Family History - Research Tips

To make the most effective use of archival sources, you need to have already done a good deal of preliminary work to establish a basic framework of facts about the various members of your family. These facts can be used to obtain further information from government or court records. Researchers unfamiliar with archival records may find them rather confusing and difficult to use at first. Records are preserved in their original order together with the finding aids created by the relevant department. In general, the records are not indexed by name, geographical location or very specific subjects. Therefore, locating the required information is often a very time consuming process involving a search through large quantities of records with no certainty that any relevant information will be found. Remember, there is no single subject, or name index to all archival records. You may have to consult the records of many different government departments depending on the information required.

Good Records to Start With

There are many series of records which are useful for genealogical searches. Brief Guides and Search Procedures to each of these subjects are available in the Public Search Room, or may be purchased at the Queensland State Archives, or via this web site. The most frequently used records are:

Passenger lists for immigrants arriving in Queensland by ship from Europe from 1848. There is a card index by name of immigrant in the Public Search Room.
Records of births, deaths and marriages.
State electoral rolls 1860 onwards. To use these records you need to know the approximate date and place of residence. Use the key maps in the Public Search Room to work out the relevant electorate at that time.
Wills and intestacies from 1857. To use these records you need to know the approximate date and place of death.
Inquests 1859 onwards, to establish causes of death and of major fire. To use these records you need to know the approximate date and place of death or fire.
Naturalisations 1858 onwards (for non-British immigrants only). It helps to have an approximate idea of date of arrival in Queensland and/or date of naturalization.
Land tenure 1840s onwards. Records of Crown leases of all types, eg. selections (farms) and pastoral leases (stations) are held at Queensland State Archives. These are often complicated to use. However, a good starting place for information on selections would be the indexes to selectors, 1868-1905, if you have the name of the selector. For pastoral leases you could start with the index to consolidated pastoral leases, dating from 1884 (LAN/N2), if you know the name of the station. These indexes are in the Public Search Room.
Admission registers for many State schools are held at Queensland State Archives.
Maps. These have two main uses for genealogists. Firstly they may be used to locate place names. Secondly, parish maps often give names of original lessees, or owners of land. There is a Map Catalogue by geographical location held in the Public Search Room.
Blue Books 1859 onwards. These are yearly lists of people employed in the public service. They are indexed by name and are located in the Public Search Room.

For further assistance in using the records, please see the Reference Archivist on duty in the Public Search Room. On busy days they may not be immediately available, but will attend to each person in turn.

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Last Updated: Thursday, 31 July 2008