Australian & New Zealand BMD records

[jgmills]

I see a lot of the historical indexes are online, within the confines of cut off dates. Which is very useful to do look-ups.

But does Australia and New Zealand have a similar system to ScotlandsPeople, where I could visit records offices and view/transcribe the information rather than purchasing certificates or copies, and also look up modern records the way we can in the various ScotlandsPeople hubs around the country?

Or would time be better spent with various family history societies? I'm visiting soon and thought I'd try and plan to flesh out some of my tree that moved to Australia and New Zealand.

Cheers
John

[Currie]

Hello John,

In a word …..No!

Each Australian State has its own system, which ranges from very good to not so good. On the not so good end of the scale are those States (then Colonies) which went early and adopted the English system. The others, the East Coast States, waited, and adopted much the same registration system as the Scots, and at about the same time. Those States have parent's names in their indexing, and if you use these, and the newspapers at Trove, and the Ryerson Index etc, you can often build up a quite respectable tree at no cost.

I think the freedom to walk in off the street and access all Scottish BMDs was provided for in the 1854 legislation, and has remained. I doubt that such a thing would have been introduced into the type of world we have today.

Apart from there being only one system in NZ, it's pretty well the same as in OZ as far as I know.

If you want any help with any of the non-living you could post a question on the forum.

All the best,
Alan

[jgmills]

Thanks for information Alan, I've found a lot of info for one person who migrated to New south Wales, so found two marriages in the index, she had two children, found their marriages, but their children are born after the cut off date, so no details for them, but found the children in the electoral rolls, possibly with children themselves, but that is only an assumption, so can't add them to my tree without better proof.

Still, it's a start.

Cheers
John

[trish1]

Hi John

As Alan said - there is no direct access to registry offices in Australia - and apart from purchasing certificates or transcripts or images - no indirect access. I find the places that are worth a visit are the State archives in your states of interest. One of the best sources for finding the details of children born post cut off dates are wills & these are available until quite recently at most archives.

Another source for children comes from newspaper death/funeral notices. Many of the main newspapers are available online but if not found this way, most (if not all) state libraries have microfilm of all the major capital city newspapers and ALL of the newspapers within their states. The National Library in Canberra has the lot.

If you want to see what's on offer before coming, and the indexes access available you can check the websites - here are the ones that I have visited - but you can google the other states to find the rest.

Qld state library http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/
Qld archives https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/ ... /archives/
NSW State library http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/
NSW Archives https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/
Tasmania has combined the two https://www.linc.tas.gov.au/Pages/Home.aspx

Enjoy your visit - and do post any other queries you may have.

Trish

[jgmills]

Hi Trish,

Thanks for your reply. And thanks for the links, will definitely have a look at them and the resources they have.

I think I will be spending a lot of time viewing the indexes and getting as much as I can before my visit, and then as you say have a day in either the archives or libraries. I know of 200 people who I'd like more info on, but that will surely grow, as up to now once they migrated I parked them to come back to. So the focus changes back to them now.

Regards
John

[Currie]

Hello John,

The Sydney Morning Herald archives from 1955-1995 are available online and can be very rewarding, especially if you have notice dates from the Ryerson Index. http://archives.smh.com.au/

NSW Probate Index from 2013 is available online (site seems to be down at the moment). https://onlineregistry.lawlink.nsw.gov. ... ate-notice

I have access to SMH archives 2006 to Current. If you want anything looked up in that time period send me a PM.

Best of luck,
Alan

[momat]

Hello John,
Some New Zealand sites to delve in.

https://www.bdmhistoricalrecords.dia.govt.nz/search

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers