Births, Marriages & Deaths

Civil Registration

Government recording of births, marriages and deaths in Australia is done at state or territory level. In New South Wales this official recording, known as civil registration, began on 1 March 1856. Some of our indexes include dates earlier than 1856 and this is because the information has been gathered from other sources such as church records.

When you find an entry in the indexes, you need to make a careful note of the reference number as this will reduce the cost of purchasing a certificate.

Registers

Most of our resources relating to births, marriages and deaths are indexes to these events, rather than copies of the registers or certificates themselves. However, there are some exceptions to this, including early records for New South Wales, where we hold images of the actual registers as shown below. This means that you will not need to order certificates for events prior to 1856:

Births	Marriages	Deaths	Format	Location
1787-1856	1787-1856	1787-1856	Microfilm	Cabinet 59 Drawers 15-16

These microfilms (AO Reels 5001-5048) are part of the Genealogical Research Kit issued by the Archives Authority of New South Wales. For detailed information on how to use the kit, please refer to the handbook located on top of the microform cabinets.

Online Indexes

NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages
Use this website to find births, marriages and deaths in New South Wales for the following dates:

Births	Marriages	Deaths	Format
1788-1912	1788-1962	1788-1982	Website

Other Indexes

We also hold the following indexes to births, marriages and deaths in New South Wales in the Genealogy Centre on the 1st floor:

Births	Marriages	Deaths	Format	Location
1788-1888	1788-1888	1788-1888	CD-ROM Pioneers series	Geneo 2
1889-1918	1889-1918	1889-1918	CD-ROM Federation series	Geneo 2
	1919-1945	1919-1945	CD-ROM Between the wars	Geneo 2
1856-1918	1856-1945	1856-1945	Microfiche	Cabinet 58 Drawers 1-2

Marriage Licences

This microfiche is part of the Genealogical Research Kit:
Abstract of all licences for marriage granted to free persons, 17 March 1813 – 26 December 1827
• AO Fiche 836

Ordering Certificates

NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages
Certificates should be ordered from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages. Their website has details of costs and how to apply.

What information will I find?

Australian birth, marriage and death certificates can contain lots of useful information for the family historian. Death certificates, in particular, can be very informative and often contain the names and ages of children and the length of time spent in Australia. For a detailed breakdown of information recorded, see our guide:
Information found on certificates for Australian states, New Zealand and the British Isles

Other Sources

Other useful sources of information include indexes to newspaper notices and church records. To find these, try searching our online catalogue using these keywords + new south wales:

church records
death notices
marriage records
obituaries
registers of births

See these pages for other information related to New South Wales births, marriages and deaths:

Page last updated: Thursday 17 January 2013