Researching Family History
Are you researching your family history? Here are some useful websites to help you to get started or to fill in the gaps.
Ancestry.com Library edition
Ancestry.com provides access to thousands of information databases including international census results.
Note: This product is only accessible within the library.
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial's collections and online resources can help you research the service and wartime experiences of relatives.
Use the search for a person feature to look up information on a family member, friend or relative who has served.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission casualty database lists the names and place of commemoration of the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars.
It also records details of the 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died "as a result of enemy action" in the Second World War.
Family History WA
The Family History WA has a comprehensive list of over 1,600 links specific to family history research and access to online indexes and databases (for members and non-members).
Family Search
Family Search preserves and shares one of the largest collection of genealogical and historical records in the world.
Maritime Archaeology shipwreck database
The Maritime Archaeology shipwreck database contains records and details for over 1650 Western Australian shipwrecks recorded by the Western Australian Museum.
Metropolitan Cemeteries Board
The Metropolitan Cemeteries Board holds records of all interments, cremations and memorials at Perth cemeteries dating back to 1899.
National Archives of Australia
The National Archives of Australia is the place to come if your family members served in the Australian armed forces or if they migrated to Australia during the 20th century.
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia contains information relating to family history and genealogy, including guides, indexes and digitised images of documents, as well as links to other informative websites both in Australia and overseas and pathways to make contact with other family historians.
Passenger arrivals index
The Passenger arrivals index includes over 3 million inward passenger names and manifests for ships and aircraft arriving at Fremantle, Perth Airport and outports from 1898 to 1978.
The passenger lists lodged in Fremantle included all passengers disembarking in Fremantle, and usually passengers travelling on to other Australian ports (such as Melbourne or Sydney) or overseas ports (such as Auckland or Colombo).
State Library of Western Australia
The State Library of WA has a range of heritage collections, pictures, maps and services including Family History tours and workshops.
Use the State Library's family history subject guides to find detailed information on resources available for family history research both within the State Library and online.
Trove digitised newspapers
Trove contains digitised Australian newspapers from 1803 to 1954, The Australian Women's Weekly to 1982, as well as books, images, maps, music, archives and more.
Victoria Park RSL - Living History Project and Roll of Honour
The Victoria Park Sub-Branch RSL is located at 1 Fred Bell Parade, East Victoria Park.
The Victoria Park RSL's Living History project aims to collect all the information we have about servicemen and women who came from Victoria Park, and the Roll of Honour series covers servicemen currently from the Town of Victoria Park town site who volunteered/enlisted in the First World War.
Western Australian Post Office Directories
The Western Australian Post Office Directories published by H. Pierssené and then by H. Wise & Co. are an invaluable source of information for anyone who is doing family history or research on Western Australia during the period 1893-1949.
Western Australian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
The Western Australian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages contains records from 1841 to 1932 (births), 1971 (deaths) and 1936 (marriages).