Ancestry Library Edition

If you haven’t used Ancestry before you’ll be surprised at how many original records are replicated for you to print and store. PMI members can log into this database at the PMI, either on a workstation at the library or by bringing in your own laptop computer (we’ll show you how to log in). When you use a PMI workstation, records can be printed to our photocopier (20c per A4) or saved to a memory stick. If you bring your own laptop, records can be saved to your hard drive.

Differences between the Ancestry Library and Home editions

Ancestry Library Edition is quite different to the Home Edition of Ancestry. With the Home Edition, you can build your family tree and the database will attempt to find matches in the collections of records in the database for the people in your tree.

Ancestry Library Edition provides you with the ability to search the databases using details about your ancestors in the various search fields available – as you would search any other database. The other major difference is that there’s a great deal more records on Ancestry Library Edition than in the standard Australia + UK package, including records from the following locations:

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • Europe
  • Mexico
  • USA
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • New Zealand
  • South America

Australian Records on Ancestry Library Edition

The collection of Australian resources pertaining to Victoria including:

  • Census & Voter Lists
    • Australian Electoral Rolls, 1903-1980
    • New South Wales, Returns of the Colony, 1822-1857
  • Birth, Marriage & Death
    • Australia Birth Index, 1788-1922
    • Australia Death Index, 1787-1985
    • Australia Marriage Index, 1788-1950
    • Australia Cemetery Index, 1808-2007
    • Australia and New Zealand Obituary Collection
  • Military
    • Australia’s Fighting Sons of The Empire: Portraits and Biographies
      of Australians in the Great War
    • ANZAC Memorial, 1914-1918
  • Immigration & Travel
    • Victoria, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839–1923
    • Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868
    • Western Australia, Crew and Passenger Lists, 1852-1930
    • Australian Convict Transportation Registers – First Fleet 1787-1788,
      Second Fleet 1789-1790, Third Fleet, 1791
  • Stories, Memories & Histories
    • Who’s Who in Australia, 1921-1950
    • Australia’s Fighting Sons of The Empire. Portraits and Biographies
      of Australians in the Great War
    • A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry
    • An Australian Biographical Dictionary
    • Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time, 1542-1879
    • The Dictionary of Australasian Biography
    • Principal Women of The Empire: Australia and New Zealand, Vol. 1
    • The Australian Portrait Gallery and Memoirs of Representative Colonial Men
    • The First Settlement of the Upper Murray, 1835 to 1845.
    • With A Short Account of over Two Hundred Runs, 1835-1880
    • Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip, Australia
    • Benedictine Pioneers in Australia, Vol. 1
    • Fifty Years of Progress in Australia 1878-1928
    • Benedictine Pioneers in Australia, Vol. 2
    • Encounter Bay, The Miniature Naples of Australia
  • Schools, Directories & Church Histories, including:
    • Victoria, Australia, Index to the Children’s Registers of State Wards, 1850-1893
    • Port Phillip, Australia Directory, 1847
    • The Rise and Progress of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand
  • Tax, Criminal, Land & Wills
    • Australian Convict Transportation Registers – as shown under Immigration & Travel
    • New South Wales, Returns of the Colony, 1822-1857
    • Australian Convict Index, 1788-1868
    • Australia, List of Convicts with Particulars, 1788-1842
    • Australia – Convict Savings Bank Books, 1824-1886
  • Reference, Dictionaries & Almanacs
    • A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry
    • An Australian Biographical Dictionary
    • The Dictionary of Australasian Biography

Searching for Australian records on Ancestry Library Edition

Now that the Victorian birth, death and marriage indexes will be searchable on Ancestry, members no longer have to access old CDs and won’t need to keep changing CDs according to the particular time period being searched. The easiest way to filter your search to include only Australian records is to choose ‘Search’ from the main menu, then ‘Card Catalog’ from the drop down menu that appears
under it.

A list of options will be displayed down the left hand side, which you can filter by collection, location, date and language. If you choose Australia, you will have a further option to filter by state. If you want to restrict your searching to just births, deaths and marriages or census records, you can choose these by filtering under collections. Using these filters will help you to eliminate many unwanted search results. When you wish to search a different collection or a different location you can do this by choosing Reset all filters and start over at the top of the filter list.