Sydney Diocesan Archivist: Dr Louise Trott

Sydney Diocesan Archives: Information for Family Historians and Genealogists

Telephone: +61 / 2 / 9265-1620 Facsimile: +61 / 2 / 9232-7841 Email: [email protected] Postal Address: P O Box Q190, Queen Victoria Building Post Office, NSW, 1230, Australia [Document updated 9th March 2007]

The Sydney Diocesan Archives The Sydney Diocesan Archives is a private, in-house, corporate & academic research archive. The Sydney Diocesan Archives is not funded to provide a family history research service. Please read on to find out why, and where you can find the information you are seeking.

The holdings of the Sydney Diocesan Archives consist of a collection of records created by the offices & officers of the Diocese of Sydney, in the pursuit of their administrative duties, since 1836, the year in which the Diocese of Australia was created by Letters Patent. From 1847 onwards, other dioceses were created in Australia. From the time of its creation, each diocese became responsible for its own administrative records. Each diocese cares for its own archival records, via the Diocesan Registry. There is no central Anglican Archive in Australia.

The Sydney Diocesan Archives is funded by the Endowment of the See, monies allocated to the Archbishop of Sydney to administer his staff and offices. Thus, the Diocesan Archives is principally funded to provide information storage & retrieval services to the staff of the Archbishop's Office. The Diocesan Archives is staffed according to the needs of the Archbishop's Office. However, the work of the Archives also includes the provision of information storage & retrieval services to many other diocesan administrative units, such as the Sydney Diocesan Secretariat, the Anglican Church Property Trust, the Glebe Administration Board, Anglicare, and many other head office diocesan corporate bodies, as well as the many parishes and churches of this diocese. Beyond these in-house services, supervised access (by application) to our collection is permitted for a limited number of professional researchers of history, architecture, fine arts, etc.

Despite the private nature of the Sydney Diocesan Archives, nevertheless, a steady stream of enquiries arrives by telephone, email, fax, and post, from members of the public, many of whom are family historians.

As well as 'head office' records, the Sydney Diocesan Archives has substantial holdings of records created by parishes and churches within the Diocese of Sydney. Since circa 1977, parishes have been depositing their archival records into the Sydney Diocesan Archives, and the holdings would include records from approximately 250 churches to date.

Sydney Diocesan Archives – Information for Family Historians Page 1 of 4 However, not all of the parish and church registers created within the Diocese of Sydney have been deposited in the Sydney Diocesan Archives. Many parish and church records remain in the custody of the Parish Offices, particularly in the case of the very early (and city) churches, such as St James King Street, Christ Church St Laurence, St John's Parramatta, and St Philip's York Street. A very small amount of parish records have been deposited into the manuscript collections of libraries such as the State Library of NSW and the Moore Theological College Library in Newtown, Sydney.

The Society of Australian Genealogists & the Joint Copy Project The Society of Australian Genealogists, based in Sydney, provides an expert and specialist family history service, and holds microfilms of records of churches of all denominations throughout Australia and overseas. The SAG sells copies of their microfilms to family history societies, historical societies, and libraries, in order to widen the opportunity for members of the public to undertake family history research.

Of those church and parish registers which have been deposited into the Sydney Diocesan Archives, the Society of Australian Genealogists has microfilmed the baptism, marriage & burial registers up to approximately 1930, and in some cases up to more recent dates. The SAG has microfilmed these parish records in conjunction with the National Library of Australia and the Mitchell Library (State Library of NSW) as part of the "Joint Copy Project". They have also borrowed registers directly from parish offices. Accordingly, a large number of Anglican church and parish registers throughout Sydney have been microfilmed as part of this process. The great benefit of using the microfilms is that you can view a photographic copy of the register, and you can request a copy of an entry to be downloaded from the microfilm.

