Some of the Registry's historical records are available online at http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au as Online Historical Indexes. Unrestricted records are available for the following events:
· Births occurring 100 years ago or more
· Marriages that occurred 50 years ago or more
· Deaths that occurred 30 years ago or more.
These records can be of great use to the historian, not just for family history, but also for the local history of a district and tracking the migration of families across the state and the country if combined with searches in other states. A search needs to contain at least the surname and a date range, then the indexes will display the following information:
· First and surnames of the subject
· Year the event was registered (not necessarily the year of the event)
· District where the event was registered
· Unique Registration Number
· Parent's given names
However, when using Birth, Death
and Marriage records there are some things to keep in mind. The
1856 Act established a number of District Registrars responsible
for the compulsory registration of all births, deaths and
marriages occurring in NSW. The people responsible for registering
a birth were the parents; a Minister for marriages, and the owner
of the house in which a death occurred to notify the District
Registrar of the details so they could be recorded.
Already, the historian faces some challenges: then as now,
registration of events may not take place at all because of lack
of understanding of the law, suspicion of the government, being
too far away from a District Registrar, high rates of illiteracy,
or loss of information in the mail (it still happens!). Hence,
events relating to indigenous people and the poor are often
unregistered.
There were also legal impediments, such as parents not being
allowed to register a birth after the child is six months of age.
This was quite a challenge for rural families who lived
considerable distances from the relevant District Registrar. It
was not until 1935 that the Act was changed to permit the
Registrar General to register the birth of a child at any time and
many births, which had occurred before 1918 were recorded at this
time.
Before 1856 the only birth, death or marriage records kept in the
Colony of New South Wales were the registers maintained by the
Churches when they performed a baptism, marriage or burial. Since
1856, the Registry has been acquiring Church records and
attempting to reconcile them with State records. This process has
never been completed so it may be very useful to contact the
relevant church to find details missing from a marriage
certificate or a baptism record. Marriages between the years of
1856 and the 1890s are particularly spare in detail.
The notification of an event was mostly verbal as notification
forms did not become widespread until after World War I. Verbal
notification is problematic for people of a non English speaking
background as the phonetic spelling of names vary between
individual District Registrars. Even on written forms, dealing
with migrants details can be challenging.
The humble Registration Clerk does not always know the correct
spelling or geographical location of cities or their suburbs in
other countries. An atlas will only go so far - you won't find
Hornsby, the suburb of Sydney in a world atlas. People with
limited English do find the Registration process challenging and
confusing even with interpreters who are available now but were
not widely available early this century or in the last
century.
The information that registrations contain can also be open to a
variety of interpretation. For instance, on a person's birth
certificate, the field stated as "Maiden name" actually pertains
to a question asking for the "mother's family name (surname)
before marriage". This can be interpreted as her maiden name i.e.
her name at birth; her previous married surname if she has been
married before and divorced; or any previous surname.
For example, a person can change their name several times during
their lives, so it is entirely possible for a woman to have been
born Mary Smith, who at 18 changed her name to Jane Hunter and
then married at age 25 to become Jane Dixon. Which surname does
she put in the field asking for her surname before marriage?
The information that the Registry collects also does not encompass
the complexities human lives and relationships. Death
registrations can contain past and present marriages of the
deceased, but only the last de facto relationship if that was the
last relationship the deceased had. Previous de facto
relationships are not recorded even though they may have formed a
significant part of that person's life.
The information in these records are only as perfect as the humans
who created them. People make mistakes and dates are difficult to
remember. The NSW Registry deals with people at emotionally
stressful times. Parents dealing with a new baby and serious sleep
deprivation, for instance, are hardly going to remember every
significant date and detail the Birth Registration Form
requires.
Nor is a relative of a recently deceased person going to know
every intimate detail and significant date of the deceased
person's life. The informant of the deceased may not even be a
relative - they may be a nurse or doctor who took care of the
patient in their last days and can only really inform the registry
about the deceased person's name and date and cause of death. The
date and place of birth and parental details may all be unknown.
