Gazetteers are dictionaries of place names that describe towns and villages, parishes, districts, rivers and mountains, population size, and other geographical features. Additional information may include major manufacturing works, canals, docks, railroad stations, and postal stations. Gazetteers usually include only the names of places that existed at the time of publication. The place names are generally listed in alphabetical order, similar to a dictionary.

You can use gazetteers to identify the places where your family lived and to determine the civil and church jurisdictions of those places. For example, one gazetteer gives the following description of Nelson: “One of the original districts of the county of Cumberland, N.S.W.” Another describes it as “a parish in the hundred of Windsor, and county of Cumberland, N.S.W.”

There may be many places in Australia with the same or similar names. You may need to use more than one gazetteer to identify the specific town where your ancestor lived, the state and district the town was in, and the jurisdictions that kept records.

Place-name guides can also help identify places. In the Family History Library Catalog they are listed in the Locality Search under:

AUSTRALIA, [STATE] - NAMES, GEOGRAPHICAL

Finding Place Names in the Family History Library Catalog

To find an Australian state under which a town is filed in the Family History Library Catalog (if you are using microfiche), use the “see” references on the first microfiche for Australia. If you are using the catalog on compact disc, use the Locality Browse Search.

Modern Place Names

For some research purposes, such as correspondence with an archive, it is useful to learn modern jurisdictions for the area where your ancestors lived. Learning this will also help you locate the ancestral town on modern maps. The following modern gazetteers can be found at many large libraries and archives:

Appleton, Richard and Barbara. The Cambridge dictionary of Australian places. Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1992. (FHL book British 994 E7ar; computer number 712038.) This is a modern gazetteer of current place names with descriptive information.

Division of National Mapping, Department of Minerals and Energy. Australia 1:250,000 map series Gazetteer. Canberra, A.C.T.: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1975. (FHL book British 994 E5am; computer number 38369.) This is a topographical place-name reference that identifies about 60,000 places or features without descriptive information. It also gives coordinates to ordnance survey maps.

Other modern place-name aids can be found in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

AUSTRALIA - POSTAL AND SHIPPING GUIDES

Historical Place Names

Because names and boundaries of some places have changed or no longer exist, you may need to use sources that describe places as they were known earlier.

The following is one national gazetteer that identifies historical places in Australia:

Wells, William Henry. A geographic dictionary or gazetteer of the Australian colonies, 1848. Facsimile edition. Sydney: Council of the Library of New South Wales, 1970. (FHL book Ref 994 E5w, computer number 201135; films 1439040 item 9 to 1439041 item 1, computer number 514333; fiche 6343447, computer number 651908.)

Sources for historical place names are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

AUSTRALIA - GAZETTEERS

Gazetteers and similar place-name guides for most Australian states are listed in the Locality Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

AUSTRALIA, [STATE] - GAZETTEERS

The following is an example of a gazetteer specific to a state:

Manning, Geoffrey H. The Romance of place names of South Australia. Adelaide: G. H. Manning, 1986. (FHL book British Ref 994.23 E5m; computer number 514270.)

The following book lists a bibliography of gazetteers:

Vine Hall, Nick. Tracing your family history in Australia: a guide to sources. 2d ed. Albert Park, Victoria: N. Vine Hall, 1994. (FHL book British Ref 994 D23v; computer number 732232.)

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