NEW Temporary, free access - for FINANCIAL FHWA MEMBERS ONLY

 Ancestry and FindMyPast  

These data sets, comprising indexes, transcriptions and other resources about Western Australia are made available by the FHWA Projects team, using resources donated by members.   Some are open to the public, other to FHWA members only. Currently there are 68 available.
    Public - 21
    FamilyHistoryWA Members only -22
    Cemetery -20 (some public, some members only) and
    Swan River Colony Quarter Sessions -5 (members only).

RED = New indexes  ** ongoing updates.

1. Publicly available data sets

• Baptism Index, St Augustine's Church Karridale, Western Australia 1898-1916 : This small database was originally supplied to the FHWA by an unknown donor, as a hard copy index.
• Christmas Island, Old European Cemetery Transcription : Geo-location Maps - data and photos kindly supplied by Andrew Peake.
• Irish Scene NEW** : Index of articles in the Western Australian Irish Scene magazine, created by Irish Special Interest Group
• Western Australian Churches and Western Australian Cemeteries : Pioneer churches in particular are one one map, and the other map covers Western Australian Cemeteries and burial sites. Want to see where your pioneers were matched or dispatched, have a look here. For hatched you may have to look elsewhere, but the maps might help with baptism church locations.
• West Australians in Yatala Gaol, South Australia : There are direct links to Trove surname for the people in the index for all Australian newspapers; some of them make colourful reading. The index covers the period 1897-1926. There were over 5,200 committals to Yatala Gaol, Adelaide S.A. from 1866 to 1926, all males.
• The Countryman "Flashback" Index Jan 1995 to April 1997 :  The index covers information about photographs supplied by the public for publication in the "Flashback" section of The Countryman newspaper, and includes; index of surnames and given names; notes on subject and location mentioned; reference dates to the original photos; and publication dates. Covering a wide geographic area of the state of Western Australia, including places such as Augusta, Dampier, Yorkrakine, and places in between, plus numerous names from the 1890's to the 1970's.
• Parkhurst Boys Index : from the book: Forced Labour for the West: Parkhurst convicts ‘apprenticed' in Western Australia 1842-1851 - kindly supplied by the author, Andrew Gill, via the Convict Special Interest Group; direct links to Trove Western Australian newspaper articles.
• Presbyterian Marriages 1898-1910 : index from three booklets of transcriptions which cover the period Janurary 1898 to April 1910, and are taken from original marriage certificates which were found in St. Columba's Presbyterian Church, Keane Street, Peppermint Grove, Perth, Western Australia. St. Columba's Church dates back to 1896.
• The Founding of WA : contemporary newspaper items - The Emigrant's Friend (1848) - The West Australian (1905).
• WA Pioneer Cemeteries : 4 (small) data sets for the following remote cemeteries - Karridale, Kurawah, Onslow & Wickepin. - These tables have been compiled by FHWA volunteer Terri from information contained on signs at the cemeteries.  Whilst not a large number, the surnames now available in these tables adds an important dimension to the data for remote and lonely pioneer cemeteries in Western Australia.There is a combined 360 surnames in the 4 tables. Some of the headstones may be found on the FamilyHistoryWA Lonely Graves website.
• WA Schools Records Index 1891-2005 : This index was compiled by FHWA member Dr Neville Green, as part of a paper titled 'Government School Created Records in Western Australia 1891-2005 - A listing of key records in the Western Australian State Records Office'. Dr Green provided FHWA Library with a hard copy which available in the Library. There are 2,687 records from government school records  held by the State Records Office.
  
• Western Australian Surnames Index 1900-1910 : This index has been created by FHWA volunteers, primarily from records held in the J S Battye Library of Western Australian History, in the State Library of Western Australia. Our thanks go to those volunteers and to Martin Pinnell for supplying us with the database which he originally compiled and maintained - direct surname links to Trove The West Australian newspaper family notices; 123,191 records.
  
