I can’t believe it … The South Australian BDM Indexes are now online. Last year there was rumours of them coming, and now they’re here. This is BIG, BIG news for everyone with family connections to South Australia … and they’re free to search.
The BDM Indexes cover the following:
- Newspaper Birth Notices Index from 1960 onwards
- Newspaper Death Notices Index from 1972 onwards
- South Australia Cemeteries Index
- Birth Registration Certificates Index 1842-1928
- Marriage Registration Certificate Index 1842-1916
- Death Registration Certificate Index 1842-1972
The data is part of the Genealogy SA website, which is the South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society’s new revamped website.
The database allows you to search by Surname, and you can narrow it down by adding in a first name or initial, as well as a year (with + or – up to 7 years). You don’t seem to be able to narrow down search for just a birth, death or marriage … but the search results are grouped into each category, so are easily viewable by those you wish.
The above image is a screenshot of what you see when you’re looking at births.
The results you get with the various categories is:
Birth Index: Year, Registration Number, Surname, Given Name/s, Father Name, Mother Name, More Info
Marriage Index: Year, Registration Number, Surname, Given Name/s, Spouse Surname, Spouse, Given Name, More Info
Death Index: Year, Registration Number, Surname, Given Name/s, Relative Name, More Info
Cemeteries Index: Resting Place, Transcription Source, Surname, Given Name/s, Age, Year, More Info
Newspaper Birth Notice Index: Source, Surname, Other Surname, Given Name/s, Parents, Publication Year, More Info
Newspaper Death Notice Index: Source, Surname, Other Surname, Given Name/s, Publication Year, More Info
Remember that these are indexes only, so the information you get is as above. If you want further info, you can click on the More Info button, which takes you to a page where you can submit details to the Society and request a lookup for $11/request, or a transcription at $15/request.
Its good that the SA BDM are now online, however the marriage period is not far enough. NSW goes up to 1950/60 so why is SA behind. I believe all states should have free access to records for lookups. In NSW there is a transciption service, which is great and cuts the costs down. Why then doesnt all the other australian states provide this service.
The reason for the difference in year spans, is that each state has different years for privacy period. As for transcriptions , the SA Genealogy & Heraldry Society offers this service, so does Graham Jaunay who is a professional genealogy researcher in SA (www.jaunay.com).
very informative,has helped me well.
The search page for South Australian BDM has This Account Has Been Suspended. What gives
Does anyone know what the letters in brackets after the relatives name mean eg (PR), (F), (W) – this was in the death index, thanks
The codes for the main ones listed are as follows:
(PR) – possible family member
(F) – father
(W) – wife
(SS) – stepson
(DH) – husband deceased
(H) – husband
(S) – son
I love this site as I have found family members I didn’t even know about… How do I also contact a person that has left a msg please. Would like to contact Doreen Hodges, possible family member??
Hi Linda, Thanks for your comment. Some people who leave comments have a link to their own website or blog and you can get contact details from that, but I see that Doreen Hodges doesn’t (well, not one that works), so unless she is following all the comments to this post, I don’t know of any way to contact her I’m sorry.
The Genealogy SA database is now off-line for 3 months for maintenance.
Ridiculous!
They had a temporary glitch, but fortunately all is rectified now.