Most of my family (distant family that is), who packed up their bags, farewelled their families, and set out for a new life in Australia back in the 1800s ended up in South Australia. Now many would say this is a good thing … which in some ways it is, because with my ancestors being here means I ended up here, and do love little ‘ol South Australia, so I’m thankful for that. And it also means I don’t have to research every other state of Australia either, which is a plus. But the downside comes when it comes to getting certificates.

I do like to get certificates. You know, the PROPER ones, not just the transcripts. But to buy the South Australian ones you really need to win lotto or rob a bank – neither of which are likely for me. So I simply save up my dollars bit-by-bit and birthday money (tip: money is always a great present for a genealogist, as you can never have too many certificates!) and buy them when I can. But to buy the three certificates (birth, death and marriage) for one person you’re suddenly up for about $150 when you add in the postage.

It goes without saying that genealogists are after BDM (Birth, Death and Marriage) records, and why wouldn’t we be?  They give us all sorts of interesting clues: parents’ names, place of birth, what someone died of, family members as witnesses or informants. Seriously they are truly genealogy gold!

One thing everyone who is new to researching Australian records needs to know is that each state has it’s own records, so there is no one-place to search for all Australian BDM records, though there are some partial ones. So while it seems a little annoying that we have to check each states records one-by-one, be thankful that Australia only has six states as opposed to the 48 counties of England, or the 50 US states. 😉