New South Wales Archives and Libraries

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Australia

New South Wales

New South Wales Archives and Libraries

Archives collect and preserve original documents from organizations such as churches or governments. Libraries generally collect published sources such as books and maps. This article describes the major national and New South Wales archives and libraries that hold genealogical and historical information.

Government Archives

National Archives of Australia
National Archives New South Wales Office
120 Miller Road
Chester Hill
New South Wales, Australia

Phone: 02 9782 4900
Postal address: Locked Bag 4, Chester Hill, NSW 2162, Australia
Website Research Guides
Family history

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Most of the State Archives Collection is in the form of original documents and can be viewed in our Reading Room at Kingswood.Some records of regional significance are held in our Regional Archives Centres.

New South Wales State Archives
Head Office
The Mint
10 Macquarie Street
Sydney NSW 2000 Australia

Phone: + 61 2 8239 2288
Email: info@mhnsw.au
Website

The collection includes a diverse range of items and formats, such as letters, files, photographs, maps, posters, film, video and e-records. From local school records to royal commissions, divorce papers to shipping registers, criminal trials to adoption records, the collection tracks through time the myriad interconnections between public agencies and private lives. The collection is one of the most complete records of the process of colonisation, and includes a number of items inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

New South Wales State Archives
Western Sydney Records Centre
161 O'Connell Street
Kingswood NSW 2747
Australia
Telephone: (02) 9673 1788

Access to Records at the State Archives - ARK

• Archives Resources Kit (ARK) - Contains most popular colonial records on microfilm and provides access to them
• Community Access Points - A list of over 40 libraries and archives which hold microcopies of the Archive Resource Kit records.
  

Records available include:

• convict arrivals
• assisted immigrants
• births, deaths and marriages
• publicans' licences
• electoral rolls
• naturalisation
• returns of the colony ('Blue Books')
• land grants
• List of all Records Available

Church Archives

Anglican Archives

• Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn records are all deposited in the National Library of Australia. Microfilmed copies are in the Society of Australian Genealogists collection . Research services are also provided by the Anglican Historical Society of the Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn (below).

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• Anglican Diocese of Grafton Archives

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• Anglican Diocese of Newcastle Archives: Parish registers, links to alphabetical list of existing registers, listing of libraries with microfilmed copies.

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• Sydney Diocesan Archives (Anglican) are not open to the public for family research.

• Since 2017, registers containing name-linked information which are held in the Sydney Diocesan Archives have been digitised and made available to the public via Ancestry. The database is called Sydney, Australia, Anglican Parish Registers, 1814-2011
• Ancestry has indexed the registers, so you can search for entries via the name search function. Or you can browse through the pages of each register, viewing high quality photographic images of each page.
• The types of registers which have been digitised include: Baptism Registers; Banns Registers; Burial Registers; Composite Registers (single volumes containing records of baptisms, marriages & burials); Confirmation Registers; Marriage Declaration Registers; and, Marriage Registers. We are sending more registers to be digitised for Ancestry every year.

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Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney Archives

• Sydney Archdiocesan Archives as a Church Archives has the main function of serving the administrative needs of the Archbishop, Bishops and the Agencies of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. Subsequently, the Sydney Archdiocesan Archives is not available for Family History Research."
• Sacramental registers (baptism, marriage, and burial) have been microfilmed within the constraints of legislation and are available for family history research at Society of Australian Genealogists (120 Kent Street Sydney), State Library of NSW and National Library of Australia (Canberra)."
• Prior to March 1856 when Civil Registration began in New South Wales details on certificates were taken from Church registers. A certificate that refers to the *Parish of St James, County of Cumberland” refers to the geographic area of St Mary’s in the colonial period, that is, the central Sydney area, not to records that are kept at St James Church or to St Mary’s Cathedral."
• Records of that time often contained little information. Names of parents were not included on marriage certificates until 1856."

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Libraries

State Library of New South Wales
Macquarie Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Phone +61 2 9273 1414
Website
Family History Service

We have a dedicated family history area in the Governor Marie Bashir Reading Room, where you will find family history records and resources, including electoral rolls, telephone books, newspapers and how-to handbooks. Librarians are available to help you get started with your research and to guide you through the Library’s collections.

Museums

Museums of New South Wales

• Collections Descriptions of collection holdings at each museum listed in the above website.

Civil Registration Offices

NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages The Registry was formed in 1856 to register life events in New South Wales accurately and securely for all time, ensuring their integrity and confidentiality.

• Ancestry research help and support Find out what you can search, about the search results, how to order certificates, paid search services and who to contact for support.
• Free online search What you can search

• Birth records more than 100 years ago
• Death records more than 30 years ago
• Marriage records more than 50 years ago

• Order certificates online
  

General Guides to Archives

Printed guides may be helpful in locating family history material.

• White, Olga, Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, and Jennifer Nash, comp. Our Heritage. O’Connor, Australian Capital Territory, Australia: Australian Society of Archivists, 1983. (FS Library book 994 J54w.)
• Australian Archives. Relations in records: a Guide to Family History Sources in the Australian Archives. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1988. (FS Library book 994 A3r.) The following book contains a listing of indexes that are available in Australian libraries:
• Henty, Margaret, and Rachel Jakimow. Indexes in Australian libraries. Canberra, Australia: National Library of Australia, 1995. (FS Library book 994 A3h.)