South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society

14/11/2025

The Genealogy SA Library is a great place to find fantastic family history treasures – like Oscar the cat! 🐱

Find your family history with our extensive resources, including South Australian BDM records, newspaper death notices, burial records and more! Plus, enjoy in-library access to Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast, The Genealogist, FamilySearch Affiliate resources and other must-have genealogy tools.

We also have a massive collection of books, journals and records, including family and local histories, how-to books, records on microfiche and more. Genealogy SA members can even borrow select titles – just ask our helpful volunteers.

Genealogy SA Library, 201 Unley Road, Unley
Tuesday 10.00am to 9.00pm
Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 10.00am to 4.30pm
Selected public holidays 1.00pm to 4.30pm
Genealogy SA members: FREE! Visitors: $30 full day access

Image: Genealogy SA Photographic Collection, P00198-486. The back yard at 'Daylesford'. Two boarders, the Rev. Pierce (Presbyterian) and Mr. Easterbrook with Oscar. Mr. Easterbrook was the head master at North Broken Hill School. When Oscar fell down the well one day he climbed down to rescue him.

12/11/2025

NEW DATABASE UPDATE – 726,000+ new records!

We are excited to let you know that we have made a major update to our 'All Other Records' dataset, with more than 725,000 new records added across thirteen NEW topics! Search the database today and find out what your ancestors were up to: www.genealogysa.org.au/resources/online-database-search

📄 Business Agents - 3,625 records
👨‍⚖️Circuit and District Courts - 58,267
💰 Gold Buyers Register - 1,355
🏊 Grange SLSC Annual reports - 59,970
📃 Land Agents Register - 28,192
📜 Land Valuers Register - 7,810
🥼 Medical Register - Specialists - 37,763
💵 Moneylenders - 3,009
⛪ Napperby South Methodist Church Trust Minutes - 137
💰 Return of Balances of Intestate Estates - 20,493
👮 South Australia - First Police Force - 58
👨‍⚖️ Supreme Court - 37,425
✉️ Unclaimed Letters - 468,305

More information about available records can be found in the Information Sheets for each dataset. Thanks as always to our volunteers for transcribing the data for these records to enable look up through our online database search functionality on the website.

Images: Genealogy SA Photographic Collection
P00233-001 Grange SLSC open boat race winning crew, Miranda, NSW, 1988.
P00182-13 Hospital staff photograph, White Cliffs Hospital, Broken Hill, 1906.

10/11/2025

Would you like to be part of expanding and improving Genealogy SA's databases? Join us for our next general working bee!

Sunday 16 November, 10am to 3.30pm
Tea, coffee, fruit juice, fruit and a subway lunch are provided.
Tasks and projects vary, but can include data entry, checking, and corrections, as well as image renaming.

Database working bees are a great way to get involved with Genealogy SA, and new volunteers are always welcome. For all the details, or to register, just contact saghs.randd@saghs.org.au.

07/11/2025

It's Pageant weekend! The Christmas Pageant has been running in Adelaide for more than 90 years, and it holds special memories for many South Australian families. From humble beginnings in 1933, the Christmas Pageant has grown to be the Southern Hemisphere's largest public parade, full of fantasy, floats, colourful characters, bands, dancers and more, shared by generations of Australians.

This image from our photographic collection is from the 1950s – do you have any family photos of the Pageant over the years?

Genealogy SA Library, 201 Unley Road, Unley
Tuesday 10.00am to 9.00pm
Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 10.00am to 4.30pm

Image: Genealogy SA Photo collection, P228-078, Christmas Pageant, Adelaide, SA, c1950s, Hall Collection.

05/11/2025

Join us in November for more fantastic topics from our Special Interest Groups!

Connect with your fellow family historians and register for one (or more!) of these online/hybrid meetings – FREE for Genealogy SA members! If you're not a member yet, you can attend one meeting as a visitor, so drop in and see what our Special Interest groups have to offer. Register via our website.

📜 The Legacy of the Vikings, Thursday 6 November, 7:30 pm, England Group, Online

🧬 Hunting Down Blank Profiles & Matches with No Tree, Wednesday 19 November, 7:30 pm, DNA in Family History Group, Online

📖 ‘A Strange Man’, from an Idea to a Book, Thursday 20 November, 7:00 pm, Family History Writers Group, Online

🗺 From Saxon Soil to the Great Southland: the Petschel Wends seek a place to settle and farm, Wednesday 12 November, 7:30 pm, Germanic & Continental Europe

🍀 Land records – analysing Griffith's Valuation and other land records including using FamilySearch's Full Text Search, Monday 10 November, 7:30 pm, Irish Group, Online

💻 Renovating Family Historian: A Tiered Approach, Tuesday 11 November, 7:00 pm, Family Historian Software Group, Online

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Members Show and Tell, Sunday 30 November 2:00 pm, Scotland Group, Online

… plus more from our other special interest groups! Visit our website for all the details (link in the comments)

Image: Genealogy SA Photographic Collection P00229-064, Walter Tapley Hall with Mary Madeline Bull c1923.

