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Judy Webster's Genealogy Tips and Indexes for local, interstate & overseas folk with historical records in Queensland and other Australian States. © Copyright, Judy Webster.    Search this site Why I use and recommend Findmypast

Have you ever applied for a certificate and discovered, when it arrived, that it wasn't for your family? My Miscellaneous Australian Certificates Index ('Unrelated Certificates Index'), established in the early 1980s, was the first of its kind in this country. It provided a single nation-wide collection point for unwanted Australian certificates. Unlike some other collections, this one indexes EVERY name on a certificate, and a one-letter code indicates whether the person was the bride, groom, person born or baptised, or the deceased - or someone else (a relative, witness, undertaker, minister of religion, doctor, midwife, district registrar etc.)

More than 990 certificates have already been indexed (10,000 names). The names will be added to my Web site in stages, and Part 1 is already here.

Benefits of the Miscellaneous Australian Certificates Index

• Save money.   Obtain details without paying full price for a certificate.

• Find 'missing' people.   ALL legible names are indexed, not just the main person. All women are indexed under married, maiden and previous surnames if these are stated or implied. The index may therefore help to trace people who 'disappeared'.

  Example (1): If you can't find a marriage, maybe it was registered under a different spelling. Search this index for the maiden name of the subject's mother.

  Example (2): Your 'missing person' may be listed in this index as a witness to a marriage, burial or baptism. The certificate will prove that he/she was in a certain place on a certain date.

• Find details not available in the country of origin.   Ask yourself, 'Could a member of that family have married or died in Australia?'  Most Australian marriage and death certificates give age, place of birth, father's name and occupation, and mother's maiden name. Researching a relative who emigrated to Australia is often the best way for British researchers (and others) to overcome dead ends.

• Contact others researching the same family.   Some certificates are annotated with the name and address of a person who is researching that family.

Indexes available and in progress

This is a an on-going project, and the index will be placed on my Web site in stages.

• Part 1:  available now  (about 1,600 names from 162 certificates)
• Parts 2 - 6:  to be added later  (about 8,400 names from 830 certificates)
• Part 7:  not yet indexed  (hundreds of certificates!)

To find out when Parts 2-7 of the index are available, watch for announcements on What's New or in my free newsletter.

Other Suggestions

Free certificates in Archives files.

What details are on Queensland certificates?

Queensland birth, death and marriage indexes.

My other genealogy sites have additional advice and names.

Search this site  (do NOT use apostrophes; read search results page carefully)

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