New South Wales Church Records

How to Find Records

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Online Resources

 * The New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages includes church records that were kept from 1788 to 1855, prior to collection of vital records by the government.
 * Card index to New South Wales church records
 * New South Wales church records
 * 1816-1982 - Australia, New South Wales, cemetery, military, and church record transcripts : COLLECTION RECORD, 1816-1982, index and images. How to Use This Collection
 * 1814-2011 - Sydney, Australia, Anglican Parish Registers, 1814-2011 at Ancestry ($) - index and images
 * 1839-1963 - New South Wales, Australia, St Peters Cooks River Select Births, Marriages and Burials, 1839-1963 at Ancestry.com ($) - index and images
 * 1838-1918 - New South Wales, Australia, St. John's Parramatta, Church Records, 1838 to 1918 Ancestry.com, ($)

Civil Registration and Church Records

 * From 1788 to 1856 the only birth, death or marriage records kept in New South Wales were the registers maintained by the established churches. As registrar's offices assumed responsibility for registration, they requested copies of earlier church records to incorporate into their collections. The New South Wales Registry holds transcriptions of these early church records. Any surviving original registers are located in the NSW Archives.
 * Unfortunately, the extant records for this period are not comprehensive. Some ministers, missionaries and other authorized administrators kept records but not all were in a position to be this diligent. In addition many of the records contain inaccuracies and bad spelling. Distances to town centres, distrust of authority and lack of participation in formal church services contributed to the church registration system's inability to adequately record the details of all births, deaths and marriages that occurred in New South Wales.
 * The church records are indexed with civil registration.
 * New South Wales Birth, Death, and Marriage Index
 * 1788-1914 - New South Wales Births at FindMyPast; index only ($); Also at MyHeritage ($)
 * 1788-1945 - New South Wales Marriages at FindMyPast; index only ($)
 * 1788-1966 - Australia, New South Wales Marriage Index at MyHeritage; index only ($)
 * 1787-1986 - Australia, New South Wales Death Index at MyHeritage; index only ($)
 * 1788-1945 - New South Wales Deaths at FindMyPast; index only ($)

Archives
NSW Government State Records and Archives 161 O'Connell Street Kingswood NSW 2747 Australia
 * Telephone: (02) 9673 1788
 * Plan Your Visit
 * Collection Search Engine
 * Family history guides and links

Archives

 * Sydney Diocesan Archives are not open to the public for family research.
 * Since 2017, registers containing name-linked information which are held in the Sydney Diocesan Archives have been digitised and made available to the public via Ancestry. The database is called Sydney, Australia, Anglican Parish Registers, 1814-2011.

Ancestry has indexed the registers, so you can search for entries via the name search function. Or you can flick through the pages of each register, viewing high quality photographic images of each page. This is a continuous process. So far, some 1646 registers have been digitised, and there are nearly 1.5 million records from our registers available on Ancestry. The types of registers which have been digitised include: Baptism Registers; Banns Registers; Burial Registers; Composite Registers (single volumes containing records of baptisms, marriages & burials); Confirmation Registers; Marriage Declaration Registers; and, Marriage Registers. We are sending more registers to be digitised for Ancestry every year.
 * The records are closed for set periods:


 * Baptisms: closed for 100 years
 * Burials: Not closed
 * Confirmations: closed for 80 years
 * Marriages: closed for 70 years

Libraries
The SLNSW has a Family History Service which occupies the same role as the Society of Australian Genealogists in terms of assisting family historians, except that it is government funded and free to use. If you live in a state other than NSW, your state library should have similar resources.
 * State Library of New South Wales Family History Service

Societies

 * The Society of Australian Genealogists, based in Sydney, provides an expert and specialist family history service, and holds microfilms of records of churches of all denominations throughout Australia and overseas. The SAG sells copies of their microfilms to family history societies, historical societies, and libraries. Of those church and parish registers which have been deposited into the Sydney Diocesan Archives, the Society of Australian Genealogists has microfilmed the baptism, marriage & burial registers up to approximately 1930, and in some cases up to more recent dates. This was part of the "Joint Copy Project" records in conjunction with the National Library of Australia and the Mitchell Library (State Library of NSW). They have also borrowed registers directly from parish offices.

Writing to Local Churches
The Anglican Church of Australia Directory
 * If you know the name of the church or parish, use the search tool.
 * To find a list of parish addresses, hover over the "Dioceses" option in the menu and select a diocese. From the diocese page, select "Parishes" in the content outline.



Historical Background

 * The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion.
 * Australian society was predominantly Anglo-Celtic, with 40% of the population being Anglican. It remained the largest Christian denomination until the 1986 census.
 * When the First Fleet was sent to New South Wales in 1787, Richard Johnson of the Church of England was licensed as chaplain to the fleet and the settlement.
 * In early Colonial times, the Church of England clergy worked closely with the governors. Richard Johnson, a chaplain, was charged by the governor, Arthur Phillip, with improving "public morality" in the colony, but he was also heavily involved in health and education.
 * Authorities were suspicious of Roman Catholicism for the first three decades of settlement and Roman Catholic convicts were compelled to attend Church of England services and their children and orphans were raised by the authorities as Anglicans.
 * The Church Act of 1836 established legal equality for Anglicans, Roman Catholics and Presbyterians and was later extended to Methodists.
 * The Australian Constitution of 1901 provided for freedom of religion.

FamilySearch Catalog
See church records available in the FamilySearch collection at Australia, New South Wales - Church records

Information Recorded in Church Records
The information recorded in church or parish registers varies somewhat from religion to religion, and later records generally give more complete information than earlier ones. Most church registers for the Anglican, Catholic, and Presbyterian denominations provide the following information:

Baptisms

 * Birth and baptism dates
 * Place of baptism
 * Christian name of the child
 * Christian and surname of the father
 * Christian name of the mother (some include maiden surname)
 * Parents’ abode
 * Occupation of the father
 * Name of the officiating minister

Children were generally baptized within a few days of birth. If a child died soon after birth, death information was sometimes added as a note.

Marriages

 * Date and place of marriage
 * Full names of the bride and groom
 * Parish of residence of the bride and groom
 * Marital status of the bride and groom prior to this marriage
 * Married by banns or license
 * In the case of a minor, whether with consent of parents
 * Name of the officiating minister
 * Signatures or marks of the bride and groom
 * Signatures or marks of witnesses

Marriage registers may also include other information about the bride and groom such as their ages, occupations, and names of parents. In cases of second and later marriages for a woman, they may include her former married names along with her maiden name.

Marriage registers sometimes include the published banns. These were announcements of intent to marry which were made for two or three Sundays prior to the marriage, and gave an opportunity for anyone to come forward who knew of any reason why the couple should not be married.

Burials

 * Dates of death and burial
 * Place of burial
 * Name of the deceased
 * Place of abode at time of death
 * Age of the deceased
 * Occupation of the deceased
 * Name of the officiating minister

Occasionally parents' names, cause of death, and even the date and place of birth are given for the deceased. Burials were recorded in the records of the church where the person was buried. The burial usually took place within a few days of death. Burial records exist for individuals for whom no birth or marriage record exists. In addition, stillbirths may have been recorded in a burial register when no baptism occurred.