• WA Ship Arrivals 1898-1926 Index :There is a separate page with some statistical information on the ships and passengers, and a List of Ships covered by this index: . There are 711 separate vessels named in the index; some vessels made multiple voyages within individual years, and / or over the period covered; there are 5,344 voyages accounted for the vessels in the table. Some vessels were on the Western Australian coastal trade, and made numerous trips within a year. The Western Australian Passenger Arrivals, 1898-1926 index is available to members only ( see below) 
  

2.  Members Only data sets and transcriptions

• Anglican Baptismal Registers 1926-1984 : Augusta-Margaret River Parish, Diocese of Bunbury  -  covers 7 churches across the South-West of Western Australia from Augu sta in the south, north to Metricup. Churches are: St Elizabeth's, Augusta; St Mary's, Cowaramup; St Augustines, Karridale; St Margaret's, Margaret River; St John The Baptist, Metricup; St John's, Osmington; and St James, Rosa Brook. A copy of the transcription is also available in the Library. The index includes details such as, birth dates where known, parents names, place of abode, fathers occupation, sponsors and other notes of interest. There are 1,686 baptisms, 567 surnames + some 650 sponsors entries, many with more than one name, and includes people in Group Settlements in the South West.
• Albany Marriage Declarations 1839 - 1855 : Both the index and the transcription images attached are transcribed from Battye Libray Accession No. 703 - Western Australian Registrar General's Transcripts of early Parish Registers. The original transcription is available as hard copy in the FHWA Library (Aus-WA-Reg- 977).
  
• Albany Deaths and Burials Index (1816-1891 apx) direct links to The Albany Advertiser newspaper family notices; 3,987 entries
• Can you help? Family reunions NEW**: Index to weekly column in The West Australian, compiled by FHWA Project Team
• Crimea Veterans of Western Australian Index, plus Crimea Veterans Notes and additional information
  • data & notes, supplied by member Diane Oldman. This data has been moved to its own website Crimean veterans.

• Colonial Secretary's Office - Inwards Correspondence : The Western Australian Colonial Secretary's Office (CSO) inwards correspondence from 1829 to June 1835 have been indexed by WAGS member Graham Bown on behalf of the Society’s Special Interest Group, the Swan River Pioneers 1829-1838. The letters are indexed by author and by name. There are 5,961 line entries in the letters & 14,281 entries in the names index.

• Died on Active Service, Index to death notices in The Western Mail 1915 - 1918 (Includes January and February 1919). A list of names of service personnel for whom a notice appeared in; Death, Killed on Active Service, In Memoriam or Bereavement sections of the personal notices or in a separate Killed On Active Service section The Western Mail  in the period 1915 to 1918. There are 4,472 names in the index
• Fremantle Cemetery Headstone Transcriptions : direct links to Trove The West Australian newspaper family notices; expanding headstone photo gallery, we are collecting photos from private collections to attach to this index - 26,400+ entries
• Home Office Criminal Records; HO19 - Registers of Criminal Petitions. : The National Archives (UK) has given approval for FHWA to provide these images for viewing by members only.  Apx, 1340 images, some 20-30 names per page = some 33,000+ names
• Justitia Hulk Woolwich 1814-1822 Index  The Justitia hulk index has been compiled from the British Home Office (HO) records in The National Archives, London. This is a complete transcription of the Register covering the period 22 July 1814 to 19 December 1822 from of HO 9/4. Convict numbers range from 754 to 6778; 6,250 entries
• Karrakatta Cemetery Headstone Transcriptions  direct links to Trove The West Australian newspaper family notices; expanding headstone photo gallery, we are collecting photos from private collections to attach to this index - 97,300+ entries
  
• Merredin District index of names :
  
  • index of individuals cited in The History of the Merredin District  by F. A. Law. A copy of this book is in the FHWA library.
• Photographic Index to Western Australians in the Armed Forces 1914 - 1918 in The Western Mail.  This index provides an list of names of servicemen for whom a photograph was published in The Western Mail  in the period 1914 to 1918. The photos were generally supplied by family members as the servicemen were perhaps wounded or killed in action. There are 4,809 names in the index.
  
• Reverse Marriages Index (1829-1857) of Western Australia  - direct links to Trove The West Australian newspaper family notices - 2,851 entries
• Western Australian Passenger Arrivals - Swan River Colony - Arrivals and Departures 1826-1838. This database contains details of pioneers immigrants arriving into the Swan River Colony and approximately 1,500 departures, there are also ages and details of marriages where known; 4,395 entries.
• Swan River Colony Quarter Sessions Transcriptions (1830-1840) : Transcriptions of the early Record Books, Indictments and Minute Books . The transcriptions are searchable within the eBook presentation. These four significant Western Australian historical document transcriptions comprise apx. 440 pages of court records and proceedings; cover some 227 individual defendants; numerous early settlers acting as witnesses or jury members; and give a great insight to the problems experienced by the Swan River Colony Pioneers.
• The Glasgow Herald, Monday January 11, 1875 : Notes on Miners' Houses
• WA BDM Indexes **  compiled by FHWA Project Team volunteers; sourced from the birth, death and marriages columns of Western Australian daily newspapers; direct links to Trove This project is ongoing and will include new indexes from 1955 to the current day as they are completed:
  
