South Australian genealogy & ancestry resources

Aboriginal People

• South Australian Museum
  • Map of tribal boundaries
• State Library of South Australia — Indigenous collections
• State Records of South Australia — Finding your Aboriginal family history

Cemeteries

• Search our cemetery database for the locations of 1,170 SA burial places, and for burials up to 1855 or later
• Adelaide Cemeteries Authority searchable burial and cremation database of Cheltenham Cemetery, Enfield Memorial Park, Smithfield Memorial Park & West Terrace Cemetery [from mid 1840]
• Centennial Park searchable burial and cremation database [largest SA cemetery — burials commenced 1938]
• Outback Communities Authority Burials Register
• Billion Graves [worldwide]
• Find a Grave [worldwide]
• Australian newspaper death notice & obituary index

Census

• The South Australian 1841 census is the only 19th century SA census with surviving details. The enumerator sheets are available in the State Library of SA's family history collection.
• Check the State Records of SA listing to see if a person was recorded by name.

Church archives

• Adelaide Catholic Archives & Records Services
• Adelaide Hebrew Congregation
  • Archivist, PO Box 320, Glenside SA 5065, Australia
• Anglican Church of Australia
• Church photographs with historical notes [all denominations]
• Lutheran Church of Australia
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  • FamilySearch
• The Salvation Army — SA Division
• Uniting Church SA Historical Society

Courts

• Courts Administration Authority of South Australia
  • Coroners Findings [2000 to present]
• Probate Registry [contact information for obtaining deceased estate wills & grants of probate]
  • Supreme Court Building, 1 Gouger Street, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
  • Telephone: +618 8204 0505
• Supreme Court Registry [contact information]
  • 1 Gouger Street, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
  • Telephone: +618 8204 0476 & +618 8204 0478
• Court records including divorce more than 110 y old — an involved procedure that may require more than one visit to the court registry
• SA Prison Records 1838-1912 [FamilySearch]

Electoral rolls

• Australian Electoral Commission — state offices
• Electoral Commission SA
• State Library of SA has an incomplete set of electoral rolls

Government archives

• Adelaide City Council Archives
• Births, Deaths & Marriages Registry Office
• Local Governments [Councils]
• National Archives of Australia — state offices
  • Family History
  • RecordSearch
• South Australian Government Gazette 1839 to 1999 [digitised]
• South Australian Government Gazette 1999 to present [digitised & searchable]
• State Records of South Australia — Family History
  • A-Z for Researchers
  • Fact Sheets [wide range of topics including court records]
  • Adelaide Hospital admission registers
  • Divorce — files GRG 36/23 & 36/51 give petitions to the Supreme Court in the period 1859-93. The results of the petitions are usually not given

Immigration

• Shipping and migration resources

Land, maps and place names

• Land Services SA
  • SAILIS — South Australian Integrated Land Information System [includes free historical searching from 1858]
• Local government boundaries maps
• Location SA Map Viewer [location data includes addresses, postcodes, regions or localities, roads, land boundaries, habitats, census areas, map coordinates]

Libraries & newspapers

• Flinders University Library
• SAGHS Library
• National Library of Australia — Trove digitised newspapers [searchable within OCR limitations]
• Struck a brick wall researching a particular ancestor?
  • Can You Help, Sunday Mail [newspaper]
    GPO Box 339, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia
    Email: canyouhelp@sundaymail.com.au
• Public Libraries of South Australia
• State Library of South Australia
  • Almanacks & directories [digitised & searchable]
  • Ask us
  • Family History
  • Home access databases including 'Ancestry' and 'MyHeritage' [library card required — SA residents only]
  • Library Catalogue
  • Meet the Old Colonists [photographs]
    • Men — Banquet group
    • Women

Occupations

• South Australian Police Historical Society
• South Australian Whalers and Whaling

Wars & military history

• Army Museum of South Australia
• Blackwood Soldiers Project [WW1 blog]
• RSL Virtual War Memorial — SA & NT
• South Australian Red Cross Information Bureau [soldiers missing or wounded in WW1]
• State Library of SA — South Australians at War
• State Records of SA — WW1 Photographs
• VeteransSA

Uncategorised resources

• Genealogy societies and family history groups
• History of Adelaide and vicinity by JJ Pascoe [up to 1901]
• The History of South Australia from its foundation to the year of its jubilee by Edwin Hodder
• Find & Connect South Australia [to help find institutionalised persons, past & present]
• History SA — History Trust of SA
• Oral History Association of Australia — South Australia Branch
• South Australia Genealogy [Facebook group]