The Mutch Index

Thomas Davies Mutch (1885 - 1958), by unknown photographer, courtesy of State Library of New South Wales

This useful genealogy resource, especially for the early years of the Colony, is the Thomas Davies Mutch Card index to births, deaths and marriages, 1787-1957 (known as the Mutch Index). State Records holds a microfilm copy (Reels 2125-2129) of the original index which is held by the Mitchell Library.

The Index is believed to cover all relevant extant records relating to New South Wales from 1788-1828, except for the Newcastle Register and the Methodist Church records, and selected records to 1957. Later entries are from tombstone inscriptions and the most recent from news-cuttings and relate only to comparatively few families. A list of the records included is at the beginning of the index, and further information is available from the Mitchell Library.

MUTCH, THOMAS DAVIES (1885-1958), journalist, politician and historian, was born on 17 October 1885 at Lambeth, London, eldest child of William Mutch, Scottish omnibus driver, and his second wife Sarah, née Davies. He arrived in Sydney on 24 March 1887 with his parents and four half-brothers. Educated at Double Bay Public School, he left home and school after his mother died in 1899 and worked for four years in outback shearing-sheds. An enthusiastic reader, he absorbed socialist literature and the bush tradition.

A professional genealogist, Mutch was a council-member of the Society of Australian Genealogists in 1945-46 and was elected fellow in 1946. He compiled a comprehensive index to the early settlers of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land from parish registers, convict indents, musters and land records; the 'Mutch Index' is now in the Mitchell Library. A trustee of the Public Library of New South Wales (1916-58) and a member of the Mitchell Library committee (1924-58), he secured Jansz's original charts for the library, successfully lobbied for establishment of the State Archives in 1942, and in 1945 persuaded the National Library of Australia to co-operate in a joint copying project of documents relating to Australia in the Public Records Office, London.

He died of cancer at his Clovelly home on 4 June 1958 and was buried in the Anglican section of Waverley cemetery after a service in St James' Church. The Society of Australian Genealogists established the T. D. Mutch memorial lecture in his honour.

Victorian Family History

Thank God for CD-ROMS or it would cost us a fortune to look up Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriages on-line. The Victorian BDM charge 99cents to view a page. This could add up to quite a bit if you are researching your Victorian Ancestors. Luckily Manly Library holds
Death Index, Victoria 1921 – 1985
Edwardian Index, Victoria 1902 – 1913
Federation Index, Victoria 1889 -1901
Marriage Index, Victoria 1921 - 1942
Great War Index, Victoria 1914- 1920 is not available The Victorian Registry of BDMs have taken the decision to cease supply.
On the other hand congratulations to Public Records Office of Victoria, who provide not only great indexing, but also a good selection of digital copies on-line.

Price Rise

The cost of getting birth, death or marriage certificates from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages increased at the 1st July 2009, and it will now take 8 weeks before you receive them in the mail.
Family History Certificates for
• Births 100 years or more after the event
• Deaths 30 years or more after the event
• Marriages 50 years or more after the event
With registration number are $28.00 Standard or $49.00 Urgent
Without registration number are $37.00 Standard or $58.00 Urgent
Additional search for 10 years or part thereof is$38.00

New Zealand now on-line

I had always been disappointed I could not check New Zealand Birth, Death and Marriages records on-line, however the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Act 2008 allows the Register-General to now make historical information available. (http://www.bdm.govt.nz/)

This means that you can search for:
Births that occurred at least 100 years ago
Stillbirths that occurred at least 50 years ago
Marriages and eventually Civil Unions that occurred 80 years ago and
Deaths that occurred at least 50 years ago or the deceased's date of birth was at least 80 years ago.

You can use the link above, or go directly to the historical records database.

The site contains an excellent time line detailing the development of BDM records in New Zealand and further information about the records.

There are around 11 million births, deaths, marriage and civil union records.
Births Deaths and Marriages was originally part of the Colonial Office.
Births and deaths have been officially recorded since 1848.
Marriages have been recorded since 1854.
In 1911, it was required that Māori marriages be recorded.
In 1913, it was required that Māori birth and deaths be recorded.
Separate Māori and General registration systems were kept until 1961 although some Māori are registered in the general system.
As registration could not be enforced many Māori births and deaths were not registered.
Registers were also established to record overseas marriages and war deaths covering all wars since WWI.
Later registrations provide more information to researchers than earlier ones, however there is still a lot of useful information to be gathered from the early records.

If you have New Zealand ancestors, this is certainly a site worth checking.

BDM Indexes

We have been spoiled with our access to on-line indexing for births, deaths and marriages in NSW. We can look up births from 1788 to 1907, deaths from 1788 to 1977 and marriages from 1788 to 1957. Victoria teases us with a search facility then charges to look at the results. ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania do not have searchable on-line records, but Queensland and Western Australia are now on-line. Queensland has records available for births 1829-1914, deaths 1829 – 1929 and marriages 1829 – 1929. Western Australia has birth indexes from 1841 – 1932, death indexes from 1841 – 1953 and marriage indexes from 1841 – 1932. The Archives Office of Tasmania does have some on-line indexes, but these are limited, and births deaths & marriage records (up to 1900) are split between here and the Registry of BDM (after 1900)

Terminology

Have you noticed while researching your family history that in Australia we refer to Births, Deaths and Marriages, with these life events in alphabetical order, while in other places such as the UK, they refer to Births, Marriages and Deaths, in chronological order of the life events. What difference does it make?

Well it could make a quite a bit of difference if you are trying to find websites, but have inadvertently put in the letters the wrong way round.

Have you checked out http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/ for UK births, marriages & deaths? Does it come close to http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/ NSW births deaths & marriages?