33 Free Websites for South Australian Genealogy
In this day and age you don’t get much for free. And even with genealogy the costs can add up quickly. Well, I’ve decided to compile a bunch of links to websites that are FREE for researching your Australian family history. So this is the first post in this series, and this one contains 33 Free Websites for South Australian Genealogy.
There has been many times that I’ve heard people say that South Australia doesn’t have many genealogy records online. True, we don’t have the official Birth, Death and Marriages records online (yet), but these 33 websites prove that there really is a whole host of other South Australian records that are available, and FREE!!
It is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but rather a collection of useful links. I’m sure many of you will know a number of them, but maybe not all. If that is the case, I’m happy to have found you a new link or two, that may just give you a clue to a missing ancestor.
I’ve grouped them into categories to make it easier for you, although several in the General section really do fit in many of the categories, but have chosen to only list them the once.
Happy searching!!
== GENERAL ==
Adelaide Cooperative History
http://www.ach.familyhistorysa.info/
Adelaide Cooperative History publishes articles and databases to enhance the understanding of South Australian history, especially in the early days of the colony’s life.
Family History South Australia
http://www.familyhistorysa.info/
Were your ancestors pioneers of South Australia? Perhaps they were among South Australia’s early settlers. Find out by searching Family History SA’s free shipping passenger list, census, birth, marriage, death and cemetery records.
Family Tree Oz
http://www.familytreeoz.com/
Containing scanned images of old original books, Family Tree Oz does have some South Australian titles online, and free to use. Also included are some New South Wales and Tasmania titles.
Graham Jaunay’s website
http://www.jaunay.com/
Professional South Australian genealogist Graham Jaunay has lots of links on his own website relating to research in South Australia. Just click on Free Help Pages > SA Information. You’ll find information on cemeteries and burials; censuses and electoral rolls; a chronology; SA leaders; migration; newspapers; parish registers; shipping info; military and whole heap more.
History South Australia
http://historysouthaustralia.net/
History South Australia aims to bring to life OUR foundation history to a younger generation. With maps, indexes, timelines and articles, there is a whole bunch of information here.
South Australian 1838 BDMs Index
http://www.hotkey.net.au/~jwilliams4/sa2.htm
This is a list of Births, Deaths or Marriages as listed in the newspaper titled ‘South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register’ for the year 1838.
South Australia’s British Farm Apprentices 1913-14
http://www.safarmapprentices.net/
172 British youths aged 15 to 19 arrived in South Australia to participate in the State Government’s farm apprentice scheme during 1913-14, before the First World War interrupted. They were predecessors to the better known 1,400-plus ‘Barwell Boys’ who arrived during 1922-24 and 125-odd ‘Little Brothers’ who emigrated in 1927-28. This website shares their stories.
South Australian Teachers 1852-1960
http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/research/condon/teachers/
Compiled by Brian Condon, this list of teachers contains the service histories of South Australian teachers from 1852 through until 1960. Searchable by surname, by school or by year.
Trove Newspapers: South Australia
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/titles?state=South%20Australia
With thousands of scanned pages of South Australian newspapers dating from the 1830s through until the 1930s, everyone with South Aussie reli’s is like to find something in here.
Unlock the Past South Australian Samplers
http://www.unlockthepast.com.au/samples?page=5
This website currently contains samples from 202 historical South Australian publications. Police Gazettes, Government Gazettes, biographies, family histories, directories, local histories and more are all included, and where indexes are in the originals, they are included in the sample. This is a great way of getting an idea of what a title is like before purchasing it.
== CEMETERIES ==
Adelaide Cemetery Authority
http://aca.sa.gov.au
The Adelaide Cemeteries Authority the manager of Enfield Memorial Park, Cheltenham Cemetery, Smithfield Memorial Park, and West Terrace Cemetery. With a search facility on their website you can get access to burial and memorial records that occurred at these cemeteries.
Australian Cemeteries: South Australia
http://www.australiancemeteries.com/sa/index.htm
Search for your reli’s on Australia’s largest collection of cemetery records together in the one place.
Centennial Park
http://www.centennialpark.org.au/
Centennial Park is one of South Australia’s largest cemeteries, established in June 1936 on 40 acres. Fifty years later the area now covers 100 acres. You can search online for free the burial, memorial and cremation for services which occurred at Centennial Park.
Forever Remembered
http://www.ozgenonline.com/~forever_remembered/
With the general deterioration and vandalism that occurs within our cemeteries, this dedicated pair have been busy photographing and recording South Australian cemeteries, in the interest of preserving our history for the future.
