cemeteries. Many larger cemeteries also have search facilities online)
- Australian Dictionary of Biography
- Claim a Convict - Register here to locate other descendants
- Convict Transportation Registers Database
- Family Search Includes Australian data
- Land and Property Information NSW Title and Historical Searches
- National Archives of Australia Search Particularly useful for 20th Century research
- NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages - Search historical indexes
- Public Record Office of Victoria Digitised Records and Online Indexes
- Queensland Births, Deaths and Marriages Historical Records Indexes
- Queensland State Archives Indexes
- Ryerson Index Index to death notices that have appeared in a number of Australian newspapers
- State Records NSW Indexes Online You never know what you might find
- Trove Digitised collection from National Library of Australia includes historic newspaper collection
Subscription Sites - Many public libraries in Australia provide free access to these
- Ancestry.com.au These records are available to Ancestry.com subscribers with a World subscription
- Findmypast.com.au
- Genes Reunited Not an Australian site but many Australians use it
No doubt as soon as I hit publish on this post I will think of other sites that I should have included but this list should keep Bill's friend amused for a while. I expect that some of my Australian mates will add comments that refer to their favourite sites.
5 comments:
So many sites...so little time! Here's a couple more:
http://www.coraweb.com.au/
http://www.linc.tas.gov.au/tasmaniasheritage/search/name-indexes/nameindexes
OK...so the most useful for new users, with lots of free information to keep them occupied.
Newspapers - Trove, Trove, Trove (agree, agree, agree)
Links Page - Cyndi’s List –Australia
http://www.cyndislist.com/australia/ ....You need at least one links page for further links. Coraweb is already mentioned. I am making a links page for Victorian resources... http://practicalgenealogy.com.au/usefullinks/ (there I got my plug in)
Archives Offices (National and each State) – Passenger lists etc, War records. They are all important...it just depends on which state you are from....Victoria’s is the Public Records office of Victoria. Their Online indexes are: http://access.prov.vic.gov.au/public/PROVguides/PROVguide023/PROVguide023.jsp
Local History/Genealogy Society in where her ancestors lived. Geelong for example has an online index with over 1,000,000 records, see http://zades.com.au/gandd/index.php
Cemetery Indexes and Headstone Photos - For Victoria, I like http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ausvsac/Index.htm
In Victoria I would also add, the Victorian Government Gazette http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/
Maybe even Picture Australia http://www.pictureaustralia.org/
Thank you so much Jill, I am the friend of Bill's who was after family history help. Your links have provided so much.
You seem to have it pretty well covered! I agree with Fi that http://www.coraweb.com.au/ is worth adding to the list.
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