These microfilms are available for viewing through offices of the SAG, who can be contacted at:

Society of Australian Genealogists Richmond Villa, 120 Kent Street, Sydney, NSW 2000 Phone: +61 / 2 / 9247 3953 fax: +61 / 2 / 9241 4872 website: www.sag.org.au email: [email protected]

See also their helpful webpage about Church Records: http://www.sag.org.au/ozsources/church.htm

State Library of NSW aka Mitchell Library - Family History Service The SLNSW has a Family History Service which occupies the same role as the SAG in terms of assisting family historians, except that it is government funded and free to use. The SLNSW holds a similar collection of microfilms as do the SAG, as they are both part of the Joint Copy Project. State Library of NSW Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000 Telephone: +61 / 2 / 9273 1414

The Family History Service is located at:

Sydney Diocesan Archives – Information for Family Historians Page 2 of 4 Lower Ground 2 (Macquarie Street Wing), State Reference Library Their web page: www.sl.nsw.gov.au/family

If you live in a state other than NSW, your state library should have similar resources.

State Records NSW / State Archives The State Archives of NSW has web pages for family historians: http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/for_family_historians_3634.asp which include guidance on how to start your family history research, and finding aids and indexes for the government records you can use.

Local Libraries & Local History Collections Local libraries often have a Local History or Local Studies section, in which they collect and hold resources relevant to the history of their local government area. Local Libraries often host the local family history and local history groups or societies, and therefore can be a good point of contact with those organisations. Family history societies often purchase microfilm copies of the church records relevant to their own area. Accordingly, local libraries can be very helpful to you with your family history research.

NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages For family history research re births, deaths & marriages from 1856 with regard to areas within the Diocese of Sydney, you should always commence your search with the records of the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages, as compulsory civil registration commenced in 1856. For BDM records prior to 1856, information was collected and copied from church records, so the level of detail is dependent upon the level of details required by the church. This was in some cases minimal. For BDM records from 1856 onwards, the level of detail is determined by the government requirements and is therefore more detailed than previously required by the Church. The officiating minister or celebrant is responsible for supplying the relevant data to the Registrar of BDM on the relevant form.

The NSW Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages can be contacted at: http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au Telephone: 1300 655 236 They have a new & updated website which has search tools of great assistance to family historians, especially as it is free to search. http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/familyHistory.htm With on-line searching using their 'Online Historical Indexes', you can access basic information about births up to 100 years ago, i.e. from 1788 to 1905; marriages up to 50 years ago i.e. from 1788 to 1955; & deaths up to 30 years ago, i.e. from 1788 to 1975. If you want to purchase a Family History certificate from the BDM, you can access information about births up to 1905, marriages up to 1955 and deaths up to 1975.

Learning about Family History Research If you lack experience, you should join your local family history society, or look out for genealogy groups via your local library or heritage centre. These societies often contain many experienced researchers who will be able to guide and help you. Family history research is costly and time consuming, and can be frustrating as well as exciting, so you should seek help from those with experience.

Sydney Diocesan Archives – Information for Family Historians Page 3 of 4 There are many helpful books published on the subject. The Internet is also a good source of information. Local Studies library collections and the Local Studies Librarians who manage these collections, are also an excellent source of contextual information for family history research.

Funding for Church Archives Many church archives are principally in-house administrative archives funded to serve the needs of their own organisation. Any Archive is very expensive to set up and maintain, and it drains money rather than creating profit. The work of the Archives cannot always be directly related to the Mission of the organisation. Funding always reflects the primary focus of any given organisation, and of course, in the case of churches the primary focus is ministry & welfare, not the provision of a family history research service, or even a first-class archive. In a few cases, a diocesan archives is subsidised by another profit-making operation, which means that more public services can be provided, but this is rarely the case.

Accordingly, it is always best for family historians to use the services specifically funded and designed for them. That way you can get help from experts in the field, who are focused upon your needs.

******************************************************************************** Dr Louise Trott B.A. (Hons), Syd.; Dip. Inf. Mgt.-Archiv. Admin., UNSW; Ph.D, Syd. Sydney Diocesan Archivist, Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney Email: [email protected] Telephone: +61 / 2 / 9265-1620 Facsimile: +61 / 2 / 9232-7841 Post: P. O. Box Q190, Queen Victoria Building Post Office, Sydney, NSW 1230 Australia Website: www.sydneyanglicanarchives.com.au ********************************************************************************

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