Victoria

Organisations in each state and territory can help with your Indigenous family history research. There are also a number of national organisations and non-government websites that support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family history.

  • ›Libraries hold a range of material that is useful for family history, including books, indexes and original manuscripts. Many larger libraries have special family history librarians who can help you with your research. Some libraries have online research guides to help you understand their collections.
  • ›Archives hold original records, created by government agencies, private organisations or individuals. Archives are different from libraries, and you will need help from an archivist to locate and access records.
  • ›Indigenous family history services are provided by state and territory governments to assist you in accessing records and personal information about your and your ancestors held in government archives.
  • ›Link-Up organisations provide services to members of the Stolen Generations, their families, and foster and adoptive families. These include researching family and personal records, finding family members and support and counselling.
  • ›Organisations for adoptees and care leavers (and their families) can help you find information about your personal and family history and connect you with family. They also provide counselling and support services.
  • ›Family history community projects and organisations offer practical help in researching your family history. Some are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander focused. They may have library collections, computers, access to resources and provide training courses and workshops.

Before you contact them

Try to collect and organise as much information as you can before approaching organisations for help. They will need names, dates and places in order to help you with your research.

See Family history sources for more information about the kind of information you will find.

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)

The AIATSIS Family History Unit can help people researching their Indigenous family history. The AIATSIS Finding Your Family website is an online resource with a focus on helping people to learn how to do Indigenous family history research. AIATSIS offers an Australia-wide service. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Biographical Index enables you to do an online name search of some of the material in the collection. AIATSIS cannot compile family trees or help you to confirm Aboriginality.

51 Lawson Crescent, Acton ACT 2601
GPO Box 553, Canberra ACT 2601
Ph: 02 6246 1111
Freecall: 1 800 352 553
Fax: 02 6261 4285
Email: familyhistory@aiatsis.gov.au
Web: www.aiatsis.gov.au/research/finding-your-family

State Library of Victoria

The State Library of Victoria has a significant collection of books and manuscript material relating to Aboriginal people, as well as many family history resources. The library has a designated Family History & Newspapers Room where you can access genealogy books, indexes, databases and microform collections. The room is open during normal library opening hours and there are staff available to help you get started with your research. Some resources are also available online.

328 Swanston Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: 03 8664 7002
Online form: www.slv.vic.gov.au/online-inquiry-form
Web: www.slv.vic.gov.au/explore/family-history-resources (Family history)
guides.slv.vic.gov.au/aboriginalfamilyhistory (Aboriginal family history research guide)

Public Record Office Victoria – Koorie Records Unit

Government records about Victorian Aboriginal people are held in two separate but related collections: the collection of Public Record Office Victoria and the collection of the National Archives of Australia. The Public Record Office Victoria collection is particularly strong in the period to 1860. It includes records of the Port Phillip District, including information regarding the early Aboriginal Protectorate and the Guardian of Aborigines, as well as records of more recent history.

The Koorie Records Unit at the Public Record Office Victoria promotes awareness about Aboriginal records created by governments in Victoria and improves access to records for the Aboriginal community. The unit helps researchers to access records about Aboriginal people in Public Record Office Victoria’s collection and in the collection of the National Archives of Australia’s Melbourne office.

Victorian Archives Centre, 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051
PO Box 2100, North Melbourne VIC 3051
Free call: 1800 657 452
Ph: 03 9348 5735
Fax: 03 9348 5656
Email: koorie.records@prov.vic.gov.au
Online form: prov.altarama.com/reft100.aspx
Web: prov.vic.gov.au/community-programs/koorie-records-unit
prov.vic.gov.au/publications/finding-your-mob

Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria

Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria has records of birth, death and marriage in Victoria from 1853, as well as some earlier church records. You can search and access historical birth, death and marriage records online. The cost of BDM records varies from state to state but is normally $30 to $50 per certificate.

The Koori Access Team at Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria can help you apply and pay for Victorian birth, death and marriage certificates if you are a Koori, Australian Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and you hold a pension concession card or health care card.

Ground floor, 595 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3001
GPO Box 5220, Melbourne VIC 3001
Free call: 1300 369 367 (General and family history inquiries)
Ph: 03 9613 5103 (Koori Access Team)
Email: vicbdm@justice.vic.gov.au (General and family history inquiries)
BDMIndigenousAccess@justice.vic.gov.au (Koori Access Team)
Web: www.bdm.vic.gov.au/home/family+history (Family history)
www.bdm.vic.gov.au/home/koori+services (Koori services)

Link-Up Victoria

Link-Up Victoria helps Indigenous people over the age of eighteen who were adopted, placed in foster care, institutionalised or forcibly removed to trace and be reunited with their families. Among its services are tracing family, conducting reunions and delivering counselling for Stolen Generations.

34 Wurruk Avenue, Preston VIC 3072
Free call: 1800 687 662
Ph: 03 9470 3666
Fax: 03 9470 3788
Email: linkup@vacca.org
Web: www.linkupvictoria.org.au

Koorie Heritage Trust Family History Service

The Koorie Heritage Trust’s Family History Service provides confidential client-based genealogy research to members of the Stolen Generations, Koories in custody and members of the Koorie community. The service has built an extensive confidential database of Koorie family trees and genealogy information to assist Koorie clients searching for family, cultural and historical knowledge.

Levels 1 and 3, The Yarra Building, Federation Square, Cnr Flinders & Swanston Streets, Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: 03 8662 6329
Fax: 03 9654 4390
Email: familyhistory@koorieheritagetrust.com
Web: www.koorieheritagetrust.com/koorie-family-history-service

Find & Connect Support Services Victoria – Open Place

The Find & Connect support service in Victoria is called Open Place. It supports people who grew up in orphanages, children’s homes, institutions and foster homes. It can help you obtain your personal records, trace your history and understand why you were placed into care, as well as providing counselling and other services.

