Family history
If you are a beginner starting to trace your family history or a seasoned researcher looking to dig a little deeper, access our resources.
Many useful resources accessible digitally online or in the State Library and State Records Office to help family history researchers.
Exploring and discovering family history is made easier with national and state resources.
Many resources to help you track down your ancestry - country by country.
The J.S. Battye Library of West Australian History is a primary source for any information relating to Western Australia, historical or current.
The Australian Joint Copying Project holds a wealth of great material.
Ships were how most new Australians arrived here.
State Records Office
Ensuring permanent accessibility to the essential evidence of the business of government in Western Australia.
Dead Reckoning: a guide to family history research in WA
If you are a novice family historian, tracing your family tree or an experienced genealogy researcher looking for a long lost uncle. Dead Reckoning is your online handbook to family history research in WA.
Ancestry has 1.5 billion names in over 4,000 databases used to assist family history research from Australia, United Kingdom and all around the world.
You may be interested in...
Explore your family history. Some resources are accessible at home, and others only within the State Library.
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Monthly on the last Wednesday, 2 - 4pm until Wed 26 Nov 2025
The Storylines project connects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to the State Library's heritage, history and photographic collections.
Getting started
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Every 3 months on the last Wednesday, 11am - 1pm until Wed 26 Nov 2025
Do you want to find out about your family history and don’t know where to start? Let us help you at one of our free and friendly talks at the State Library and we’ll show you.