Background

Most Australian states and territories provide online indexes to 'historic' births, deaths and marriages registered in their respective jurisdictions.

To find out how to access these indexes, use our Australian birth, death and marriage records research guide.

Church baptism, marriages and burials records

The Library holds various parish records which can can be useful in the absence of official birth, death or marriage registrations. Parish records may contain more information than what is available on civil registration certificates.

• Australian Capital Territory - Church records and registers
• New South Wales - Church records and registers
• Northern Territory - Church records and registers
• Queensland - Church records and registers
• South Australia - Church records and registers
• Tasmania - Church records and registers
• Victoria - Church records and registers
• Western Australia - Church records and registers

Newspapers and magazines

You can search for birth, death, funeral or marriage notices in newspapers.

Births, deaths and marriage notices or announcements were also published in the relevant church mission or Aboriginal reserve magazines or newspapers. Search the name of the magazine or newspaper via the Library's catalogue.

• Trove digitised newspapers

  Trove contains Australian digitised newspapers from 1803 to 1954 and some beyond. You can type in the name of the person you are searching for to find out if there were any notices published about them.

• Dawn and New Dawn magazines

  Dawn and New Dawn were magazines published between 1952-1975 by the New South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board, with the aim of providing interesting information and an exchange of news and views. The Dawn and New Dawn also served as a way for people to keep in contact. Today the magazines are a valuable source of family history information as they include details of births, deaths, marriages and baptisms, as well as hundreds of photographs. They also contain articles about the conditions and activities on reserves, stations, homes and schools throughout New South Wales. During its time of publication the magazines were also used to highlight the work of the Aboriginal Welfare Board.

• Australian Indigenous Index (formerly InfoKoori)

  The State Library of New South Wales has compiled an online index of people mentioned in the Koori Mail newspaper (from 1991-). This index also contains names of people who appear in the Dawn magazine (from 1952-1975). Digitised editions of the Koori Mail, and Dawn magazine can be viewed on the AIATSIS collections online website.

We hold many items relating to missions and reserves.

• Newspaper press clippings relating to various missions and reserves dating from 1960 to 1992. Please ask library staff for access to press clippings.
• Archives and publications (like newsletters) of select missions. If you know the name of the Aboriginal mission or church, try searching the catalogue.
• Published biographies and autobiographies of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who lived on missions and reserves, and at children's homes.
• Published biographies of missionaries, or of people who worked on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander missions.
• The Bringing Them Home Project is a collection of interviews relating to individuals involved or affected by the child removal process. Find out more about the Bringing Them Home oral history project.
• For original mission records (like logs, journals, letters), try searching Trove under "Diaries, Letters & Archives."

Manuscripts

The Library holds the letters, diaries and logbooks of select Aboriginal missions as part of its manuscript collection. Manuscripts may provide information about Aboriginal communities, families, individuals, languages, customs, photographs, recordings and more.

Please note, some manuscripts require permission from the donor before they can be viewed.

Geographical areas are based on places listed in the AIATSIS Place Name thesaurus. For more information on the genealogies mentioned, contact Ask a Librarian service. Additional genealogies from the Library's Manuscripts collection will be added as they are indexed. You can also find genealogical information in the First Australians Language Resources research guide.

Genealogical information

These manuscript collections with genealogical information also have online finding aids.

• Charles Duguid
• Robert Hamilton Mathews
• Daisy Bates manuscript collection (MS 365 - Box 4): features genealogical information about First Australians in Western Australia (compiled between 1904-12). Names of people within the genealogies from the following places have been indexed:
  • Albany / King George Sound (SW WA SI50-11, SI50-15)
  • Bajinhurrba / Cossack (WA West Pilbara SF50-03)
  • Birdan / Onslow (WA West Pilbara SF50-05)
  • Busselton map area (SW WA SI50-05)
  • Coral Bay (WA West Pilbara SF49-16)
  • Esperance (SE WA SI51-06)
  • Fraser Range (SE WA SI51-02)
  • Janyjinya / Mount Edgar (WA East Pilbara SF51-05)
  • Kalgoorlie map area (SE WA Goldfields SH51-09)
  • Kellerberrin (SW WA SH50-15)
  • Kojonup (SW WA SI50-07)
  • Mount Barker (SW WA SI50-11)
  • Ravensthorpe (SE WA SI51-05)
  • Norseman (SE WA Goldfields SI51-02)
  • Northam (SW WA SH50-14)
  • Southern Cross (SW WA SH50-16)
  • Williams (SW WA SI50-06)
  • York (Avon River SW WA SH50-14)

The Australian Inland Mission

One of the largest collections in the National Library, with over 500 manuscript boxes of material. This collection is made up of the papers of numerous individuals and organisations. Find out more about the Australian Inland Mission collection.

