Treasures in Australian Government Gazettes: Government, Police and Education Gazettes

It is true that birth, death and marriage records, wills, cemetery records, newspapers and a range of other resources are likely to tempt family historians with the wealth of details they can provide about our families.

However, how often do we think of turning to the gazettes produced by the government - the education, police and government gazettes - to extend what we know about them? The likely response to any suggestion that it is worth investing time and effort into these records is that they are boring and only cover people who worked for hte government so why bother.

But as the author illustrates with many examples in this book, that idea is far from the truth. Many ordinary people are mentioned, often with details that you will find nowhere else. Digitisation of many years of Australian government, police and educations gazettes now means that such a search is no longer a tedious matter, bu can return many treasures in just a matter of minutes.

We dismiss the gazettes as being irrelevant at our own peril. They cover the whole population - not just government employees, criminals and teachers. They are bound to include someone in your family!