Death and burial records are a critical source of data for genealogical researchers. In Australia there are a multitude of sources where you can find data and stories about the demise of your relations. Some sources may only have basic details, but others can offer detailed insights into their lives and deaths.
Sources of death and burial information include:
- Civil death registries
- Cemetery records
- Newspaper family notices and obituaries
- Probate Records
Civil death registriesCivil death registries
Each state in Australia manages it’s own registry for births, deaths and marriages. Death certificates are required by law to certify that an individual has died. Most Australian states have searchable indexes for historic death registrations and a process to purchase a copy of the certificate. However, privacy legislation means these indexes only show results 30 years after the death of an individual. If someone died less than 30 years ago, and you are a direct descendant of that person, you can apply to the registry to obtain a copy of the death certificate. You will need to prove your relationship to the deceased - for example by providing your own and your parent's birth certificates to obtain a grandparent's death certificate.
For a full list of state registry websites and restrictions see Birth, death, and marriage records in Australia.
Historical death certificates may contain valuable information for genealogists including the person's:
- name, and the maiden name of a married woman
- Age at death
- Cause of death
- Name of parents,
- Name of spouse, and where and for how long they were married
- Names and ages of any children, and if they are living or deceased, and
- Date and place of burial, and the name of the person who performed the funeral.
The information may not always be complete or accurate as it largely depended on the knowledge of the informant (the person who filled out the registration form). If the informant did not know the person well, they might not be able to answer every question on the form.
MyHeritage provides access to a comprehensive collection of death registry indexes for most Australian states including:
Cemetery recordsCemetery records
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Cemetery records round the Australia may be incomplete and many cemeteries have closed, been moved or were privately held businesses, so finding the burial place for a loved one can sometimes prove to be a challenge. If you have located a death registration record for your ancestor, the date and place of burial should be written on the document. You can then do a search for that cemetery to see if they have a photograph of the headstone and a map or key to where plot is located.
MyHeritage holds a collection of over 1 million Australian Cemetery Inscriptions from 1802 onward:
Records typically include the name of the deceased, age at the time of death, date of death, place of burial, the names of the parents and the name of the spouse.[1]
MyHeritage also holds burial indexes from across the country including:
- Australian Index of Burials, 1900-2019
- Western Australia Burials from 1899 onwards
- South Australia, Adelaide Burials, a collection of burial records from the Adelaide from 1873 onwards.
- Queensland, Rockhampton Burials, a collection of burial records from the town of Rockhampton, in Queensland, from the year 1864 onwards.
- Canberra Memorial Parks from 1905 onwards
Search Australian Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituary recordsSearch Australian Death, Burial, Cemetery & Obituary records
Many contemporary cemetery websites have “find a loved one” function, which may include the plot number and exact location with GPS coordinates. Large cemeteries, such as Rookwood General Cemetery in Sydney, may use a third party provider with sophisticated geolocation capabilities that use apps like Google Maps to guide you all the way to a relatives headstone with extraordinary precision.
Besides the records held in a cemetery register, the inscriptions on a headstone can hold extremely valuable data. The Australian Cemeteries Index holds information on 2.9 million inscriptions and 1 million images across more than 6300 cemeteries from around the country. The emphasis is on visible headstones so if the stone is no longer extant the burial may not be listed. Australian Cemeteries Index is also advertising funded so annoying pop ups, footer ads and banner ads interrupt usage.
Global burial websites Find-A-Grave and Billion Graves use a crowd source model to collect inscription information and photographs of cemetery across the world. They have good coverage of Australian cemeteries but are dependent upon volunteers to add individual graves so may be incomplete.
Cemetery search case studyCemetery search case study
Name: Schlossman, Date range: 19th century.
Background: Solomon Schlossman (1822-1895) arrived to Australian in the mid 1860s with his wife, Harriett (1822-1892) and two adult daughters, Caroline (1846-1922) and Pauline (1854-1918). Solomon lived in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia. Both he and his second wife, Rachel (his first wife's sister 1828-1896) died in WA. There are no headstones for Solomon and Rachel. Harriett died in NSW and her elaborate headstone stands in Rookwood’s Jewish cemetery old ground.
NewspapersNewspapers
Family noticesFamily notices
Before the internet and social media, newspapers were a primary communications channel for families and communities. One of the regular features of many newspapers were listings for births, marriages, deaths and funerals. Unlike vital record registrations, these announcements were not required by law. But many families used these listings to alert both their local community, and in some cases relatives or friends who lived interstate or overseas, of these major life events. Death notices were also placed by undertakers to both inform the community and subtly advertise their services.
The Australia Obituary Index at OldNews.com, uses AI to extract information specifically from death and funeral notices listed in newspapers in its databases. The index currently holds almost 30 million records.
If you’re not sure where a notice was published, The Ryerson Index may help. The Ryerson Index holds almost 10 million entries from around 500 different sources. It’s also regularly updated, so unlike registry indexes, it may point you towards contemporary notices as well as historic ones. Ryerson results return the type of notice - death or funeral notice - the name and date of the publication and the locality, but it does not directly link to the publication or website. Once you know where the notice is you have to find out if and/or where that publication is accessible - for example is it in Trove or OldNews, or will you need to go to a publisher’s archive? Some of these searches may need to be done at a state library or may only available via subscription.
For more recent notices and tributes websites such as My Tributes, from News Corp, have replaced the old newspaper listings.
ObituariesObituaries
Obituaries are longer form narratives about a person’s life written on the occasion of their death. Newspapers employ professional obituary writers to prepare articles in anticipation of the death of famous people, and update them each year so they can publish them soon after any official announcement.
Obituaries Australia is a digital repository of obituaries of famous Australian from a wide variety of sources. You can search the collection by name or browse by a variety of criteria.
[The] 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 sample of the Australian experience by reproducing, in a convenient online format, published obituaries relevant to the history of Australia.[2]
Even though obituaries are usually written about notable members of the community and famous people, if your ancestor lived in a small community, their passing may have been noted in a more fulsome manner than just a death notice. Club magazines, academic journals and special interest publications also hosted obituary columns to mark the passing of valued members.
Name searches in Trove or OldNews.com may unearth an obituary in a local paper. Even a simple Google search may surface surprising results.
See alsoSee also
Explore more about how to find Australian death and burial informationExplore more about how to find Australian death and burial information
- Death is not the end – litigation remains: Exploring Australian wills and probate at Family Tree Webinars
- Civil Registration in Australia at Family Tree Webinars
- How to Find an Obituary for a Specific Person: A Comprehensive Guide at the MyHeritage Blog
- Death Records Investigation: How to View Death Certificates Online at the MyHeritage Blog