Books

• A. McGuigan, Aboriginal reserves in N.S.W., land rights research aid : a listing from archival material of former Aboriginal reserves together with information required to access them

  A comprehensive listing of Aboriginal reserves established in New South Wales detailing when they started and/or closed.

• Robert Lowe, The mish, 2002

  Autobiography of his childhood experiences on Framlingham Aboriginal mission, Victoria.

Where else to look

AIATSIS

AIATSIS provides a guide to finding mission and reserve records by state and territory, with advice on locating relevant records. Aboriginal mission and reserve records often contain information on individuals and families. To search, determine if the mission was government or church-run, and contact the appropriate state records office listed below. Go the AIATSIS guide to mission and reserve records.

Commonwealth, state, and territory archives

• National Archives of Australia
• State Archives and Records NSW
• Northern Territory Archives Service
• Queensland State Archives
• State Records of South Australia
• Libraries Tasmania
• Public Record Office Victoria
• State Records Office of Western Australia

Find and Connect

Find and Connect helps locate records from children's homes and institutional care. While it doesn't provide personal records, it guides where they are held, often in church archives. It also offers counselling and support. Go to Find and Connect.

Noel Butlin Archives Centre

Located at the Menzies Library, Australian National University, the Noel Butlin Archives collects papers from industries, missionaries, and pastoral companies. Contact them for relevant family history records. Find out more about the Noel Butlin Archvies Centre.

Finding your story

This guide helps Aboriginal people who were removed from their families locate relevant records. It's particularly useful for those from Victoria. Go to Finding your story.

Bringing Them Home Report

The Bringing Them Home report can be found on the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission website. The site also contains responses to the report and frequently asked questions.

Oral history project

The Bringing them home oral history project conducted by the National Library includes 340 interviews recorded by 41 interviewers. Interviews were conducted with families and children who experienced separation, as well as with those who cared for them, worked in institutions, and were involved with administration, policy and implementation in a professional capacity.

Go to the project in the catalogue.

AIATSIS exhibition - To Remove and Protect

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) online exhibition "To Remove and Protect" includes state and territory legislation identified in the Bringing Them Home report that enabled the forced removal of Aboriginal Children, and also includes annual reports of state and territory ‘protection boards’ and subsequent government agencies.

Find out more about the exhibition.

The Apology

The Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples speech made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13 February 2008 can be found on the Parliament of Australia House of Representatives Hansard website.

Many Voices

A useful print item is Many Voices: reflections on experiences of Indigenous child separation. Other items can be found by searching our online catalogue.

Goodna Girls

ANU Lecturer and author of Goodna Girls, Adele Chynoweth and the Library's Director of Indigenous Engagement, Marcus Hughes, reflect on the lives and stories of the women of Goodna and the role of cultural institutions in preserving the stories and experienecs of marginalised communities. Watch the video.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have served in every major conflict in which Australia has been involved.

For more resources to help trace family who have served in the defence forces, use our guide to finding military ancestors.

Books

The Library has a strong print collection relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander involvement in various war efforts. Published books and histories often contain specific information about individual servicemen, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from a specific town, community or mission who engaged in military service.

Examples:

• George Bray, Aboriginal ex-servicemen of Central Australia

  This brief history presents an honour roll of Aboriginal servicemen from Central Australia in World War I and World War 2, as well as other campaigns such as Vietnam. Aboriginal ex-servicemen of Central Australia also contains several transcripts of oral histories collected from Aboriginal servicemen.

• Mark Newman, Sally Lawrence and Philippa Scarlett, The boys from Barambah : the story of the black diggers of Barambah-Cherbourg of World War I

  Presents history of the Barambah settlment (now known as Cherbourg) in Queensland. This history touches on race relations, treatment of Aboriginal people during the war period, and contains profiles of Aboriginal servicemen from the Barambah settlement.

• Robert A. Hall, The black Diggers : Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the Second World War 

  Analyses the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and provides information on relations with missionaries, service personnel, military perceptions of Aboriginal people. Also contains information on individual servicemen and women.

