Share this page  

About this eresource

The State Library subscribes to three separate Findmypast eresources
with content being regularly updated. Please note that they can only be accessed within the State Library building due to licensing restrictions. If you are viewing this page at the State Library, select one of the links below.

Findmypast Australasia

This eresource contains material relating to Australian states and New Zealand with a small amount of content for the Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea. The Australian states with the largest amount of material are Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. Most content is from published sources and includes:

• Almanacs
• Blue books
• Electoral rolls
• Government gazettes
• Police gazettes
• Post office directories
  

Findmypast Ireland

***Please note that Findmypast Ireland is currently accessible via the drop-down menu on Findmypast Australasia***

Findmypast Ireland includes will indexes, directories, cemetery transcriptions, land records and more. One of the largest and most significant collections is Irish prison records which has information on more than 3.5 million people.

Findmypast UK

Findmypast UK consists of many smaller databases. Most coverage is for England and Wales but you will still find references to people from Ireland and Scotland. Some of the content is the same as you will find in Ancestry which means that Findmypast can be used as an alternative searching tool. Some of the most popular databases include:

Records unique to Findmypast	Records also available on Ancestry
British nationals born, married or died overseas, 1818-2005	England & Wales census 1841-1911
British nationals armed forces births 1761-2005, marriages and deaths 1796-2005	Scotland census 1841-1901 (transcriptions only)
British nationals born at sea 1854-1887, married at sea 1854-1908 or died at sea 1854-1890	England & Wales births 1837-2005/06
British army service records 1760-1913 (Chelsea pensioners)	England & Wales marriages 1837-2005/06
Merchant Navy seamen records 1835-1941 and crew lists 1861-1913	England & Wales deaths 1837-2005/06
National Burial Index for England & Wales	UK outgoing passenger lists 1890-1960
Welsh parish records 1538-2007

What content will I find?

Examples of the types of records available include birth, marriage & death records, census records, immigration records, directories, military records and more. Using these records you may be able to discover:

• when and where someone was born, married or died
• what they did for a living
• where and with whom they were living at a particular time
• when they travelled to a particular place and on what ship
• which regiment they served with

How to search Findmypast

Searching Findmypast can be done either from the home page or by focusing on specific types of records.
To search from the home page - enter your details in the search query boxes and you will get a results list divided into various categories.
For a more focused search - select the Search records tab and choose a record type. You will then be given the option to search all records of this type or select a specific record set by selecting the Search records tab and choosing a record type e.g.Search all military records or British Army Service Records 1760-1915.

No hits? Try these search tips...

• Tick the Include variants box
• Use a wildcard (see below)
• Search under different spellings. Your ancestor may have spelled their name differently on different occasions or the record taker may have recorded it differently
• Spell the name phonetically rather than correctly
• Search for other members of the family with a more unusual first name e.g. Abel rather than John
• Search by nicknames or diminutives e.g. Meg for Margaret, Jack for John. Remember also that first names were commonly abbreviated e.g. Henry (Hy), George (Geo), John (Jno)
• Search by surname and initial only
• Reverse the first and last names or leave out a middle name
• Write down the name to see how letters could be mistaken for other letters e.g. T and J
• Study the handwriting on the page to see how known letters are formed
• You can do a census search without using a surname at all. Try searching by first name and date and place of birth. This works especially well with unusual first names
• Broaden your search geographically
• Search under the name of the village, rather than a person's name, and go through the whole are looking for likely entries

Wildcards

An asterisk * can be used to replace any number of characters.
For example:
Bla* in the Last name box will retrieve Black, Blackmore, Blair, Blake etc.
*head in the Last name box will retrieve Adshead, Broomhead, Head, Whitehead etc.

A question mark ? can be used to replace a single character.
For example:
Sm?th will retrieve both Smith and Smyth

Search results

You can choose the order in which your results are displayed from the search query box. 50 results are shown on each page. There is no preview option so you will need to select View to see the index entry, transcript or original record.