Short Guide 2 - Birth, death and marriage records: Deaths

About Deaths | Indexes | Records relating to Deaths

About Deaths

55. With Respect to the Departures and Deaths of Convicts and Settlers, I have to Inform Your Lordship that no regular Account of these Circumstances has been ever deemed necessary to be kept here in a Separate or distinct Form…
56…The Deaths Can only be Collected from the Reports of the Chaplains, and until After My Arrival Many of the Interments took place Without the Attendance of the Chaplains, or even the Decency of Carrying the Bodies to the regular prescribed Burial Grounds Which were at the time of My Arrival, only three in Number, vizt. Sydney, Parramatta and Windsor; the Consequence is that No Registration of these Events Could possibly take place, and even now the Returns made by the Chaplains are not Sufficient to Account for All the Deaths, Neither Can their Reports be looked upon as Correct in the Cases of Convicts, as they Can only Acquire that Information on Hear-Say from some of the persons attending the Funerals".

- Macquarie to Liverpool, 17 November 1812 Historical Records of Australia 1.7.615-616

Indexes

Microfiche copies of Indexes to Births, Deaths and Marriages
    * Pioneer series, 1788-1888
    * Federation series 1889-1918
    * Between the wars series 1919-1945 (deaths and marriages only)
Available to view on microfiche in the reading rooms.
Microfiche copies are also available at the registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the Society of Australian Genealogists, the Mitchell Library and in many libraries throughout Australia.
Online Indexes on the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages website:
   * Births 1788+
   * Deaths 1788+
   * Marriages 1788+

Probate index, 1800-1984
Fiche 5016-5182, 5266-9. Set of 171 microfiche published by the Probate Division of the Supreme Court.
The index provides the following information: number, series number, name, residence, date of death and instrument.

Records relating to Deaths

General records | Attorney General and Justice | Colonial Secretary | Coroners and Morgues

General records

Registrar General | Auditor General | Corrective Services | Establishments (Military) | Governor | Police | Principal Superintendent of Convicts | Supreme Court | Stamp Duties Office - Death Duties Branch

Registrar General

NRS 12937, Microfilm copies of Registers of Baptisms, Burials and Marriages, 1787-1856 *ARK
Set of 48 rolls of microfilm published by State Records in co-operation with the Genealogical Society of Utah and the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Sydney. Copies available in both State Records reading rooms Reels 5001-48; the Society of Australian Genealogists; the Mitchell Library and in a number of other libraries.
A full description of these records is contained in Short Guide 4.

Auditor General

NRS 366, Statements of the proceeds from the sale of the effects of convicts who died during the voyage to the colony or after their arrival, 1824-4 [2/848]
Reel 690

Corrective Services

NRS 2145, Death register [Darlinghurst Gaol], 1867-1926
COD 184
Original retained by Department of Corrective Services.

Establishments (Military)

NRS 4206, Copies of returns sent by the Commandant
Reel 712
Returns of deaths at King George's Sound, 3 December 1829-10 September 1830

Governor

NRS 4558, Norfolk Island: Return of deaths, 15 June 1856-15 July 1870 [4/1674 part and Mitchell Library AN45/8]
COD 200
The return records date of death, name and age. A separate return for 1870 notes when died, name, when and where buried, by whom buried and age.

NRS 4556, Norfolk Island: Register of births, deaths and marriages, 1894
Reel 2386

Police

NRS 10978, Annual returns of convicts who died, 1867-9 [4/4552]
Reel 694
p.157 1867, p.196 1868, p.237 1869, p.250 1870, p.273 1871, p.290 1872, p.310 1873, p.341 1874, p.367 1875, p.386 1876, p.397 1877, p.411 1878, p.420 1879, p.432 1880, p.441 1881, p.451 1882, p.460 1883, p.468 1884, p.477 1885, p.485 1886, p.492 1887, p.500 1888, p.510 1889 (nil), p.518 1890, p.525 1891.

Principal Superintendent of Convicts

NRS 12213, Convict death register, 1828-79 [4/4549] *ARK (Fiche)
Reel 690; Fiche 749-51
The volume is arranged chronologically under the letters of the alphabet and shows name, ship of arrival, age, date of burial, parish and occasionally other details.
Item list for NRS 12213 
Fiche 749 - A to H (to 1842)
Fiche 750 - H (from 1842) to S
Fiche 751 - T to Y

Supreme Court

NRS 13538, Curator of Intestate Estates: Estates Case Papers, 1821-1913 [6/3481-3910, 10/27478-2800]

Stamp Duties Office - Death Duties Branch

NRS 13340, Deceased Estate Files, 1880-1958
These were created to administer the collection of death duties. See Archives in Brief 29 for more information.