Publications with lists of servicemen

• George Bray, Aboriginal ex-servicemen of Central Australia
• Robert A. Hall, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the Second World War
• Doreen Kartinyeri, Ngarrindjeri Anzacs
• Desmond Ball, Aborigines in the defence of Australia
• Honouring Indigenous War Graves Incorporated: recognising the services and sacrifices of our "Indigenous veterans"
• Jan (Kabarli) James, Forever warriors: this book honours all Western Australian Indigenous men & women who served in all conflicts
• Robert A. Hall, Fighters from the fringe: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders recall the Second World War
• Philippa Scarlett, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander volunteers for the AIF: the Indigenous response to World War One
• David Huggonson, Too dark for the Light Horse : an exhibition of photographs & documents depicting Aboriginal involvement in the Australian Army at the Albury Regional Museum, August 11th - September 27th
• Jennet Cole-Adams and Judy Gauld, Indigenous service: investigating the wartime experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the First World War to the present: a resource for secondary schools

Where else to look

• Australian War Memorial - Indigenous defence service

  Summary of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander involvement in the war efforts.

• Serving Our Country: A History of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Defence of Australia

  Documents the historical contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the Australia defence and auxiliary services from the Boer War to 2000. Throughout 2014 and 2015, Serving our Country conducted community Yarn Ups, recorded oral and video histories, researched archival papers and other sources to create a more inclusive understanding of Australia's defence history.

• Department of Aboriginal Affairs Western Australia - They Served with Honour

  An online publication (downloadable as a PDF file) to honour the contribution of the 13 Western Australian Aboriginal servicemen who served at Gallipoli.

The Library has a large number of pictures and photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Although many of these photos were taken for a European audience, photographic and picture collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are now very useful for tracing family history.

Search the catalogue

• Try different ways of spelling the names of people, groups or places. Often there are many different ways of spelling the name of an Aboriginal group (eg: Gaagudju is also spelled Gagadju and Gagadyu).
• People and places might be known by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander name, or by a European name.
• Many of the photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders show people whose names have not been recorded. If you can't find anything through a name search, try searching more broadly; for names of Aboriginal language groups, tribes or peoples (eg: Bundjalung).

Trove

Trove searches the combined pictures and photograph collections of a large number of libraries, including the National Library and all of the State Libraries, as well as numerous galleries and museums. Via Trove, you can browse over 60,000 catalogue entries for images relating to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people, places, objects and culture. Many of these images have been digitised and can be viewed online.

Try searching for pictures and photo on Trove.

Where else to look

• Koorie Heritage Trust Victoria

  A collection of over 48,000 photographs, many of which feature Aboriginal people, places and objects. The Koorie Heritage Trust has a reference library where their collections can be browsed onsite.

• State Library of Western Australia Storylines Project

  Aims to digitally repatriate Library collections to community. The archive contains a large number of images of people, places, objects, and occasional family trees. Some of the Aboriginal people in the photographs have been identified, however many have not. The State Library of Western Australia is working closely with community to help identify people in photographs.

• Indigenous Photography Portal

  The Berndt Museum of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia oversees the Indigenous Photography Portal, a website that aims to return photography collections housed in European institutions to their living descendants today. The portal allows people to search the historical photographic collections of Indigenous Australians and communicate with the museums to interrogate the photographs, correcting cataloguing information and allowing family and community members to reconnect with historical figures.

• The University of Queensland Anthropology Museum photograph collection

  A considerable collection of photographs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Many of these collections are not well described. To address this, the University of Queensland is digitising their photos and making them available online. Search their catalogue online.

• The Macleay Museum photograph collection

  Over 10,000 photographs with content relevant to Aboriginal, Torres Strait, and Pacific Islander people. The collection is focussed on Northern Australia, Western Australia and the Pacific, and is not fully itemised or digitised. To arrange access to this collection, contact their curator of ethnography.

AIATSIS Finding your family guide

AIATSIS has developed a very complete guide to researching your Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander family history, this guide contains a number of fact sheets.

The Centre for Indigenous Family History Studies

The Centre for Indigenous Family History Studies has compiled an online index to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander names mentioned in State and Federal archives.

Indigenous family history beyond the National Archives

The National Archives of Australia has produced a brief guide to researching your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family history beyond the Archives.