Grave Secrets
https://headstones.weebly.com/search-for-a-headstone.html
For many years Faithe Jones has travelled about the state of South Australia photographing complete cemeteries for the benefit of the genealogy enthusiast. With 681 cemeteries already photographed and over 281,000 photos, this is one of the largest collections available to the public.
== MILITARY ==
World War I Pictorial Honour Roll of South Australians
http://www.ww1sa.gravesecrets.net/index.html?mid=50
This site is dedicated to commemorate the lives of those who served in the Great War in pictorial form.
South Australian Aboriginal Soldiers of WWI
This is a collection of stories of Aboriginal soldiers from South Australia who enlisted during the First World War.
http://aboriginalww1veteransofsouthaustralia.blogspot.com/
Blackwood Soldiers Project
This project aims to collecting and publish the personal stories of sailors, soldiers and nurses from Blackwood, South Australia and surrounding district (Coromandel Valley, Upper Sturt, Cherry Gardens, Eden Hills and Belair) from their service in the First World War.
http://blackwoodsoldiersproject.blogspot.com/
SA & NT War Memorials
http://www.tributesofhonour.info/index.php
This site contains 5000 photos and 1700 memorials all relating to the South Australian and Northern Territory War memorials and those mentioned in them.
== OLD MAPS & PHOTOS ==
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
http://www.davidrumsey.com/
This amazing collection of over 27,000 maps, which have been scanned, put online and are free to view, includes some of South Australia.
Mapco
http://mapco.net/aust.htm
Although Mapco is an Adelaide-based company, it contains maps of not only South Australia, but of the rest of Australia and England. Each map is scanned at high-res, and can be enlarged and browsed.
Old Adelaide Photos
http://adelaidephotos.com.au/adelaide.htm
Vintage photos of places around Adelaide, as well as country areas around the state.
Picture Australia
http://www.pictureaustralia.org/
Australia’s number 1 place to look for old photos, Picture Australia is a collaborative effort between major archive organisations and the National Library of Australia. With photos numbering in the millions from collections right around Australia, there are very literally thousands that relate to South Australia. You can search by name or keyword, or just narrow it down by who the images came from (ie. over 131,000 images from the State Library of South Australia)
== SHIPPING & PASSENGER LISTS ==
Bound For South Australia: Passenger Lists 1836-1851
http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/fh/passengerlists/intro.htm
The information in this web publication is compiled from a variety of sources, including the South Australian newspaper The Register.
The Ships List: German Emigrants to South Australia, 1837-1860
http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/australia/SAgermanindex.htm
The Ships List contains not only South Australian records, but other Australian and various other countries worldwide. I’ve highlighted this though as it does have a significant database of German Emigrants to South Australia in the 1800s.
== SOCIETIES & ARCHIVES ==
Fleurieu Peninsula Family History Group
http://www.fpfhg.org/
The new FPFHG website has links to cemeteries in the region. Their old site (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Esafpfhg/warservice.html), also has transcripts of newspaper articles relating to the area, as well a military records of locals.
South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society databases online
http://www.saghs.org.au/tools.htm
The SA Genealogy Society does have quite a bit of information online which includes deaths and burials, shipping arrivals to South Australia, South Australian place name, the SAGHS library catalogue, and their Journals. Keep an eye on the SAGHS website as they do seem to be the midst of changing it.
South East Family History Group databases
http://www.sefhg.org/index_files/databases.htm
The SEFHG Databases have been transcribed or collated by group members. You’ll find school teachers, school students, town allotment purchasers, unclaimed letters, births and burial registers, pioneers index, lighthouse keepers, hotel licensees and more. You’ll also find their Foundation stones, commemorative plaques and memorials listing for those in the South East area.
State Library of South Australia
http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm
Another of South Australia’s great collection of records is the State Library. Use their search to find information on books, records and photographs that they hold.
State Records SA
http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/
The State Records SA has created a comprehensive website to showcase the South Australian Archives and the various business services that it offers. By looking that their website you’ll be able to see references the vast collection of records they hold, as well as where to access them (as they have various locations).
== TREES & LISTS ==
FamilySearch Community Trees
http://histfam.familysearch.org/
These includes lineage-linked genealogies from specific time periods and geographic localities around the world. The South Australia Community Trees project (which is ongoing) contains information from the South Australian birth, marriage and death indexes, overseas sources and notes from the South Australian Biographical Indexes.
