Australian Newspapers - Trove



Australia-sewing machine 1938Using newspapers is very valuable resource in doing family history. Using Trove (National Library of Australia), will assist those who had ancestors living, visiting or working in Australia. However, just like all newspapers, they also carried news events / happenings in other countries. So any unusual or special events in the United States or England could very well have an article in any of the Australian newspapers.

This site, which is updated monthly, has 19,611,574 pages consisting of 191,179,129 articles available to search. The years covered range from the 1820s, all through the 19th century and into the 20th century into the 1980s.

Finding about weddings and death notices can be of great value. Use the search box at the top to place a surname. If you find an article of interest in the list after the search, click on it to bring up the article. The best part, there will also to the left be a transcription of the newspapers article for easier reading and to copy / paste the contents. If there is a photo with a specific article, then that image is enlarged for you.

Australia-Kershaw-1896An example: Death notice of Abraham Kershaw, in the newspaper Australian Town and Country Journal – Sydney for May 2, 1896. There is a full obituary write-up and a photo of the decease. It tells of his arrival in Sydney on Christmas Day 1837 on a ship bring English convicts to the Australian colony.

A reminder in your search, if you are using two or more words, such a person’s full name or a hometown, do place quote marks around the words. It helps narrow down the results.

Looking up the types of merchandise, cars, foods available to families in a specific time period can be found using the newspapers also. Select a location and a time range then scan over the papers.

There is lots to view with Trove since there are so many different newspapers over a wide range of dates.

Photos: Abraham Kershaw 1896 (a portion of the death notice) and 1938 foot operated sewing machine in Sydney.

Related FamilyTree.com genealogy blogs:

Databases for Queensland, Australia

Death Index for Australia

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