Research Guides: Births, deaths and marriages: Births and baptisms

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Births and baptisms

Researching births and bapitisms

Begin researching your ancestor's birth and baptism by finding their birth certificate, then using other resources such as church registers, newspapers and other genealogical resources to fill in the gaps.

Make sure you view or buy a copy of the original records as they usually have more details than the index.

Use this information to work back through the generations.

Beginning your family history research
For more tips and strategies see Beginning your family history research

About the resources

Your ancestor's record might not include all the details that we've listed. The information documented can vary from record to record, especially earlier records as they tend not to contain as much information as later records.

Find your ancestor's birth certificate

NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages - Search
NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages offer free, unrestricted searching with no identification required for:
- Births over 100 years ago
- Deaths over 30 years ago
- Marriages over 50 years ago
These records of births, deaths and marriages in NSW date from 1856. Early church records from 1788 to 1855 are also available.
Australia birth index, 1788–1922 - Ancestry Library Edition [eresource]
Search across births from all registries in Australia. Find the year and place of your ancestor’s birth and registration, their parents’ given names as well as the volume/registration number.
Use the information from this index to buy a copy of the certificate from the relevant registry. The records indexed for each state have different date ranges due to each states' privacy legislation
New South Wales pioneers index 1788–1918: an index to birth, death and marriage records [catalogue record | CD–ROM]
Find when and where your ancestor’s birth was registered as well as their parents’ names. Unlike other official birth indexes you can search up to 1918.
Perform a ‘wildcard’ search if you’re unsure of spelling - for example, ‘Byrn*’ will return results for ‘Byrne’, ‘Byrnes’ and ‘Byrns’). Also available on microfiche in the family history area.
Registers of births, deaths and marriages, 1787–1856 [catalogue record | microfilm]
Use the volume/registration number from the index to find and view your ancestor’s marriage record in the official register. You will find more information from the record such as their occupations and in some cases where they were born and details about their parents.
You're not able to make copies of the register. You can buy a copy of the certificate from the NSW Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Christening of son of Mr and Mrs Archer Whitford, CM Mission
Digital order number: hood_14090

Where else to find information about births?

You can find information about births in marriage and death records such as church registers, wills and cemetery records. You might find your ancestor's date and place of birth in these records.

Try other indexes

Can’t find your ancestor in the birth indexes? Try searching indexes for deaths and marriages. Check out the resources on these other pages in this guide:

Births from the past 100 years

You can apply for a copy of a birth certificate from the past 100 years through the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. You will need to be eligible to apply. Refer to the website to see if you meet the criteria.

You can buy certificates for births that occurred over 100 years ago through the Registry's website.

Family history transcription agent

You can pay family history transcription agents for full and partial transcriptions or verification of details. Unlike a certificate, the transcription cannot be used for legal purposes.