Tasmania Church Records
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Online Records
- Tasmania Names Index, Libraries Tasmania Index and images
- 1803-1933 Tasmania Birth, Death & Marriage Records 1803-1933 Now Online Index
- 1803-1933 - Australia Tasmania Civil Registration 1803-1933 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
- 1803-1933 Tasmania Births 1803-1933 - at Findmypast, Index ($)
- 1803-1899 Tasmania Marriages 1803-1899 - at Findmypast, Index ($)
- 1803-1933 Tasmania Deaths 1803-1933 - at Findmypast Index ($)
- 1833-1854 Tasmania, Australia, Baptisms of Children of Convicted Women, 1833-1854 at Ancestry - index & images ($).
- 1839-1938 - Australia, Tasmania, Civil Registration (District Registers), 1839-1938 at FamilySearch - How to Use this Collection; index & images
Church records predate civil registration, and as registrar's offices assumed responsibility for registration, they requested copies of earlier church records to incorporate into their collections. Civil registration indexes may include church records going back to 1803.
New South Wales Online Resources and Websites, Including Tasmania Prior to 1825
- The New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages includes church records that were kept from 1788 to 1855, prior to collection of vital records by the government.
- Card index to New South Wales church records
- New South Wales church records - at FamilySearch, index & images. Contains registers for different denominations throughout New South Wales, particularly around the Sydney area.
- 1787-1810 Index to baptisms, N.S.W., 1787-1800 ; Index to burials in New South Wales 1787 to 1800 (including deaths at sea on first fleet) ; Index to marriages in New South Wales, a.d. 1788-1800 ; Index to marriages in New South Wales from January 1, 1800 to December 31st, 1810, transcribed from "The Kerrison James" records - at FamilySearch, images.
- 1788-1830 Kerrison James Index to church records, 1788-1830 - at FamilySearch, images.
- 1801-1981 Church record transcriptions : New South Wales, 1801-1981 - at FamilySearch, index & images.
- Births, St. John, Parramatta, 1801-1814 -- Births, St. John's Anglican, Wilberforce, 1825-1831 -- Births, Presbyterian, Clarence Town, 1843-1862 -- Births, Pitt Town, 1826-1842 -- Baptisms, St. Peter's Anglican, Richmond, 1839-1855 -- Births, Whitingham Parish Anglican, Singleton, 1835-1862 -- Baptisms, Anglican, Wilberforce, 1826-1870 -- Marriages, Anglican, Richmond, 1856-1914 -- Marriages, Presbyterian, Morpeth, 1840-1860 -- Births, St. James Catholic, Morpeth, 1857-1981 -- Marriages, St. John's Anglican, Wollombi, 1856-1899
- 1804-1900 New South Wales Parish Registers, Christ Church Cathedral Newcastle at Findmypast, ($), index.
- 1814-2011 Sydney, Australia, Anglican Parish Registers, 1814-2011 at Ancestry ($) - index & images
- 1816-1982 Australia, New South Wales, cemetery, military, and church record transcripts : COLLECTION RECORD, 1816-1982, index & images. How to Use This Collection
- 1818-1894 Church record transcriptions : Sydney and the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, 1818-1894 - at FamilySearch, index.
- 1818-1976 - Parish register index for the Hunter region (New South Wales) : church records indexes, 1818-1976- at FamilySearch, images.
- 1824-1864 Church of England in Australia records : Port Macquarie and surrounding areas, 1824-1864 - at FamilySearch, index & images.
FamilySearch Library
- Click on "Places within Australia, Tasmania". Choose a location to see if additional online church records are available.