Suite 1, 8 Bromham Place, Richmond VIC 3121
Free call: 1800 779 379
Ph: 03 9421 6162
Email: info@openplace.org.au
Web: www.openplace.org.au (Open Place)
www.findandconnect.gov.au (Find & Connect)

Department of Human Services – Family Information Networks and Discovery

Family Information Networks and Discovery (FIND) works with a range of Aboriginal agencies involved in supporting the Stolen Generations and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affected by adoption, wardship or other family separation.

Level 20, 570 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Free call: 1800 130 225
Ph: 03 8608 5700
Email: findduty@dhs.vic.gov.au
Web: www.dhs.vic.gov.au/for-individuals/applying-for-documents-and-records/adoption-and-family-records/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-family-records

VANISH – Victorian Adoption Network for Information and Self Help

VANISH helps people with their search for relatives they have been separated from by adoption, state wardship and donor conception, and provides support and guidance throughout the search and contact process.

1st Floor, 50 Howard Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051
PO Box 112, Carlton South VIC 3053
Free call: 1300 826 474
Ph: 03 9328 8611
Fax: 03 9329 6527
Email: info@vanish.org.au
Web: vanish.org.au

National Archives of Australia (Melbourne)

The National Archives of Australia holds many government records about Indigenous Australians from Victoria, dating from the 1860s to the 1970s. The Bringing Them Home name index can help you find information about Indigenous family members in National Archives records. Specialised help with accessing records in the National Archives’ Melbourne office is available from the Koorie Records Unit at the Public Record Office Victoria (see above).

Victorian Archives Centre, 99 Shiel Street, North Melbourne VIC 3051
PO Box 8005, Burwood Heights VIC 3151
Ph: 03 9348 5600
Fax: 03 9348 5628
Email: ref@naa.gov.au
Web: www.naa.gov.au/collection/a-z/aboriginal-people (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people)
www.naa.gov.au/collection/family-history (Family history)

National Library of Australia

The National Library collects and makes available material of national significance about Australia and Australians. It holds books, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs and oral histories that could be useful in researching your family – much of this is available online through Trove. The library has a family history collection and staff you can help you to locate material.

Parkes Place, Canberra ACT 2600
Ph: 02 6262 1111
Fax: 02 6257 1703
Ask a Librarian (online contact form):  www.nla.gov.au/askalibrarian
Web: www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/family-history
www.nla.gov.au/what-we-collect/indigenous

Australian War Memorial

Indigenous people have served in every military conflict that Australia has been involved in since the Boer War (1899-1902). Military records are a rich source of information about the men and women who served in the armed forces, and sometimes their family members.

Treloar Crescent, Campbell ACT 2612
Ph: 02 6243 4211
Fax: (02) 6243 4325
Email: info@awm.gov.au 
Web: www.awm.gov.au
Indigenous Australian servicemen: www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/aborigines/indigenous/
People, profiles and biographies: www.awm.gov.au/people/profiles/ (940 Indigenous service persons)

Research guides for Indigenous family history

Research guides provide comprehensive information for people doing family history research. They often include an outline of the history of colonisation and Aboriginal protection/welfare legislation, linking these to the records that were created about Indigenous people.

Books published by AIATSIS

  • ›Penny Taylor, Telling it like it is: A guide to making Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, AIATSIS, 1992
  • ›Diane Smith and Boronia Halstead, Lookin for your mob: A guide to tracing Aboriginal family trees, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1990.

Online guides

Websites

  • Centre for Indigenous Family History Studies (CIFHS) – a name searchable archive of some government documents relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The site is updated with new records continuously. Some of the documents contain offensive language. www.cifhs.com

General family history organisations

Family history groups, local history societies and local libraries

Local family history groups, local history societies and local libraries are valuable sources of information and resources. They can put you in contact with people with a good knowledge of the local history of a town or area that you are interested in. Many also have local studies collections with books, newspapers, family histories, photographs and manuscripts.

Find local libraries

You can use Australian Libraries Gateway – Find a Library to locate libraries in Victoria with family history and local history collections. Under location select �VIC’ and under library type select �Local/Family history’. You can also browse using the map.

Genealogical Society of Victoria

The Genealogical Society of Victoria provides family history advice and expertise. It has a reference library in central Melbourne providing access to family history records for Victoria, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and other countries.

Level B1, 257 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: 03 9662 4455
Fax: 03 9663 0841
Email: gsv@gsv.gov.au
Web: www.gsv.org.au

Family history research websites

  • ›CoraWeb: a comprehensive, categorised and cross-referenced list of links and useful advice about tracing your family history (Australia)
  • ›Ancestry – Help & Advice: general family history advice, as well as information about using Ancestry’s paid services (Australia)
  • ›Cyndi’s List: a comprehensive, categorised and cross-referenced list of links that point you to genealogical research sites online (USA)
  • ›FamilySearch Learning Center: articles and short online courses put together by the largest genealogical organisation in the world (USA)

Find family history and historical societies

Society of Australian Genealogists

The Society of Australian Genealogists helps people trace their family history, providing genealogy advice and running workshops and lectures. It has an excellent family history library and a manuscript collection in central Sydney.

�Richmond Villa’, 120 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: 02 9247 3953
Fax: 02 9241 4872
Email: info@sag.org.au
Web: www.sag.org.au