03/11/2025

Looking for a Christmas gift for your favourite family historian? Check out the Genealogy SA Gift Shop! We've just restocked our library gift shop with mugs, coasters, notebooks, tote bags and more – perfect presents for the genealogist who has everything 🎁

Can't make it to the library in-person? Check out our RedBubble store for our full range, including jigsaws, t-shirts and hoodies – there's a 25% off sale running right now! Link in the comments ⬇

31/10/2025

Coming up next week: join us as Ian Smith, author of 'For Love of Country', discusses 'How much evidence is enough, and are all sources equal?'

📆 Wednesday 5 November, 1:00 pm to 1:45 pm
📍 In the Genealogy SA Library, or online via Zoom
🎟 Free for Genealogy SA members, $20 non-members
⬇ Booking link in the comments ⬇

Ian Smith applies the investigative training and skills he acquired during twenty five years in law enforcement to his genealogical work. He tailors avenues of inquiry and pursues them in order to gather enough evidence to put each person’s name into print. But how much evidence is enough? Are all sources equal? How do you weigh the value of a source? In this talk he answers these questions in the context of solving complex genealogical puzzles while gathering the names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from South Australia who have served the nation in peace and war since Federation.

29/10/2025

Take the next step in your family history journey and sharpen your research skills! Bookings close soon for our online workshop series.

👩‍🏫 Sunday 9 & 23 November, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm (2 part workshop series)
🗨 Sunday 16 November, 1:00 pm, to 2:00 pm (optional drop-in session)
💻 Online via Zoom
🎟 Members $99 / Non-members $149

Join us for this online intermediate course and develop your analytical research abilities. This course will teach you how best to approach your genealogical investigations, track your research, and cite your sources. We will introduce you to fundamental research skills, share tips and tricks from experienced researchers, and work through practical examples of analysing the accuracy of documents.

Are you ready to take the next step in your family history journey? Learn how to sharpen your research skills!

27/10/2025

The Genealogy SA library is a treasure trove of resources for the family historian - but how do you navigate it? Join us on Tuesday morning for a library tour and get the most out of our rich resources.

📆 Tuesday 28 October, 11am
📍 201 Unley Road, Unley

Learn about our fantastic family history resources and the best way to navigate our extensive collections. No booking required, and the tour is FREE for Genealogy SA members ($20 for visitors, includes full-day access to our library resources with volunteer assistance).

We will be running tours throughout 2025 on the third Tuesday (7pm) and last Tuesday (11am), so if you can't make it today, pop next month's tour in your calendar!

24/10/2025

NEW DATABASE UPDATE – Newspaper Births!
www.genealogysa.org.au/resources/online-database-search

We have updated more than 77,000 records in our Newspaper Births dataset, adding detail to existing records where the date of birth, place of birth, gender of the child and names of siblings (if given) have not been previously available. The records updated are from the years 1965, 1966, 1969, 1971 and 1972.

More information about available records can be found in the Information Sheet for the dataset. Thanks to our volunteers for transcribing the missing records to enable look up through our online database search functionality on the website.

Images: Genealogy SA Photographic Collection. P00225-057F Philip Randall Hall and his nana, Mabel Ada Lillian [nee Bowyer] Donald, 1959. P00242-007 Albert Henry and Dawn Moule.

22/10/2025

Ready to take the next step in your family history journey? Book now and sharpen your research skills with our online workshop series!
www.trybooking.com/DGDNV

👩‍🏫 Sunday 9 & 23 November, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm (2 part workshop series)
🗨 Sunday 16 November, 1:00 pm, to 2:00 pm (optional drop-in session)
💻 Online via Zoom
🎟 Members $99 / Non-members $149

Join us for this online intermediate course and develop your analytical research abilities. This course will teach you how best to approach your genealogical investigations, track your research, and cite your sources. We will introduce you to fundamental research skills, share tips and tricks from experienced researchers, and work through practical examples of analysing the accuracy of documents.

20/10/2025

What can you find in the Genealogy SA library? Join us on Tuesday evening for a library tour and get the most out of our rich resources.

📆 Tuesday 21 October, 7pm
📍 201 Unley Road, Unley

Learn about our fantastic family history resources and the best way to navigate our extensive collections. No booking required, and the tour is FREE for Genealogy SA members ($20 for visitors, includes full-day access to our library resources with volunteer assistance).

We will be running tours throughout 2025 on the third Tuesday (7pm) and last Tuesday (11am), so if you can't make it today, pop next month's tour in your calendar!