Archives
Tasmanian Government
Tasmanian Archives
Archives Office of Tasmania
91 Murray Street
Hobart, Tasmania 7000
Telephone: 03 6233 7488
Facsimile: 03 6233 7902
Email taho@education.tas.gov.au
- Church Registrations
- Church registers held in the Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office / State of Tasmania, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
- Searching Tasmanian Archives
Catholic Diocese of Hobart Archives and Heritage Collection
35 Tower Road
New Town, Tasmania 7008
Australia
GPO Box 62
Hobart, Tasmania 7001
Australia
Telephone: 03 6231 4740
Website
Anglican Diocese of Tasmania
Registry Office
Level 1, 125 Macquarie Street
Hobart TAS 7000
Australia
GPO Box 748
Hobart TAS 7001
Phone: 03 6220 2019
Email: registrar@anglicantas.org.au
Libraries
Libraries Tasmania
National Library of Australia
Parkes Place
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Telephone: +61 (0)2 6262 1111
Address postal enquiries to:
Reader Services
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Societies
- The Society of Australian Genealogists, based in Sydney, provides an expert and specialist family history service, and holds microfilms of records of churches of all denominations throughout Australia and overseas. The SAG sells copies of their microfilms to family history societies, historical societies, and libraries. [1]
Writing for Records
Originals of parish records may still be held at the local church.
See the Letter Writing Guide for Genealogy for help in composing a letter requesting information from a local church.
Address directories for major religious groups are listed here. Baptist, Pentecostal, and Reformed churches have multiple umbrella organizations. For those, use Google.
- Anglican Directory Australia Parishes
- Catholic Find A Church, Australia
- Churches of Christ in Australia
- Greek Orthodox Churches in Australia
- Jehovah's Witnesses Find a Meeting in Australia
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Find a Ward
- Find a Lutheran Church Australia
- OCA Orthodox Church Parishes in Australia
- Russian Orthodox Church Directory of Parishes and Monasteries in Australia
- PresKey OnLine Directory, Find a Presbyterian Church in Australia
- Salvation Army Churches in Australia
- Seventh-day Adventist Congregations in Australia
- Uniting Church Congregations of Australia (Congregational)
Historical Background
- The island was initially part of the Colony of New South Wales but became a separate colony under the name Van Diemen's Land in 1825.
- Approximately 80,000 convicts were sent to Van Diemen's Land before this practice, known as transportation, ceased in 1853.
- In 1855 the present Constitution of Tasmania was enacted, and the following year the colony formally changed its name to Tasmania. [2]
- Parish registers began for:
- Baptist Church in 1841
- Church of England in 1803
- Congregational Church in 1830
- Presbyterian Church in 1823
- Roman Catholic Church in 1835
- Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1828[3]
Information Recorded in the Records
The information recorded in church or parish registers varies somewhat from religion to religion, and later records generally give more complete information than earlier ones. Most church registers for the Anglican, Catholic, and Presbyterian denominations provide the following information:
Baptisms
- Birth and baptism dates
- Place of baptism
- Christian name of the child
- Christian and surname of the father
- Christian name of the mother (some include maiden surname)
- Parents’ abode
- Occupation of the father
- Name of the officiating minister
Children were generally baptized within a few days of birth. If a child died soon after birth, death information was sometimes added as a note.
Marriages
- Date and place of marriage
- Full names of the bride and groom
- Parish of residence of the bride and groom
- Marital status of the bride and groom prior to this marriage
- Married by banns or license
- In the case of a minor, whether with consent of parents
- Name of the officiating minister
- Signatures or marks of the bride and groom
- Signatures or marks of witnesses
Marriage registers may also include other information about the bride and groom such as their ages, occupations, and names of parents. In cases of second and later marriages for a woman, they may include her former married names along with her maiden name.
Marriage registers sometimes include the published banns. These were announcements of intent to marry which were made for two or three Sundays prior to the marriage, and gave an opportunity for anyone to come forward who knew of any reason why the couple should not be married.
Burials
- Dates of death and burial
- Place of burial
- Name of the deceased
- Place of abode at time of death
- Age of the deceased
- Occupation of the deceased
- Name of the officiating minister
Occasionally parents' names, cause of death, and even the date and place of birth are given for the deceased. Burials were recorded in the records of the church where the person was buried. The burial usually took place within a few days of death. Burial records exist for individuals for whom no birth or marriage record exists. In addition, stillbirths may have been recorded in a burial register when no baptism occurred.
For Further Reading
FamilySearch Library
Additional sources are listed in the FamilySearch Catalog:
References
- ↑ "Information for Family Historians and Genealogists," at Sydney Diocesan Archives, http://www.sydneyanglicanarchives.com.au/genealogists.html, accessed 4 February 2022.
- ↑ "Tasmania", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmania, accessed 25 February 2022.
- ↑ "Parish Registers in Australia", by Nick Vine Hall, 1990.