Researching your family history links with St Philip's

---

Coming soon: Online Database of Baptisms and Marriages

Because of our relatively long history, dating back almost to the beginnings of the Port Philip District of the Colony of New South Wales and the founding of Melbourne itself, our small parish receives calls on a regular basis from people who wish to research their family history.

To help people who are researching their family history links with this parish, we will be among the first Anglican parishes in Australia to have an online database of all of our historical records of baptisms and marriages.

---

Births and Marriages
The most common requests we receive are for information about births and marriages—especially those which occurred in the nineteenth century or the first half of the twentieth century. We also receive requests for certificates.

Marriage Certificates are given to the couple at the time of the marriage, and the church does not keep copies, nor can it provide copies. All the church keeps is a record of the marriage in its church register. All marriages are also registered with the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Baptism Certificates again are given to members of the family (if the candidate is a child) and copies are not kept by the church. All the church keeps is a record of the baptism in the baptismal register. Many of the baptismal registers for St Philip's are in a poor state of repair.

Our Parish Records
Our parish records date back to the beginnings of our parish in the mid 1860s, and these include records from St Matthias’ North Richmond. Many of them are in a poor state of repair, many are handwritten making them hard to decipher.

These are soon to be rehoused in our new building.

Several years ago The State Library of Victoria was approached as to whether the records could be stored there, but unfortunately it was not possible for this to happen.

Our parish records officer and archivist have worked hard on the cataloguing and sorting of these records so as to make enquiries from family history researchers much easier to follow up. We expect that within the next few months we will be among the first parishes in Australia to have an online database of our records of baptisms and marriages, to make it easy for family history researchers with links to Collingwood to check details online.

Our parish is keen to be of assistance to you, but at the moment, our limited resources mean that enquiries may take some time.

Until we have the database online, a search fee of $30 will be charged which will include the cost of searching and copying if necessary.

Your next step
If you wish to make an enquiry immediately, would you please send an email using the 'Family History' link on the red 'Contact Us' table on the left. Include as much detail as you possibly can. We will respond to your enquiry quickly, but please understand that the search itself may take some time.

Please look at our history pages for an overview of the history of our parish. There are numerous photographs of the old church where many of the events about which you are seeking information took place. On the green 'Related Links' table, follow the 'Parish History' link.

You can also find much information about local history at the Collingwood Historical Society, whose archives are located at the Collingwood Library. There is information about how to contact them on our links page.

There are also numerous organisations who can help with family research, such as
The Genealogical Society of Victoria.
The Genealogical Research Manual of the State Library of Victoria

With the advent of an online database, we hope that in the future we will be able to be of much greater help to family history researchers, and ask for your understanding in the meantime.