Discover details of your ancestor’s birth in this collection of birth records from Victoria, Australia. You can learn your ancestor’s birth year, birth place, and parents’ names.
Discover details of your ancestor’s birth in this collection of birth records from Victoria, Australia. You can learn your ancestor’s birth year, birth place, and parents’ names.
Certificates for births, deaths, and marriages in Victoria date back to 1853, when the government began civil registration. There are also church baptism, marriage, and burial records dating as far back as 1836.
Births certificates are housed by Births, Deaths & Marriages Victoria. This collection on Findmypast currently has records from 1837 up to 1917.
The amount of information may vary from record to record, but most transcripts will include the following fields:
First name(s)
Last name
Sex
Birth year
Birth place
Father’s name
Mother’s name (occasionally includes mother’s maiden name)
Registration number
The original birth certificate (or uncertified image of it) will usually contain more information. If the birth occurred after 1 July 1853, you can expect to find additional information such as
Parents’ ages
Parents’ birth places
Parents’ marriage details
Details of previous children
In this period, Victoria’s birth certificates – as well as marriage and death certificates – were the most detailed of all Australian colonies’ records, making them particularly useful for family history researchers.
See below to learn how to order a birth certificate (or uncertified image of it).
In order to purchase a birth certificate, you must know the following:
Individual’s last name
Registration year
Registration number
When ordering a birth certificate in Victoria, you can either purchase a historical certificate or an uncertified image of the certificate.
The historical certificates include the Registrar’s certification, signature, and seal.
The uncertified images are scanned images of the original registration records. Designed specifically for family history research, uncertified images include the same details as the historical certificate, but cannot be used for official purposes.
The other difference between the two types of records is that uncertified images can be downloaded to your computer immediately after ordering.
Follow the link located in Useful links and resources to order a historical certificate or uncertified image of your ancestor’s birth record. Please not that a fee may be required for such orders.
Begin your search with just your ancestor’s name.
Refine your search by adding a year or a parent’s name.
If you know generally where your ancestor was born, you can search by a specific place. Try various places and spelling to ensure you don’t miss your ancestor.