Let’s start right at the beginning by asking “What is an obituary?”
Putting it simply it is the final record of a person’s life, and information is included that can lead you to some amazing discoveries about your family. Here’s a few of the things your will usually find in an obituary:

– The deceased’s full name
– Age
– Gender
– Date of birth
– Date of death
– Place or City of Residence
– Occupation
– Military Service
– Church Affiliation
– Life events
– Awards or Accomplishments
– Names of survivors
– Place where funeral or memorial service is held
– Place of internment

Obituaries and Genealogy …
Obituaries are a goldmine of information for genealogists, as they contain a wealth of information about your family, and have important facts about the deceased and dates that you can use to piece together clues about the history of your family.

About Obituaries Australia
Obituaries Australia is a new website of obituaries published in newspapers, journals, magazines and bulletins. These contain the life stories of Australians from the earliest times to the present.

This site is hosted by the National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University, which also produces the award-winning Australian Dictionary of Biography. While the ADB focuses on the lives of notable Australians, Obituaries Australia offers a more egalitarian sample of the Australian experience by reproducing, in a convenient online format, published obituaries relevant to the history of Australia.

To get started you simply enter a name in the Quick Search box. Alternatively you can Browse, or use the Advanced Search, which offers the ability to search by occupation, life dates, birthplace, religion, ethnicity, author and source. Utilising the same system of index data pioneered by the ADB, Obituaries Australia is a valuable tool for researching Australia’s rich cultral and social history.

And You Can Help Too …
You can help to expand Obituaries Australia by sending them copies of published obituaries and assisting them by completing Life Summary forms, click here for more details. Remember, they MUST be published obituaries.