Registration of Life Events

Official certificates are only available through SA.GOV.AU Phone 131 882.

See other pages for information about:

divorce records
management of deceased estates and probate, and
deaths on board ships.

Indexes

An online version of the most common indexes for life event registrations is available for searching via Genealogy SA's Online Database Search.
More detailed indexes are available through both GenealogySA and the State Library of South Australia.

We hold a microform copy of the Abbott Index covering the years 1837 to c1937. The Abbott Index was compiled by Frank Abbott from family notices and obituaries published in South Australian newspapers.
The original of this index is held by the State Library of South Australia.

The Ryerson Index provides information of notices and obituaries appearing in Australian newspapers, Entries date from 1803 and represents newspapers from across the country.

Digitised records

Online Records has more information about our digitisation program.

FamilySearch

- Index to deaths prior to compulsory registration, from 1802 (GRG56/68/20)

- Index to marriages solemnized in South Australia, from 1836 (GRG56/68/18)

- Index to marriages prior to compulsory registration in June 1842, from 1836 (GRG56/68/21)

- Ooldea mission rough register of major life events, from 1936 (GRG52/88)

- Record of major life events of Aborigines in the Kingston District, from c1940 (GRG52/44)

Registrations

GenealogySA provides information on the details that appear on registrations over time.

GenealogySA has provided a history of registration of life events in South Australia.

Stillbirths

Registrations of still-births was possible from 1936, however it was not compulsory until 1996. In some circumstances the registration of a later sibling may mention a previous pregnancy.

Cemeteries sometimes recorded the burial of the stillborn child and hospitals may have recorded the admission of the mother for the birth.