Libraries ACT guide to print resources

Libraries ACT presents a guide to select print resources held in the collection for people studying Aboriginal Family history in the ACT and surrounding region.

Of particular note is the publication The Kamberri : a history from the records of aboriginal families in the Canberra-Queanbeyan district and surrounds 1820-1927 and historical overview 1928-2001 by Ann Jackson-Nakano, also held in the National Library's collection.

Native Title Services Corporation family history service

Native Title Services Corproation (NTSCORP) is able to produce free genealogies for individual Aboriginal people from communities. NTSCORP provide genealogies for free, however the request must come from a member of a community for which the Federal Government has provided funding for this specific service.

Aboriginal Affairs Family Records Service

The New South Wales Family Records Unit provides assistance to Aboriginal people in New South Wales who wish to access government records relating to themselves or their family. Their website provides advice on how to access government records and links to online heritage reports of Aboriginal children's homes.

The State Library of New South Wales First Nations Family History guide

The State Library of New South Wales has produced a guide to researching your Aboriginal family history in New South Wales. This guide presents a number of useful published works containing family histories (many of which are also available at the National Library), as well as links to State services.

Native Title Services Corporation family history service

Native Title Services Corproation (NTSCORP) is able to produce free genealogies for individual Aboriginal people from communities. NTSCORP provide genealogies for free, however the request must come from a member of a community for which the Federal Government has provided funding for this specific service.

Link-Up (NSW)

Link-Up (NSW) supports the healing journeys of Aboriginal peoples removed. Link-Up delivers professional, culturally sensitive and confidential research, reunions and Social, Emotional and Wellbeing services to those over the age of eighteen. Link-Up has a family research guide full of tips, hints, tools, organisations and family tree template to support your research.

Researching your Aboriginal Family History at the Northern Territory Archives Service (PDF, 737KB)

A guide to tracing your Aboriginal family history at the Northern Territory Archives.

National Archives of Australia Tracking Family: A guide to Aboriginal records relating to the Northern Territory

Online publication produced by the National Archives of Australia, this is a very in depth guide to tracing your Aboriginal family history in the Northern Territory.

The Queensland State Archives guide to Indigenous resources

This guide includes a detailed list of records held by the Queensland State Archives relating to Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people, as well as information on how to access these records.

State Library of Queensland guide to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family history

The State Library of Queensland has produced this guide for researching your Queensland Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander family history. Of particular interest to Queensland Aboriginal people will be the Queensland component of the Tindale genealogies. The State Library of Queensland also holds the Margaret Lawrie collection which has genealogies from numerous islands in the Torres Strait.

State Library of South Australia Guide to Aboriginal family History

The State Library of South Australia's guide to Aboriginal family history presents a very comprehensive list of online resources and published works, as well as useful archives, for family historians.

South Australian Museum Norman Tindale archives

The South Australian Museum holds the archives of Norman Tindale, and has compiled an index to this collection. Much of Tindale's recordings concern genealogies of Aboriginal people throughout Australia. Copies of these genealogies are held in cultural institutions throughout Australia.

The State Records of South Australia

The State Records of South Australia has a useful guide focussing on the records which they hold. The Aboriginal Access team is able to assist with searches of their collections.

Libraries Tasmania documenting Aboriginal ancestry

Libraries Tasmania is a consortium of Tasmania's Department of Education institutions and programs, including the Tasmanian state archives and library. Libraries Tasmania has an online guide to tracing Aboriginal ancestry, as well as a link to records and published resources.

State Library of Victoria guide to Aboriginal family history

The State Library of Victoria has a very complete guide to Aboriginal family history, with tips on how to get started, information specific to items held in their collection, and links to National resources.

Aboriginal Records at the Public Records Office of Victoria

A guide to Aboriginal records held at the public records of Victoria, mostly administrative records created by the office of the Chief Protector of Aborigines, as well as the Board of Protection of Aborigines.

Department of Aboriginal Affairs Aboriginal History Research Unit

The Department of Aboriginal Affairs - Aboriginal History Research Unit assists with access to often restricted State records and archives relating to Aboriginal people.

State Library of Western Australia Aboriginal family history research guide

The State Library of Western Australia has produced their own guide to Aboriginal family history. This guide contains hints and guides to accessing items held in their collection, as well as links to online Aboriginal family history guides with a Western Australian focus.