So you've found a birth, marriage and / or death certificate of a deceased family member that you are especially interested in. Or, you've found these details in the family tree of another MyHeritage member. Either way, you now have some basic information about them. If you're lucky, these sources might even include some details, such as where they lived or their profession.
But, where to next? How do you find out more about your ancestor's life? About interesting facts or experiences they had? About their personal relationships and, possibly, any significant events they were involved in or affected by? Maybe there's been some family gossip about that ancestor's brush with the law but is it true and, if so, what exactly happened?
A family researcher can use various databases to "fill in the details" of an ancestor's life story. This article is focused specifically on Australia and how to find out more about your Australian ancestors. It includes a few real-life case studies to illustrate how these databases have created a much richer understanding of a specific person's life, making them feel "real."
A word of warning: Researching an ancestor might turn up facts that surprise, even shock. Not everyone has lived exemplary lives, nor should we necessarily judge behaviors and attitudes of old against modern values. So be prepared before you investigate.
Research your ancestors on MyHeritage
Useful Australian sources for the family researcher
MyHeritage's collection catalog lists over 100 million records spread over nearly 300 different Australian-focused data collections. As well there are many other Australian databases relevant to genealogical research that are independently available.
Information relevant to a specific person could be available in any of these sources. However, there are a few data sources that make a great starting point.
Australian newspapers
MyHeritage provides direct access to Trove, a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and hundreds of cultural, community, and research organizations around Australia. It provides digitized copies of historical Australian material across multiple sources including newspapers, magazines, images, books, diaries, letters and even archived websites.
Of particular interest to the family researcher is the Trove newspaper collection, which is also available on MyHeritage. It includes millions of digitized pages from more than 1,000 Australian newspapers and government gazettes from the early 19th century to the early 21st century. Trove offers advanced search capabilities enabling the researcher to find references to a specific person or topic in a particular period -- right down to the day and month; or to a specific newspaper, state, or type of article such as news, advertisements, family notices (includes births, deaths, and marriages) and detailed lists, results, and guides.
In the age before mass electronic communication newspapers were an important means of recording events, from the most mundane personal story to major global developments. It can be an exciting surprise to find that an ancestor of interest will be featured in multiple newspaper stories, sometimes over several years or decades, which together provide an insightful picture of their life and times.
Australian military records
See also: Australian military records
For successive generations, Australian men and women have enlisted and served in the military, often taking them to overseas theaters of war. Military service during the two World Wars was especially impactful on Australia, with a high proportion of the (then small) population involved, directly or indirectly.
A seperate wiki article provides guidance on how to research a range of Australian military records. These can contain interesting and important details about ancestors during this time of their lives.
Australian immigration and shipping records
Australia is a land of immigrants. Today around a third of Australians were born overseas and half the population has a parent who was born overseas[1].
MyHeritage includes multiple databases providing information, necessarily incomplete, of arrivals and departures from Australia over more than 100 years. This includes both unassisted (free) settlers as well as immigrants arriving under one of the many different assistance schemes that were designed to attract settlers.
As with military records, the NAA includes thousands of records documenting Australia’s rich migrant history. These include passenger arrival records, migrant accommodation and wartime internment camp files, alien registration records, and details of children brought to Australia under various approved schemes that operated in the years after WWII. Of special interest in this collection are citizenship records. These can contain significant personal information which migrants had to declare as part of their application for Australian citizenship.
There are many other databases, some of which are listed in the "Explore More" section below, containing details of arrivals in Australia. Some of these go back to convicts deported to Australian colonies between 1788 and the 1860s, a great resource for researchers who have ancestors they can track back to the original "First Fleet". Convict records, including their "ticket of leave" (a form of conditional pardon), can also include interesting personal details such as a physical description.
Archived collections of personal papers
Many Australian authorities and organizations maintain extensive archives. These are primarily focused on documenting the daily work of governments and their agencies so as to provide a record of events and decisions that have shaped, and continue to shape, their community's history and the lives of their inhabitants. In doing so they contain collections that track through time the myriad interconnections between public agencies and private lives.
Of particular interest are the archives of state and territory governments (and their colonial predecessors). A good example is the New South Wales State Archives Collection, which includes an extensive range of personal documents ranging from official correspondence mentioning a specific individual to divorce papers, wills, probate documents, reports of criminal trials, details of land grants, even adoption and mental health facility records (the latter items subject to various privacy restrictions). In some cases, documents can only be viewed by a physical visit to an archive facility. But other documents can be ordered for delivery via an online catalog.
In addition, there are many not-for-profit archives that provide a rich source of information about the lives of past Australians. For example, the NSW Family History Document Service website contains over 30,000 pages of historical records for family history research in the state of New South Wales. Covering commercial directories, electoral rolls, miners / mining leases, land purchasers / lessees, farmers, graziers, shearers / station hands, and information on other occupations such as civil servants and teachers.
Explore more about cross-referencing genealogy sources
In addition to its Collection of Australian-focused data sources, MyHeritage has a number of general articles in the Knowledge Base which can assist in further researching the lives of people in your family tree:
- 9 Must-Have MyHeritage Databases is a great article that outlines the most useful investigative tools when conducting a deep-dive search.
- Transforming Family History Research into a Compelling Story provides helpful guidance for transforming your family history research into an interesting story.
- Loose Records: A Treasure Trove for Genealogists describes how to find and make use of records stored in libraries and archives that can help fill in missing information you haven’t been able to find anywhere else.
- Memorializing Ancestors with Bite-Sized Bios on MyHeritage explains how to add the biographical material you have discovered to MyHeritage profiles on your family tree.
Outside MyHeritage, here are a few other places to look for biographical information on Australian ancestors:
- The Australian Society of Archivists, Directory of Archives details the holdings of almost 500 institutions, organizations, and individuals. These include national and state archival institutions, university archives, school archives, business records, film and sound archives, oral histories, and local historical societies.
- Consider specialist data sources: For example, if you believe that a person of interest may have been involved in the arts in Australia a great database to review is the National Film and Sound Archive. Its collection includes more than 1.6 million works including films, television and radio programs, videos, audio tapes, records, compact discs, phonograph cylinders, and wire recordings. It also holds documents and artifacts, such as, photographs, posters, lobby cards, publicity items, scripts, costumes, props, memorabilia, oral histories, and vintage equipment.
- The not-for-profit access point CoraWeb provides a great set of links to the holdings of Probate and will records across each of the Australian states and territories.