You can find out all about your ancestors, be they royalty or paupers, by using the Library’s genealogy and family history resources. We also host events and training for those interested in family history, and keep a blog.
Genealogy, or the compiling of a family tree, is the starting point for broader family history research. It reveals details of related individuals extending backwards in time.
The Library's Helen Macpherson Smith Genealogy Centre contains a wide range of materials on microfilm, microfiche and CD-ROM as well as in print. The Genealogy Centre is adjacent to the Newspaper Reading Room, at the front of the Information Centre. You can discover when your grandparents arrived in Australia or find out about a distant relative who was a convict. You can look up directories, electoral rolls or birth, death and marriage indexes, the Ancestry databases and much more. We also provide access to online articles and databases.
Each year we run the Family History Feast, a day-long seminar for those interested in genealogy. You can listen to audio from many past family history events.
To hear about upcoming family history events, check our What's on calendar.
For help with your research, check out our research guides on family history.
For the latest genealogy news, visit our Family matters blog, which you can subscribe to via an RSS feed.
