Sometimes finding information about your ancestors in Australia can be difficult.  As I've mentioned in previous posts not all records can be found on the subscription genealogy websites.  Sometimes to find your elusive ancestor you need to find another way to source records.  It is a case of knowing where to look.  One of the great places in Australia for these records is the National Archives of Australia. The National Archives of Australia is a testament to the rich history of the nation and actively encourage the public to explore their collections online or by visiting one of their reading rooms. The National Archives of Australia describe themselves as:

The National Archives of Australia can best be described as the memory of our nation – collecting and preserving Australian Government records that reflect our history and identity.

. So what can the National Archives of Australia offer you? .

Collection

The collection at the National Archives of Australia is a historical look at the time of colonisation until more recent times.  In regards to the collection, many of the more recent documents are still closed to public access.  The archives may hold the item but until it has been examined it will not be made available, although you may be able to request for it to be examined for a fee. The collection includes:

• Defence Forces Personnel Records
  • Army Personal Records
    • Boer War
    • WWI
    • WWII
    • Pre-WWI, Inter war, Post WWII
  • Air Force Personnel Records
  • Navy Personnel Records
• Other defence records
  • Service pay records
  • RAAF accident reports
  • Australian POW records
  • Court-martial records
  • Repatriation cases (Boer War and WWI)
  • War gratuity records
  • Civilian service records
  • Army Inventions Directorate
  • Papua New Guine evacuees records
• Immigration and naturalisation records
• Passenger arrival records
• Other records
  • Security and intelligence records
  • Arts and science records
    • Australian Broadcasting Commission
    • Commonwealth Literary Fund
    • Copyright, patents, trademarks
  • High Court cases
• Photographs
• What's in the collection - Chinese Australians, Postwar Migration, Lighthouse Drawings, Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, Sinking of the HMAS Sydney, Wartime internment camps, and much more.

As you can see it is a wealth of information pertaining to Australia and its people but how do you find what you are looking for?

Record search

The search feature is great - you can do a basic, advanced, name, photo, or passenger arrivals search.  Let's see how it works for your family history. .

Family History

Now how does this pertain to family history?  Anytime your ancestor had a connection with the government there was a record created - migration, naturalisation, service in the armed forces, voting, registering a trademark, working for the government.  The collection has these and so much more.  Check out their Researching your family page which contains guides to searching the archives for your ancestors. .  

Let's look at a couple of examples from my family tree that you can easily replicate for your tree.

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Basic Search

Firstly let's use my great-grandfather, Fletcher Alderwin Brand who served in WWI, as an example.  I entered his name and a date range of his life and had a number of hits.  I selected his WWI service record (see Fig.1).  When a record is open for access you will see View Digital Copy in the top right, select that and you will be taken to a digital copy of that record.  This file gives me a wealth of information regarding his war service - where he was born, how old he is, marital status, next of kin, date of enlistment, physical description, unit, location, and duties during the war, medals received - a wealth of information for any historian. .

Now, Fletcher's son,  Dudley Hilton Brand, served in WWII (see Fig.2).  From this, we can see the record is held in Canberra but it has not yet been examined.  There is an option to Request Copy - if you select this you are required to pay $75.90 in order for them to assess this document, and then provide you with a digital copy.  This process can take up to 90 days. . .

Name Search

This gives you the search fields - Surname, Given Name, Category of Records.  This time I will use one of Fletcher's nephews, Sir David Brand, who was the Premier of Western Australia from 1959-1971.  Now on this search, I returned 134 hits both due to the common name, and the fact he is listed in many parliamentary records (see Fig.3).  I decided to narrow it down by putting Hon David Brand to reduce the hits to 3.  The first document is open to view, however, the others are not yet examined.  The bottom result is a photo that is located in Sydney. . .

Photo Search

I have again used Sir David Brand for this example, as I knew there would be images of him.  As you can see from Figure 4, there are 16 images in the results and whilst not all photos contain him, he is mentioned in the title of the image. . . . . . .

Passenger Arrivals Search

The passenger arrivals search allows you to search for records from 1898-1966.  There are numerous fields to either do a broad search or narrow it down - Family and given name, Ship/aircraft name, Year of arrival, Port of arrival, Port of embarkation, or Barcode.  Keeping with the "Brand" theme I've started, I search for David Brand with no other fields and got 15 hits (see Fig.5). . . .

Locations

The beauty of the National Archives of Australia is, whilst their National Office is based in Canberra, they have an office in every capital of Australia.  Whilst each state will have different holdings, and not necessarily the documents you want, a trip to the archives is a great experience.  Some of these National Archives are colocated with the relevant State Archives. .

National Office – Canberra

Address:  National Office, Kings Avenue, Parkes ACT 2600 Tel: (02) 6212 3600 Opening Hours: 9am to 5pm Weekdays (excluding Public Holidays) Good to know before your visit:

• Records need to be ordered before 12pm for next day availability.
• As Canberra is the capital of Australia the record collection is vast including Cabinet, Federation, Prime Minister and other Government records, WWI and WWII service records, naturalisation and immigration records, trademarks and copyright records, as well as a vast photograph collection.

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New South Wales – Sydney

Address:  120 Miller Road, Chester Hill Tel: (02) 9782 4900 Fax: (02) 9782 4999 Opening Hours:  9am to 4.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (excluding Public Holidays)[/one_half] Good to know before your visit:

• No records will be retrieved after 3.30pm.
• Sydney has records dating back as far 1804 with a Deed of Title for Pitts Row.  There are also, post office records, customs, army, and navy establishments, and Government House records.

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Northern Territory – Darwin

Address: Kelsey Crescent, Millner Co-located with Northern Territory Archives Service Tel: (08) 8999 6890 Fax: (08) 8999 6905 Opening Hours: 9am to 4.30pm Tuesday to Friday (excluding Public Holidays)[/one_half]

Good to know before your visit:

• Their collection spans 170 years of Northern Territory history including Commonwealth and Northern Territory Government records, community and personal archives, WWII records documenting the evacuation of civilians, European settlement and the administration of welfare for Aboriginal people from the 1920's onwards, and a vast oral history collection.

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Queensland - Brisbane

Address: 16 Corporate Drive, Cannon Hill Co-located with the State Records of South Australia Tel: (07) 3249 4200 Fax: (07) 3249 4299 Opening Hours: 9am to 4.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (excluding Public Holidays)