South Australia GenWeb
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~aussa/
The SAGenWeb project is a genealogy hub and transcript depot for those researching ancestors and descendants in the State of South Australia. The project is part of the AustraliaGenWeb, which in turn is part of the broader WorldGenWeb Project. Check out the databases and resources and use the message boards and mailing lists to contact others researching similar interests.
South Australian Look-Up List
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Etigerhawk71/aus-sa_lookup.htm
Lists all the items available for look-ups, together with details to contact the person who has offered to do the look-up.
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UPDATE 28 June 2015 – if you found the list above useful, you might also like this newer list with an additional 29 links
More Free Websites for South Australia Genealogy and History
18 Responses to “33 Free Websites for South Australian Genealogy”
Leave a Reply
Fantastic Alona, until u list them you wouldn’t think there was that many. Thank you for doing this. May I have permission to share on FPFHG Rootsweb and FB pages and AUS-SAGEN Rootsweb page? I enjoy your Lonetester blog too.
Hi Ros, thanks for your kind words. I have no problem with it being shared as long as my name and blog are mentioned as to where in came from.
Fantastic Alona!!! Many Thanks indeed 🙂
My pleasure 😉
Thank you very much for sharing these lists of websites. I believe that readers will surely going to bookmark your blog for future reference.
I have checked out most of the above shared websites and theses all sites are very good, informative and helpful as well.
I must appreciate your effort in collecting all these websites and sharing it online all together in your blog.
Many thanks Alex. I do hope that readers find it useful.
Thank you for sharing these links with us Alona. Some I knew and some I didn’t 🙂 I look forward to fully exploring them.
Excellent. I’m glad you found my list Peter, and I hope they are useful in your research.
Thank you for your time and effort in helping people to find their ancestors
My pleasure Bill. I’m actually working on another Free Websites for SA list, so stay tuned.
Hi Alona, I have just found your webpage. Thanks for putting up all these links, which makes finding sites a little easier. May I have your permission to use your site for the Adelaide Northern Districts Family History Group ? Thanks Margaret
Hi Margaret, certainly you can use it. I just ask that you acknowledge where it came from. Also did you see my NEW list of SA links? http://www.lonetester.com/2015/06/more-free-websites-for-south-australia-genealogy-and-history/
thanks Alona. Looks good. Yes, we always acknowledge our sources of information, if it goes to print. Thanks. Margaret
A lot of your sites are not free. This is a misleading blog.
Jenny, if you have found a link or links in this post that aren’t free, please do let me know. Back in 2011 when I created this list back, either all the info on a site, or at least the indexes on them were free … and to the best of my knowledge they still are. If anything is different now, please advise, and I can update my info.
Hey Alona, just letting you know that a couple of links have changed hands (I think) since your original posts.
History South Australia
http://historysouthaustralia.net/
South Australia’s British Farm Apprentices 1913-14
http://www.safarmapprentices.net/
South Australian Teachers 1852-1960
http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/research/condon/teachers/
World War I Pictorial Honour Roll of South Australians
http://www.ww1sa.gravesecrets.net/index.html?mid=50
Tributes of Honour
http://www.tributesofhonour.info/
South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society databases online
http://www.saghs.org.au/tools.htm
FamilySearch Community Trees
http://histfam.familysearch.org/
Cousin Connect South Australia
https://siteconsumer.com/?54bf38925fdb26434b9614e483f56f94
If I get a chance I will look for the new location but thought you would like to know.
Cheers,
Anna
Hi Anna, many thanks for that. I knew a few were out of date but hadn’t gone through systematically to check. I’ll get to updating them sometime, but in the meantime people can Google and see if they can find the new link.
I am looking for any photo that exists of my paternal grandmother born Vera May Dechert 3/4/1883 died 1969. I know she was married twice first to my Grandfather Henry (Harry) William Francis 23/1/1907 until divorce 16/12/1920 then married Victor Sylvester Hogg 4/3/1922 divorced 13/8/1928.I cannot find any details after this until her Death 30/7/1969 on which her surname became Harris,& her spouse was listed as Victor Sylvester Harris. This is a complete mystery to me as I can not find any records to support a change of name between 1928-1969 from Hogg to Harris.She is buried at West Terrace Cemetery with her brother Charles Herbert Dechert,but as Vera May Harris.
Hope someone out there can help me sort out my Grandmothers life,I had never met her & my father was only 7 years old when she was divorced and left the home,Thank you in anticipation.