Tracing ancestors in the National Archives – Fact sheet 201
The National Archives holds records that might be useful in your family history research. By identifying the ways in which the people you are researching may have had contact with the Australian Government, you might be able to locate records relevant to your search. This fact sheet lists subject areas for which records are likely to be held and identifies fact sheets and/or research guides that will lead to the records.
You should also refer to the National Archives’ publication Finding Families: The Guide to the National Archives of Australia for Genealogists.
Defence force and defence service
Boer War
Civilian service
- Civilian service in World War ll
- Civil Construction Corps records held in Perth
- New Guard Movement, 1931–35
Coastal fortifications
Courts martial
Defence force personnel records
- Navy service records
- RAAF service records
- Sources of information about military service
- Boer War records
- Records held by Office of Air Force History, Canberra
- General Sir John Monash
- Army service records
- Navy service records held in Melbourne
- Defence service records for World War I and World War II
HMAS Sydney
- The sinking of HMAS Sydney, November 1941
- The Sinking of the HMAS Sydney: A Guide to Commonwealth Government Records
Maralinga
- British nuclear tests at Maralinga
- Aboriginal Deaths in Custody: The Royal Commission and its Records, 1987–91
Militia
National service
- Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War
- Universal military training in Australia, 1911–29
- Conscription referendums, 1916 and 1917
- National service and war, 1939–45
- National Service, 1951–59
- National Service, 1965–72
Pay and administrative records
- Military records held in Hobart
- World War II Army pay files held in Adelaide
- Defence and service records held in Melbourne
- Army administrative records held in Melbourne
- Navy Historical Records files
- Army and RAAF pay records held in Perth
Prisoners of war
RMC Duntroon
War veterans
The Archives also holds records on employment in wartime armaments factories.
Immigration
Aircraft arrivals
- Migrant selection documents held in Canberra
- Records of British migrants held in Canberra
- Records relating to Dutch migration held in Sydney
Child migration
- Child migration to Australia
- Child migrant records held in Sydney
- Good British Stock: Child and Youth Migration to Australia
Chinese migration
Displaced persons and refugees
Dutch migration
Italian migration
- Records relating to Italian migration held in Sydney
- Records relating to Italian migration held in Perth
Japanese migration
Jewish migration
Migrant accommodation
Migrant selection documents
- Migrant selection documents held in Canberra
- Records of British migrants held in Canberra
- Records relating to Dutch migration held in Sydney
- Migrant selection documents held in Perth
Naturalisation and citizenship
- Naturalisation records held in Canberra
- Records relating to Italian migration held in Sydney
- Citizenship in Australia
- Citizenship in Australia: A Guide to Commonwealth Government Records
Passenger records
- Passenger records held in Canberra
- Passenger records held in Perth
- Passenger records held in Sydney
- Passenger records held in Melbourne
- Passenger records held in Hobart
- Passenger records held in Brisbane
- Passenger arrivals index
Quarantine
The Archives also holds records on emigration and passports.
Internal security
Internees, aliens and POWs
- World War I internee, alien and POW records held in Canberra
- World War II internee, alien and POW records held in Canberra
- World War II internee, alien and POW records held in Sydney
- World War I internee, alien and POW records held in Adelaide
- World War II internee, alien and POW records held in Adelaide
- World War I internee, alien and POW records held in Sydney
- Wartime internee, alien and POW records held in Perth
- Civil Aliens Corps records held in Perth
ASIO and its predecessors
- Security intelligence records held in Canberra
- Exempt information in ASIO records
- Personal information in ASIO records
- ASIO files on writers and literary groups
- The Royal Commission on Espionage, 1954–55
- Security intelligence records held in Melbourne
Employment
Commonwealth public servants
- Tasmanian railways
- Administration of the Australian Capital Territory
- Design and development of the National Capital
Customs and shipping
- Customs House, Sydney
- Maritime records held in Hobart
- Fremantle Harbour
- Customs shipping records held in Sydney
- Customs houses in South Australia
- Customs House, Port Adelaide, South Australia
Dockyards
Foreign and diplomatic service
Lighthouses
- Lighthouse records in Tasmania
- Lighthouse records held in Brisbane
- South Australian lighthouse records
Post offices
Territorial administration
- Papua New Guinea patrol reports
- The Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- Records of Papua New Guinea, 1883–1942
- Christmas Island
- Papua New Guinea Records 1883–1942: Microfilm Collections
Commerce and industry
Business
Copyright and patents
Industrial relations
Industry
- The wine industry in South Australia
- Excise control of distilled products in South Australia
- Regulation of beer and brewing in South Australia
- The pastoral industry in the Northern Territory
- Army Inventions Directorate, 1942–46
Merchant Navy
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Bringing Them Home
General
- Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Memorandum of Understanding with Northern Territory Aboriginal people
- Albert Namatjira
- The 1967 referendum
- Memorandum of Understanding with the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency
- Memorandum of Understanding with South Australian Indigenous people
- The Wave Hill 'walk-off'
- Charles Nelson Perkins
- Neville Bonner
- Aboriginal Deaths in Custody: The Royal Commission and its Records, 1987–91
- My Heart is Breaking: A Joint Guide to Records about Aboriginal People
- Tracking Family: A Guide to Aboriginal Records Relating to the Northern Territory
Prominent figures
General
- Australia First Movement
- Cabinet records
- JT Lang and Lang Labor
- Sir Frederick Shedden and the Shedden collection
- War Cabinet records
- Cabinet notebooks
- Charles Kingsford Smith
- Photographs relating to Sir Charles Kingsford Smith
Organisations
Prime ministers
- Joseph Cook
- William Morris Hughes
- Stanley Melbourne Bruce
- James Henry Scullin
- Joseph Aloysius Lyons
- Earle Christmas Grafton Page
- Robert Gordon Menzies
- Arthur William Fadden
- John Joseph Ambrose Curtin
- Francis Michael Forde
- Joseph Benedict Chifley
- Harold Edward Holt
- John McEwen
- John Grey Gorton
- Harold Holt's disappearance
- Edmund Barton
- Alfred Deakin
- John Christian Watson
- George Houstoun Reid
- Andrew Fisher
- William McMahon
- Edward Gough Whitlam
- John Malcolm Fraser
- Robert James Lee Hawke
The arts
- Commonwealth Film Unit
- ASIO files on writers and literary groups
- Introducing television to Australia, 1956
- Albert Namatjira
- Jessie Sinclair Litchfield
- Sound collections in Sydney
- ABC Talks Department scripts
The church
- Bishop Francis Xavier Gsell MSC
- Reverend John Flynn and the Australian Inland Mission
- Daniel Mannix, Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne
Points to remember when using the National Archives
- Most of the collection dates from Federation in 1901, and records do not become available until they enter the open access period. See Access to records under the Archives Act.
- Archival collections are not the same as library collections. See What are archives?, Archival terms, and Citing archival records.
- You must observe the reading room rules. You are using original records that can only be read or copied in the office where they are held.
