Locating personal and family records
Signposts http://www.signposts.communitydevelopment.wa.gov.au
Signposts is an online resource designed to help people who were placed in residential, out of home care as children – or who have lived in supported accommodation as a young person – find records and other documents related to their time in those facilities. Signposts contains information and contact details for more than 200 facilities that provided some sort of residential, out-of-home care in Western Australia from 1920, sometimes even earlier.
Family Information Records Bureau http://www.dcp.wa.gov.au
The Family Information Records Bureau (FIRB) is a division of the WA Government Department for Child Protection, and holds records for people who were in State care in WA.
Phone Joanne Clarkson on (08) 6217-6356 or 1800-000-277
Aboriginal History Research Unit http://www.dia.wa.gov.au/en/Family-History/Aboriginal-family-history
The Aboriginal History Research Unit (AHRU) is a division of the Department of Indigenous Affairs (DIA) and holds family history information including a large collection of personal cards and files relating to Aboriginal people of Western Australia and their families. The cards were recorded and retained by the former Native Welfare Department. Applications for records can be made via FIRB (contact details above)
WA Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages http://www.bdm.dotag.wa.gov.au
Metropolitan Cemeteries Board http://www.mcb.wa.gov.au Has an online name search facility.
Medical Records www.health.wa.gov.au/medical_records/docs/contact_list.pdf
Medical records can be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 1992. An FOI contact list for WA hospitals and health services is available at the link above.
Catholic Archdiocese Archives
A source of information for child migrants placed in Catholic Institutions.
193 Harold Street, Mount Lawley. Opening Hours: 9.30am to 4.00pm weekdays by appointment.
Email Sister Frances at archives@perthcatholic.org.au or phone (08) 9228-8020 for an appointment
National Archives (Perth Office) http://www.naa.gov.au
The Perth National Archives holds records that may be of interest to British and Maltese former child migrants and their families, including migration selection documents and passenger shipping lists for arrivals in Fremantle from 1898 to 1963.
Reading Room: 384 Berwick Street, East Victoria Park (9.00am to 4.30pm Wed- Fri)
Postal address: PO Box 1144, East Victoria Park WA 6981
Phone: (08) 9470 7500 - Fax: (08) 9470 2787 - Email: archives@naa.gov.au
PHIND: The Personal History Index for Child Migrants http://www.cbers.org/phind.html
PHIND is an index of records for Child Migrants from the UK and Malta, sent to Catholic Homes in Australia between 1938 and 1965.
PAST PROVIDERS
Christian Brothers Archives
Email Archivist Karen Vann at KDVann@edmundrice.org
Records of Bindoon, Castledare, Clontarf, and Tardun
Sisters of Mercy Archives
Admission and Discharge records of St Joseph’s Orphanage and St Vincent’s Foundling Home
Records of the Catherine McAuley Centre
Email Jeannine Heinrichs Jheinrichs@mercycare.com.au
Sisters of Nazareth
Records from Nazareth House Geraldton
Email: admin.geraldton@nazarethcare.com
Contact details for other Past Providers can be found at Signposts website: http://www.signposts.communitydevelopment.wa.gov.au