Police Gazettes are a unique and fascinating genealogy resource for local, family and social historians, or anyone building their family tree. The information contained in the police gazettes varies a little from year to year, but you will find details of any changes within the police force such as promotions, demotions, resignations, dismissals, retirements, deaths etc. The gazettes have been digitised and are available as PDFs. For help searching the gazettes use the Search Tips available below.
Police Gazettes are a unique and fascinating genealogy resource for local, family and social historians, or anyone building their family tree. The information contained in the police gazettes varies a little from year to year, but you will find details of any changes within the police force such as promotions, demotions, resignations, dismissals, retirements, deaths etc. The gazettes have been digitised and are available as PDFs. For help searching the gazettes use the Search Tips available below.
Police Gazettes are a unique and fascinating genealogy resource for local, family and social historians, or anyone building their family tree. Compiled to be distributed amongst the Police Force only, these Gazettes therefore contain details and information that can not be found anywhere else. They were published at regular intervals (usually once a week), to make information available to all in the police force throughout the whole state.
The information contained in the police gazettes varies a little from year to year, but you will find details of any changes within the police force such as promotions, demotions, resignations, dismissals, retirements, deaths etc.
They include court lists, lists of warrants issued, appointments and changes in the Police Service, lists of Justices of the Peace, lists of arrests and discharges (which include descriptions), escaped prisoners, and missing persons, as well as lists for liquor, wine sellers, tobacco sellers, auctioneers, billiard and poisons licences. They also provide information on crime such as housebreak-ins, robberies, arson, murders, court records, lost horses and cattle, deserters, escaped prisoners, missing friends, and reports on those released. Notices from Police Gazettes from other states are also often included.
Anyone researching their family will have a 'lost' family member or two! You may well find someone here - on either side of the law. Perhaps you have a policeman in the family, a wanted person, or just someone who was a victim of a crime or just an innocent party to a crime or incident. For a wanted or missing person you will usually find a description, often detailed information not available in other records - name, aliases used, age, height, colour hair, colour eyes, distinguishing features, even colour clothing worn, the way they spoke, etc. 1876-1879
A unique feature of these volumes is the lists of publicans' (and other) licences. You can retrieve the licencee's name and address, as well as the name of the hotel.
Example entry taken from the 19 January 1876 issue:
Charles Dittmer, charged on warrant with committing wilful and corrupt perjury, in a case against Harvey Redgrave, heard before the Wentworth Bench on the 24th ultimo, has been arrested by Senior-sergeant Keelty, Wentworth Police. Committed for trial at Wentworth Quarter Sessions, Redgrave has since committed suicide.
Searching through a PDF (Portable document format) is different from searching through fully transcribed record sets. Here are some tips to keep in mind while you search for your ancestors:
Direct Search
The search feature uses direct search. It will search for the exact word or phrase you type in the search field. There are no name variants available through this format.
All search results will bring you to the page on which your search word has been found and not to an individual transcript. You can then read through the page to find your result.
Name searches
A name search will return results which have the search terms on the same page within the document. This means that searching for John Smith will return pages where the names 'John' and 'Smith' occur. For this reason your search may return the name William Smith or John Brown. By inserting quotations around the full name the search function will locate the terms together; for example, “John Smith.”
To search for your ancestor by their name, write it as it would appear on the document. For example, if your relative was known as ‘Will’ it is likely that the name used for official records was ‘William.’
If you are unable to find your relative on your first search you can try different name variations. A number of register books only use abbreviations for first names.
For example, if your search is unsuccessful for William Smith, try W Smith or Wm Smith.
Perusing the PDF
If you wish to read through the whole document you are searching, then order the results by page number. You can start from the beginning of the document and read through to the end using the next button above the image.
Page numbers often correlate with the individual images of the documents rather than the page numbers used within the publication. Therefore page 1 starts with the cover page.