- SA Cemeteries
- Undertakers & Funeral Directors
- Inquests and Coroners Reports
- Australian Capital Territory
- New South Wales
- Northern Territory
- Queensland
- Tasmania
- Victoria
- Western Australia
- Indexes to overseas wills
How do I get a certificate?
There will not necessarily be more information on the certificate than is recorded on the indexes. Graham Jaunay's website lists the information available from certificates over time. However, you may wish to obtain a copy of a certificate for your own records.
Copies of certificates can be purchased from the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Office.
More recent certificates may be limited to the person named, their parents or their children. You may need to provide proof of identity for non-historical certificates.
Australian birth registrations
Baby Evangeline being washed by her mother Rosa Gabriel (nee Brownley) while sister Marion looks on, 1909. (B 56385)
Birth Records Online
Family Search contains baptism, marriage and funeral registers of the Holy Trinity (Anglican) Church in Adelaide from 1836-1843. Providing an image of the original register. Family Search is a free database but you must register which enables you to link files that you find to your account. It is freely accessible anywhere.
Graham Jaunay's website provides an overview of the parish records recorded before civil registration as well as searchable database of names listed within these early records. Available from the comfort of your home.
The Find My Past database contains birth death and marriage registration indices for South Australia from 1836. It is available to search from within the State Library of South Australia. Birth indices are listed through 1928, marriage indices through 1937 and death indices through 1972.
You may be able to find information about a birth, death or marriage in newspaper personal notices, or even sometimes in social pages. The Trove site (digitised historic Australian newspapers) is the first place to check.
Genealogy SA has published brief extracts from the South Australian births, deaths and marriages indexes on their website. If you can't find your subject's name here it is possible they were in a different place, perhaps a different state in Australia. See the Other States tab.
Other useful sources
If you have not had success with the official indexes, you could also try:
District Registers
Genealogy SA have compiled indexes to the District Registers (District births, deaths and marriages indexes) which can be searched at the State Library.
The original District Registers are located at a number of South Australian Council libraries.
Copies of the registers are also available at the Genealogy SA Library, Unley. Click on the tab above entitled SA District Registers.
Church Records
The State Library has a large collection of Church Records. If you know what church your family attended, you can check whether the State Library has its records in the library catalogue by searching under the name of the church. But you will need to visit the library to look at the records either on microfilm, or the original registers will be taken to the Somerville Reading Room.
Note: Registers after 1974 require written permission to access, from the individual church.
If you need help checking for particular church records, you may visit the Library, phone us, or forward an enquiry via Ask Us.