Judge Advocate's Office

Online Index
Index to Coroners' Inquests, 1796-1824

Attorney General and Justice

NRS 346, Card register to inquests and magistrates inquiries, July 1942-June 1963 [8/3048-88]
Reel 3148

Colonial Secretary

NRS 898, Special Bundles, 1794-1825
Reel 763
    * Norfolk Island: Annual returns of births, deaths and marriages, 10 April 1810-10 April 1811 [4/1169 p.287a]

NRS 905, Main series of Letters received, 1826-1982
    * Church of England: Returns of baptisms, marriages and burials, 1811-38
» See item list
    * Papers re the sale of the effects of deceased convicts, 1826-41 [4/2526.3]
Reel 690
The papers relate to convicts who died on the voyage out as well as those who died after arriving.
    * List of 107 Prisoners who died at Norfolk Island, 1 October 1836-22 April 1842 [CSIL with 42/5520 in 4/2583.1]
Reel 693; COD226
The return shows name, ship, age, county, date of decease, disease, and remarks as to character and conduct.
    * Returns of Burials at Moreton Bay, 1837-38 [CSIL with 41/5332 in 4/2539.2]
Reel 751; COD225
The returns show name; if free or convict; if convict, by what ship; age; when deceased and when interred.

NRS 1024, Proceedings of Coroners Inquests, 1809-22 *ARK
Reels 6021, 2928
Reports of some of the inquests held in the colony, arranged alphabetically by the names of the deceased. They provide details of the names of the coroner, the deceased, the jury and a record of depositions and the jury's finding. The proceedings of inquests which returned a finding of murder by a named person are not here. From 1826 on they are in the series Clerk of the Peace: Depositions and proceedings in Criminal Cases, 1826-1922.
This volume is indexed in Guide No. 30 Index to the Papers of the New South Wales Colonial Secretary.

Coroners and Morgues

The most important function of a Coroner was to inquire into unnatural or sudden deaths, and Coroners were authorised to hold inquests in all cases of death if the body should be lying within the Police district or districts in which his jurisdiction applied. In the remoter Police districts of the Colony where no Coroner was situated, magistrates could take depositions and inquire into the circumstances of death but, in such cases, a Justice of the Peace had no authority to empanel a Jury, as had a Coroner.

In addition to this function, Coroners had a common law right to preserve general order, were authorised to hold inquests on bodies of all persons who died in prison and could also hold inquests respecting deaths taking place in asylums, hospitals or public institutions. In the event of the destruction of any property, real or personal, by fire the Coroner had jurisdiction to inquire into the cause and origin of such fire. See also Archives in Brief 4.

NRS 1757, County of Buckingham shire, Van Diemen's Land and District of Windsor-Verdicts in Inquests; Buckinghamshire 1815. 20, Windsor 1828
Reel 2667
Verdicts in inquests, recording dates of death and of inquisition, name of deceased, circumstances and cause of death. Each verdict is signed by the coroner and members of the jury. In some cases for Buchinghamshire and in all cases for Windsor depositions are also included.

NRS 1780, Port Macquarie: Register of inquests and magisterial inquiries, January 1839-September 1855
Reel 3146

NRS 1764, Dubbo: Register of inquests and magisterial inquiries, 1904-17
Reel 3147

NRS 1769, Lower Hawkesbury: Verdicts in Inquests, 1888-1913
Reel 2667

NRS 1772, O'Connell Plains: Coroner's Notebook, 27 October 1883-21 November 1889
Reel 2242

NRS 1775, Parramatta, Silverton and Singleton: Register of inquests and inquiries held by R.H. Mathews, 26 July 1884-9 October 1894
Reel 3147

NRS 1778, Penrith: Register of inquests and magisterial inquiries, 10 June 1914-8 October 1928
Reel 3147

NRS 1798, North Sydney: Index to Post Mortem registers, 1907-08 [4/6589]

*ARK signifies that a copy of the record or guide is part of the Archives Resources Kit and is held by the community access points.