Troubleshooting

Suggestions for when you get stuck

Can’t find birth details for someone

If you can’t find birth details for someone in the birth/death/marriage (BDM) indexes for the Australian State you know/thought they were born in, try the following:

• Search the BDM index using different spellings of their surname and/or first name. If the site allows, use wildcards (e.g. *, including the first letter of their surname, followed by *, or even the first and last letters of their surname, with * in between). Also try shortened or variations of first names; e.g. ann* for Ann, Anne, Annie, Anneliese, etc.
• Check the BDM indexes for other Australian States/Territories.
• Check one of the online cemetery sites (as listed on the Cemeteries page on this website) – sometimes birth date and place are included on people’s gravestones and/or cemetery listings.
• ancestry.com – either your own account or at the library; but, be wary of accepting the details in other people’s family trees as being accurate; they can provide good ‘hints’ for you to follow up with more reliable sources though.
• Check the BDM indexes for New Zealand (I know this site is about Australian genealogy, but I have been pleasantly surprised to find birth entries for people in the easy-to-search New Zealand BDM index website).
• Similarly, check the FreeBMD website for England and Wales (not Scotland, nor Northern Ireland), if you can’t find birth details for your person elsewhere (and you know they have an English/Welsh background).
• Check their military service record, if they have one (including for women). However, be aware that birth dates were sometimes altered (to add years, or to reduce years) on military service applications. Often the day and month are correct, even if the year isn’t.
• Search for the person’s name in Trove. Birth dates can sometimes be confirmed if someone wrote to a children’s column in a local newspaper, or had their 21st or other significant birthday celebration noted in their local newspaper.
• Search their father’s military service record. I have found children’s birth dates on a couple of fathers’ military service records; they are not necessarily accurate, but, nevertheless, can provide a hint.

Can’t find death details for someone

If you can’t find death details for someone in the birth/death/marriage (BDM) indexes for the Australian State you know/thought they lived in, try the following:

• Check the BDM indexes for other Australian States/Territories.
• Search the BDM index using different spellings of their surname and/or first name. If the site allows, use wildcards (e.g. *, including the first letter of their surname, followed by *, or even the first and last letters of their surname, with * in between). Also try shortened or variations of first names; e.g. ann* for Ann, Anne, Annie, Anneliese, etc.
• Check the Ryerson Index website, to see if there’s an Australian newspaper death/funeral notice for them, which you might then be able to access at your local library.
• Check one of the online cemetery sites (as listed on the Cemeteries page on this website).
• ancestry.com – either your own account or at the library; but, be wary of accepting the details in other people’s family trees as being accurate; they can provide good ‘hints’ for you to follow up with more reliable sources though.
• Check their military service record, as some such records include the military person’s death date, even if it was years after the person’s military service ended.
• Check State/Territory records/archives websites; these sometimes include death details for people.
• ‘Google’ someone’s full name. Occasionally this will yield useful genealogical results, particularly if you put ” at each end of their name in the search (e.g. “John William Smith”).
• Check the death notice for one or both of their parents; these sometimes include the person’s current location, which could give a clue to where they might have died, if in a different State/Territory or even different country.
• For women – check if you can find another marriage for them, particularly if they survived the spouse(s) whose name(s) you’re aware of. You can then search for a death under the later married name.
• For women – check if they actually divorced the only/last spouse you’re aware of and remarried, or went back to using their birth name (I found one instance where the woman married twice, but her first married name was on her death listing).
• Search by their full name in Trove; it might reveal details about impending probate, or other details in relation to their death.

Can’t find marriage details for someone

If you can’t find marriage details for someone in the birth/death/marriage (BDM) indexes for the Australian State you know/thought they were married in, try the following:

• Check the BDM indexes for other Australian States/Territories.
• Search the BDM index using different spellings of their surname and/or first name. If the site allows, use wildcards (e.g. *, including the first letter of their surname, followed by *, or even the first and last letters of their surname, with * in between). Also try shortened or variations of first names; e.g. ann* for Ann, Anne, Annie, Anneliese, etc.
• Check one of the online cemetery sites (as listed on the Cemeteries page on this website); sometimes there is a link to their spouse’s (or spouses’) gravesite(s).
• ancestry.com – either your own account or at the library; but, be wary of accepting the details in other people’s family trees as being accurate; they can provide good ‘hints’ for you to follow up with more reliable sources though.
• Check the BDM indexes for New Zealand (I know this site is about Australian genealogy, but, given its close proximity to Australia, it is not unusual to find BDM details of ‘Australians’ on the New Zealand BDM index website).
• Search by their name (full or partial) in Trove; some newspapers include wedding details, and sometimes even photos of the happy couple.