National Library Of Australia - General Enquiries
Library in Canberra

We cannot comprehend the donate or plan for the tomorrow without the knowledge of the past.' Processing and describing our collections. Research tools and resources Family history research. The Library’s role, as defined by the National Library of Australia Act 1960, is to ensure that documentary resources of national significance relating to Australia and the Australian people, as well as important non Australian library materials, are collected, preserved and made accessible either through the Library itself or through collaborative arrangements with other libraries and information providers. By offering a mighty national focus in all that we do, and cooperating with others who share our goals, we urge learning, ingenious and intellectual endeavor, and contribute to the continuing vitality of Australia’s different culture and heritage.

Check our guide to Family history sources in the Newspapers and Family History zone to see what else we hold. You can also search the Library's catalogue for topics related to family history, such as published family histories, local histories, military histories and diaries, ship information and biography. Major family history related resources in our collections (with research guides) include: Other resources in our collections (without stylish research guides) include: Early maps of London and other cities and towns. Tickets of leave Certificates of freedom Pardons. How can I get a birth, death or marriage certificate from England? Where can I find Australian cemetery records? Material relating to your family history may be found in many parts of the Library's collections including: Research tools and resources Family history research. The Library’s Oral History and Folklore Collection dates back to the 1950’s and includes a wealthy and different collection of interviews and recordings with Australians from all walks of life. Smoky Dawson interviewed by Rob Willis for the Rob Willis folklore collection. Our Oral History and Folklore collection records the voices that describe our cultural, intellectual and social life. More than 100 hours of interviews, music and accents are added to the collection each year. Interviews with people who have lived through meaningful social trends and conditions unemployment, the impact of kid removals from families, the Depression, and migration to Australia. Some interviews have transcripts or summaries and our online audio delivery system helps you search the content of our collection, which can be searched through Trove. Forgotten Australians and Previous Child Migrants project interviews with people who were in institutional and out of home concern as children. The Joint Parliamentary Library Committee responsible for establishing the Parliamentary Library stated its objective as keeping before it the ideal of building up, for the time when Parliament shall be established in the Federal Capital, a immense Public Library on the lines of the world famed Library of Congress at Washington such a library, indeed, as shall be worthy of the Australian Nation the home of the literature, not of a State, or of a period, but of the world, and of all time.’. In 1968, when our building on the shores of Lake Hurley Griffin opened, it united collection material which had been dispersed around Canberra and included books, pamphlets, serials, manuscripts, maps, photographs, pictures, film, micro form and sound recordings. Since then our collections have grown at a steady rate. Over the ensuing decades, the acquisition of many already formed collections (items gathered around a special theme or by a exceptional collector or family.) The Rex Nan Kivell collection, purchased in 1962, comprises pictures, prints, maps, manuscripts, books, pamphlets and photographs relating to the discovery and settlement of lands in the South Seas. The systematic acquisition of publications from Asia and the Pacific after the second World War. The establishment of an oral history program, a dance and music collection.