Family History from Beginner to Advanced

Searching for primary sources and vital records? Try an internet search of the following organisations as many have useful details available online

• State/county/district libraries and archives
• National libraries and archives
• State or local government websites

Planning to start researching your family history or experienced but stuck? These useful sites may help you on your way. Each one has tips, guides, and resources for family history research. 

State Library of Queensland provides research guides, webinars, online videos, blogs, and eresources to help you with your family tree. Some useful starting points are:

Tracing Your Family Tree

State Library of Queensland: Resources for Family Historians

Who’s Your Mob? First Nations Family History 

National Library of Australia provides similar types of information with their Research Guides page being a good access point.  

AIATSIS includes a Family History kit to help you get started with your research. It contains resources specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family research. 

Online Research Databases

Tip: use a variety of records and online databases to build facts and to add details to search terms.

Some online databases have different records but even those with the same ones index them differently so your search results may vary. Using multiple sources can provide more details to retrieve a different result in a source you have previously searched.

Remember that records are still being digitised and/or transcribed so sometimes it may be useful to put a search aside and return to it at a later date.

Ancestry Library Edition is available on the public computers at each of our library branches, including the two dedicated research machines in the Local Collection Room at Gladstone Library.  Ancestry Library Edition doesn’t allow you to create your own family tree but you can research a wide variety of records for free! Ask our friendly staff for help in accessing this resource (if the desktop link doesn’t work).   

Family Search has information from around the world, including transcriptions of many parish/church records to help you find that illusive piece of information to help you on your family history journey. Registration is required but access is free.

Find My Past is similar to Ancestry but it has some different record sets and also indexes differently. It allows you to do some searching and often see previews of records for free, only charging to access the full record. It even includes Northern Territory records, rarely accessible online!

My Heritage is similar to Ancestry and FMP.  Sign up allows some free searching but a paid subscription is required to access many records. My Heritage has a large quantity of European records.

    FreeBMD as well as FreeCEN and FreeREG       

    Some useful sources for information about UK vital records.

There are many organisations and institutions that provide access online, in-person, or by request to records that assist with family history. Text Queensland is a great site for researching some historical background information or perhaps discover a family member in the digitised books and records.