Baptist Church Records in Australia

Libraries
National Library of Australia Parkes Place Canberra ACT 2600 Australia Telephone: +61 (0)2 6262 1111 Address postal enquiries to: Reader Services National Library of Australia Canberra ACT 2600 Australia
 * How do I research my family history?
 * Catalogue Search
 * Ask a Librarian

Societies

 * The Society of Australian Genealogists, based in Sydney, provides an expert and specialist family history service, and holds microfilms of records of churches of all denominations throughout Australia and overseas. The SAG sells copies of their microfilms to family history societies, historical societies, and libraries.

Writing to Local Churches

 * Baptist Churches Western Australia Find a Church
 * Baptist Union of Victoria Find a Church
 * Tasmanian Baptists Find a Church
 * Baptist Churches South Australia Find a Church
 * Queensland Baptists Find a Church
 * Baptist Association New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory Find a Church
 * Baptist Union of the Northern Territory Churches

Birth, marriage, and death registers are kept at the current individual churches. Contact the current minister to find out what records are still available.
 * Make an appointment to look at the records. Or ask the minister of the church to make a copy of the record for you.
 * To find church staff available, you might have to visit on Sunday.
 * Ask for small searches at a time, such as one birth record or a specific marriage. Never ask for "everything on a family or surname".
 * A donation ($25-$40) for their time and effort to help you would be appropriate.
 * If the church has a website, you may be able to e-mail a message.
 * See the Letter Writing Guide for Genealogy for help with composing letters.

Historical Background

 * Australian Baptist Ministries (formerly Baptist Union of Australia) is the oldest and largest national cooperative body of Baptists in Australia. The Baptist Union of Australia was inaugurated on 24 August 1926 at the Burton Street Church in Sydney. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance.
 * Baptist work in Australia began in Sydney in 1831, forty-three years after the British penal colony was established.
 * The first preacher was John McKaeg, who conducted the first Baptist service on Sunday 24 April in The Rose and Crown Inn on the corner of Castlereagh and King Streets.
 * It was not until 1835 that the first church was established in Hobart Town by Henry Dowling, a strict Calvinist. *John Saunders, who had been sent by the Baptist Missionary Society of England to Sydney in 1834, raised the funding to erect a second church which was opened on 23 September 1836.
 * The first state Union was formed in Victoria in 1862.
 * The national Baptist Union was founded in 1926 by representatives from existing state unions.
 * According to a denomination census released in 2020, it claimed 1,021 churches and 76,046 members.