The announcement has just been been made that Ancestry.com.au and Ancestry.co.uk have added Australian Birth, Death and Marriage Index Records (aka Vital Records to our US friends) to their websites.
Featuring records of 15 million Australians, and dating back more than 200 years to when modern Australia was settled in 1788. It is estimated that one in three “Britons” have an Australian in their family tree. For genealogists researching Australians, the release of these records is a major stepping stone to helping them discover their family history. The Birth index covers 1788-1922, Marriage index1788-1959, and Death index 1788-1985.
You can read Ancestry’s own announcement about this on thier blog.
Chris Paton from Scottish GENES seems to have been the first blogger to pick up on the new records, and spread the word around about it. This was followed shortly after by Australian blogger Geniaus, who after testing records, had some very interesting comments to say about it. Liz, from Yarra Plenty Genealogy also has had a go, and has also found that these databases are useful, but many records seem to be missing. So if using these records, check them with other sources. Just because the record isn’t there doesn’t mean that they’re not recorded.
Don’t forget that you can access the following records online already …
New South Wales Births, Deaths & Marriages
This index contains the births, deaths and marriage recorded in New South Wales between the years: births 1788-1909, deaths 1788-1979, and marriages 1788-1959.
Queensland Births, Deaths & Marriages
Index records are available for births registered up to and including 1914, deaths registered up to and including 1964 and marriages registered up to and including 1934.
Victorian Births, Deaths & Marriages
The Historical Index contains entries relating to births in Victoria from 1853 to 1908, marriages in Victoria from 1853 to 1942, deaths in Victoria from 1853 to 1985, and church baptisms, marriages and burials in Victoria from 1836 to 1853.
Western Australian Births, Death & Marriages
Free online searching of Western Australian birth, death and marriage indexes is available for the following ranges of years: Births 1841 to 1932, Deaths 1841 to 1965, and Marriages 1841 to 1936.
FamilySearch
The FamilySearch Pilot site keeps on growing, and now contains some records of Australian BDMs. You can find over 600,000 Australian Births and Baptisms, ranging in dates from 1792 to 1981. 170,000 Marriages are listed from 1810 to 1980, and their Deaths and Burials contain about 170,000 records at present from 1816-1980.
Births & Baptisms 1792-1981
Marriages 1810-1980
Deaths & Burials 1816-1980
I first saw these new indexes announced on Tuesday on the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog (http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2010/07/ancestry-adds-australian-bmd-indexes.html).
Even thought they released the Australian stuff it is very limited to what you can see on the SA section, you might just see the year without any details.
Not worth the expense of a subscription as very limited and many are missing
Better to use a lookup site that offers free BDM searches and more for all states of Australia and go out of their way to help you URL listed above
Jean
hi if you go directly to the NSW BDM index online, their births are from 1788-1916, marriages 1788-1963 and deaths 1788-1986. Qld marriages to 1942 and deaths to 1986.
Its a pity that all states dont have the same time period on line. Also the problem I find is that NSW and SA give the town, where as Qld and Vic dont give the town of birth/marriage/death.