People are also prone to creativity, particularly in regard to
their occupations.
The Registry records whatever is written on the registration form,
whether it be "Domestic Goddess" or "CEO of the Household". The
Registry logistically cannot and does not cross - check every
record. Cross - checking is only done when staff notice
inconsistencies. These issues can lead to inaccurate or incomplete
registrations.
The Registry holds thousands of records dating back to 1856 where
events were brought to the attention of the appropriate District
Registrar but could not be registered because of incomplete
information, missing signatures or the time lapse since birth, in
records before 1935. This corresponds to the current registration
practice of opening a file whenever the Registry is notified of an
event taking place.
The Registry makes all possible attempts to contact parents or
informants and obtain further information. People may have moved
without a forwarding address, forget about the Registration or
wish to put the event behind them. This particularly happens with
stillborn children who, up until 1969 could be registered as
either a birth or death. Since 1969, they could only be registered
as a birth.
The Registry is currently in the process of identifying
unregistered births which occurred in the last 150 years, many of
whom are stillborn children. Records also can remain incomplete if
a body was never recovered, such as in missing persons cases or
where unidentified human remains have been found. In these cases,
coronial reports and inquest records, held by State Records NSW,
may provide more information.
However, birth, death and marriage records can usually provide
very useful and much more complete information if you purchase a
Family History Certificate.
Birth Certificates contain:
· Full name, sex, date and place of birth
· Mother's details including full name and maiden name, age,
occupation, place of birth
· Father's details including full name, age, occupation,
place of birth
· Date and place of parent's marriage
· Previous children of the relationship - their first name,
second initial and age
· Mother's and/ or father's residential address at the time
of registration
Death Certificates contain:
· Full name, sex and age, date and place of death, place
of residence, usual occupation and marital status at date of
death
· Period of residence in Australia
· Place of marriage, age when married, full name of
spouse
· Full Name of last de facto partner if not married
· Children's names and ages
· Parent's names including mother's maiden name
· Cause of death and duration of last illness
· Burial or cremation date and place
Marriage Certificates contain:
· Bridegroom's full name, occupation, place of residence,
conjugal status, place and date of birth, age, father's name and
mother's maiden name
· Bride's full name, occupation, place of residence, conjugal
status, place and date of birth, age, father's name and mother's
maiden name
· Celebrant's name and witnesses
· Place and date of marriage
· Marriage rites e.g. Catholic, Baptist, Marriages Act 1961,
etc
All certificates produced by the Registry will have all of the
information on the original registration, in some cases even
amendments, corrections or annotations. That is, except in one
case. By law the words 'illegitimate' or 'spinster' cannot appear
on any birth certificate issued even if the original registration
included them.
Family History Certificates can be purchase online or the
application form can be downloaded, printed and posted or faxed to
the Registry with payment. If the Registration number, available
from the Online Historical Indexes, is included in the
application, the applicant can receive a slight discount on the
standard fee for a certificate.
An alternative is to use a transciption
agent
NSW BDMs - transcriptions.com.au
So despite some challenges of interpretation and the
incompleteness of some records, the registers of births, deaths
and marriages are a valuable resource for the study of the
population of NSW in the past, as well as for future
generations.
Examples of Birth, Death and Marriage certificates can be seen
at:
http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/interestingCertificates.htm
Family
History Research
Reports are available on families from NSW, includes birth,
death, marriage, children and other information. 3 generations
report and an ancestor chart, burials, shipping records and
occupations. No details on living people will be issue. Research
and reports includes suggestions for future research and a list of
all sources searched. New researchers will find these a great
resource to start off their family history. Email
Request
or Cathy Dunn Ph: 02 44554780
© Karen
Schamberger December
2005: Member of the Professional
Historian Association NSW