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Online Database Search

What You Can Search

Search our extensive online databases for your South Australian ancestors.

You are about to search the following Genealogy SA databases:

Category	Records	Time Period	# Records	Last Updated
BDM Registrations	Birth Registrations	1842 to 1928	727,659	17 Dec 2020
	Death Registrations	1842 to 1972	606,099	17 Dec 2020
	Marriage Registrations	1842 to 1937	228,603	02 Apr 2022
Newspaper Notices	Newspaper Births^{# }**	1839 to 2018	911,984	17 Dec 2020
	Includes Birthdays and Birthday memoriam (some incomplete years).	1967 to 2018
	Newspaper Death Notices^#	From 1852	1,775,537	24 Mar 2022
	Includes Deaths, Funerals, In Memoriam, Lest We Forget and Return thanks.
	Newspaper Marriages^#	1852, 1859 to 2018	422,478	13 Oct 2022
	Includes Matrimonial Petitions	1859 to 1893
	Includes Engagements, Approaching Marriages, Marriages and Wedding Anniversaries	1852, 1889 to 2018
	Newspaper Divorces	1879 to 1954	12,920	17 Dec 2020
Cemeteries Burial Records	South Australia Cemeteries^#	1836 onwards	606,269	17 Dec 2020
Cemeteries Burial Records	Includes Adelaide Catholic burials and some Funeral Directors.
Church Records	South Australian Church records - Baptisms^#	1839 onwards	40,482	17 Dec 2020
	South Australian Church records - Burials^#	1845 onwards	2,222	17 Dec 2020
	South Australian Church records - Marriages^#	1842 onwards	36,950	13 Oct 2022
Admission Records	South Australian School Admissions^#	1877 onwards	119,868	07 Oct 2022
Admission Records	Hospital, Asylum and Lying-in Home Admissions^#	1839 to 1940	252,202	27 Oct 2022
Other Records	All Other Records^#	1836 onwards	1,609,698	18 Nov 2023
	Biographical Index of South Australians^#	1836 to 1885	197,191	17 Dec 2020
	Irish Born South Australians (IBSA)^#		36,194	18 Dec 2020
	Ship passenger arrivals in South Australia^#	1836 to 1952	277,959	17 Dec 2020
	Ships to South Australia^#		14,822	17 Dec 2020
	South Australian Public Trustees/Deceased Estates^#	1840 to 2018	233,648	13 Oct 2022

Search Tips - for search tips on our databases - Search Tips

Important notes

# All databases with this suffix - # - are "works in progress" and are continually being added to and will be updated both in our library and online regularly.

Lookups for Members – Lookups for members is now disabled as all data that is available for a record in a particular database is displayed. For more information you will need to ask for a research request - Research request

Transcriptions of Birth, Death and Marriage registrations are still available for members.

* Please note, we do not have original death registrations from 1968 to 1972, only index records, therefore we cannot transcribe death registrations between 1968 to 1972.

** Newspaper births - non-members are provided with a limited view and do not have the ability to order look-ups. Members are provided with all the data that has been recorded on a particular record and there-fore the look-up service will not be available to them. However, we can offer a research request service for both members and non-members which can be accessed via the "View details" link for each record.

Before requesting a birth, death or marriage certificate, check our “What is in a Certificate When?” document. This lists all of the fields that may be available in the certificate that you request.

Our index records contain abbreviations that are defined on our site at Abbreviations Explained

Great! A Result! Is there any more?

If your search narrows down to a person of interest, remember that you have only searched an index. An index is usually an extract taken from a more detailed source document. If you get a result from our index and you want more details, order a source document transcription or lookup, which you can do online through this website.

Transcriptions and Lookups are processed on Monday and Fridays, you can expect a response within one week.

No! Didn't find a thing?

Well don't quit! If you are certain your missing relative should be in South Australian records, try varying your search criteria. Indexes sometimes have spelling or other errors, often reflecting an error in the original document. Untick the 'exact matches' box and look for different spellings, places or time periods.

People often contact us about errors they believe they have found. The Society will receive advice of suspected errors, and we may be able to correct index errors in the future, where we can access the original source document. Please send error reports to the webmaster or our research co-ordinator.

Be persistent and try different ways of searching. If your efforts don't help your research, or you still face a brick wall, you could always consider a Genealogy SA Research Request.