The group assists members with research interest in South Australia to overcome the phobia most people have about it!  There is a great wealth of other source material available to family historians.   Our group hopes to bring these to the attention of researchers.   We also hope to foster contacts with the South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society and to broaden our knowledge of South Australian history and geography to enable us to better understand our heritage.

Newsletter:

Subscriptions $10.00 for four issues. Contributions welcomed from anyone.
Subs need to be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , c/o SA Group, cheques are to be made payable to WAGS Inc. Contributions are welcome - contact the editor Richard Watts via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

<< WAGS South Australian Forum

Contacts:

Convenor:           Ian Simon 

Email:                  SIGS Contacts - Convenor - South Australian SIG 

Meetings

Meetings are held quarterly in the Resource Centre at May St, Bayswater from 2:00 to 5:00 pm on Sundays - usually the fourth Sunday of February, May, August, and November.  Every meeting has a focus topic and sometimes a member or speaker will provide background information.  There is always a problem solving session, so please feel free to bring along your queries and we'll try to provide some light at the end of the tunnel!

Meeting dates for 2018:

Sunday 25 February Unit 4, 2pm

Sunday 27 May Unit 4, 2pm 

Sunday 12 August research in Units 5 and 6, 2pm (note date change due to National Family History Month activities)

Sunday 25 November Unit 4, 2pm

Next Meeting

Sunday 27 May Unit 4, 2pm 

Our May meeting will focus on how immigrants arrived in South Australia, what shipping records are available and then where to find them.

Bring along examples of your ancestor's arrival as well as your successes and brick walls.

The 2018 calendar is available at:

WAGS Event Calendar

Download brief notes prepared for a talk at the WA State Library for National Family History Month on research in SA. Download here    SouthAustraliaResearchNotes2017

Anyone with South Australian ancestors must not go past the three following reference "bibles".  With them, researching in SA can be a joy.  All three are available in either WAGS or the State Reference Library.

South Australian History Sources   by Andrew Guy Peake.
The third edition of this invaluable work (2007) contains a wealth of information and guidelines, contact addresses and information sources. Copies can be purchased from the WAGS Bookshop and are in the library for reference or borrowing.

Ancestors in Archives (2002)   A guide to family history sources in the official records of South Australia, ie material generated by state government departments.  Armed with this handbook you can then quote reference numbers of various records and then contact State Records to ask for a quote for the records to be searched, which will be greatly reduced given your ability to pinpoint exact records of interest.  State Records also has an excellent website at:   http://www.archives.sa.gov.au/

Kith and Kin (1994)  A guide to the holdings of the State Library of South Australia, including the Mortlock Library of South Australiana.

SA State Records and National Archives in SA

The above organisations have changed operating hours and locations. If you are going to Adelaide check with both organisations for location and opening hours. Find the organisations at:

National Archives at  naa.gov.au

SA State Records at  www.archives.sa.gov.au

Birth-death-marriage databases online

Ancestry.com.au, FindMyPast and GenealogySA (SAGHS) have the South Australian BDM databases online. Ancestry have included the events in their Australian BDM databases but have omitted some information that is in the indexes. GenealogySA Members Only Area and FindMyPast have the full databases online but searching is not as versatile as the Digger database versions which can be searched through EDR2 on computers in WAGS' Research Centre.

Both the WAGS Library and State Library of WA hold all available birth (1842 to 1927), death (1942 to 1972) and marriage (1842 to 1937) indexes on fiche and digital format. State Library also have indexes in book format.

The Adelaide Cemeteries Authority has changed the search interface on its burial index database on the Internet.  An extra step is needed to find all buried in the same grave. You can search the database by going to: http://www.aca.gov.sa.au/

The cemeteries with their commencement date are

• Enfield Memorial Park  1947+
• Cheltenham Cemetery  1876+
• Smithfield Memorial Park 1986+
• West Terrace Cemetery  1837+

These are some useful links to help you with your research.

Click on "read more" to see links for cemeteries, shipping, property information, place names and contact addresses.