Australia Business Records and Commerce

Australia businesses and commercial companies seldom contain dates or places of birth, marriage, or death but they can have valuable genealogical information. For example, Lawyers at the time kept detailed records for their clients. Included in these records are probate material, adoption records, insurance papers, lawsuits, and other sources that may help you trace your ancestors. Some bank ledgers in Australia give the name, occupation, residence, age, place of birth (by county and country), year of immigration and name of ship, and a physical description of depositors.

Pub owners, butchers, lumberjacks, auctioneers, or other professionals had to be licensed. Licenses were granted by the courts, and notices were then published in the Government Gazette. For further information about gazettes, read the Court Records article.

Many business records are deposited in Australian national archives, state archives, and other local repositories. For further information, read the Archives and Libraries article.

The Family History Library has few business records. To find call numbers for the records in the library, use the Place Search in the catalog under:

AUSTRALIA - BUSINESS RECORDS AND COMMERCE

AUSTRALIA,[STATE] - BUSINESS RECORDS AND COMMERCE

AUSTRALIA,[STATE], [TOWN] - BUSINESS RECORDS AND COMMERCE

There is an ABN (Australian Business Number) Lookup tool online.