  • WA Births Index ** 
  • WA deaths index** 
  • WA marriages index**  
• Western Australian Burial Data + Cemetery Location map  This is another set of data compiled by members of the FHWA and formed part of the Australian Genealogical Computer Index (AGCI). The AGCI was originally coordinated by the Society of Australian Genealogists and sold as a CD (Ver.1). There are 314,702 people in the table, with 27,497 surnames it covers 302 burial locations across 109 local government areas of Western Australia. There are clickable links to Trove searches for the surname/s across Western Australian newspapers for the year mentioned. There is clickable links to the Cemetery location, and there is a geo-location map below the table for all of the burial places mentioned in the table. Thanks are due to FHWA volunteers for their efforts in searching out the data, Graham Bown for providing the original database, and Chris Loudon and John Blackburn for providing the GIS references and updating the data.
  
• Western Australian Arrivals 1839-1890 Passenger Index
  • This database contains details of some 27,907 immigrants, including Convicts and their Guards, arriving in Western Australia from the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and other ports in Australia. 347 Vessels covering 645 voyages appear in the index. The index was compiled by volunteers of the FHWA from passenger arrival information held by the State Records Office and the Battye Library of Western Australian History, and includes information retrieved from various newspapers of the day. There is an automated Trove search of contemporary Western Australia newspapers, results of which are available by clicking on the surname. The data in this index was originally released by FHWA as a CD in 2003; the CD is still available for individual purchase. The data in the index is the same as the CD but now presented in a tabular manner. We are indebited to the transcription work undertaken by WAGS members and volunteers in transcribing the material for this index, and acknowledge the work undertaken by Graham Bown and members of the Swan River Pioneers which was formerly a Special Interest Group of FHWA in producing the original CD.
• Western Australian Passenger Arrivals - Albany 1873-1899
  • This index covers the period 1873 - 1899 and specifically for arrivals at the port of Albany. Some passengers may appear more than once, either on the same ship voyage, or on separate voyages of the same ship. There are entries for; Stowaways; Ships Crew (whilst generally noted as such they may appear without a notation as being crew); Crew of other ships travelling to and from their own vessel; Convicts; recruits for the Midland Railway Company; through Passengers, ie. they did not land at Albany, and were bound for other Ports; Overseas, Interstate and WA Coastal Passengers.  Thanks are due to WAGS volunteers who transcribed the data many years ago from passenger lists held by the SRO and immigration documents held by the NAA WA branch. There are 11,267 line entries in this index, i.e. passengers recorded covering 221 separate vessels on 886 Voyages.
• Western Australian Passenger Arrivals, 1898-1926
  
  • This index of inward passenger arrivals at the Port of Fremantle has been compiled by members of the FHWA, from original passenger mainfests that form part of Series K269, held by the NAA Perth Office. We are indebited to the transcription work undertaken by FHWA members and volunteers in transcribing the material for this index, and acknowledge the work undertaken by Ann Spiro and Martin Pinnell in producing the original CD. Some of the data in this index was originally released as a CD, comprising some 300-400,000 entries depending on when the CD was produced; the CD is no longer available for purchase. Ian Scott and Chris Loudon have undertaken additional Quality Control (QC) on the database in preparing it for publication on the FHWA website. There are 560,209 line entries in this index, i.e. passengers recorded; some entries represent more than one passenger. Some passengers may appear more than once, either on the same ship voyage, or on separate voyages of the same ship, being regular travellers. There are entries for; Stowaways; Ships Crew (whilst generally noted as such they may appear without a notation as being crew); Crew of other ships travelling to and from their own vessel; AIF members relocating or returning home; Through Passengers, ie. they did not land at Fremantle, and were bound for other Ports; Overseas, Interstate and WA Coastal Passengers. There are direct Trove searches for WA newspapers by clicking on the surname. The WA Ship Arrivals 1898-1926 Index is available to the public (see above in the publicly available section).