• Biographical Database of Australia

More than 2.2 million names in the database so far.

Biographical Database of Australia

  • BDA is a research tool for historians and genealogists comprising transcripts & indexes of original records and published biographies of deceased individuals who arrived, or were born in, Australia. Advanced search function now available.
  • New in 2025: Baptisms, Marriages, Burials, more parish register transcripts 1830s-1850s for Port Macquarie, Brisbane Water, Gosford, Kincumber, Queanbeyan, East & West Maitland, Newcastle, Liverpool, Sutton Forest, Parramatta & Sydney NSW. Full transcript of Tickets of Leave 1824-1828 & Absconded convict notices 1814, 1842. Army pay list profiles 2,915 soldiers in Australia & NZ 51st & 96th Regiments 1838-1849. NSW Assisted Immigrants full transcript: ships Maitland, Mandarin & Magistrate 1838.
  • BDA now has: Full text of many baptisms, marriages & burials 1788-1850s (NSW), 1837-1842 (VIC), 1824-1850 SE QLD, including marriage witnesses noting whether signed by name or X mark & names of Catholic baptism sponsors/godparents + many TAS BDM records & musters, assisted immigrants to NSW 1832-1896, to Moreton Bay QLD 1848-1859, to Port Phillip VIC 1839-1851, unassisted immigrants NSW 1788-1857, multiple records of most convicts to NSW/Qld/Vic 1788-1840s, most Tasmanian convicts & immigrants 1803-c1824, Norfolk Is 1788-1855, most soldiers stationed in Australia 1788-1849, 160,000 NSW Colonial Secretary records, NSW muster records 1788-1830s + the only full online transcript of NSW 1828 census, 10,000 burials & inscriptions 1819-1901 from the Sydney Burial Ground. Full text of 31,000 colonial biographies.
  • View a sample biography to see an accurate level of detail for each.

View a sample biography to see an accurate level of detail for each.

BDA : A non-profit project.

  • April 2025: Latest updates:
    Total now online 2.2 million.
    30 NEW datasets: new records now online. Ticket of Leave full transcript annotations, soldiers in Aus 1838-1849, new BDMs 1830s-50s Brisbane & SE QLD, Sydney, Brisbane Water, Gosford, Kincumber, Queanbeyan NSW/ACT
    See View Release Details
    More datasets in the pipeline.
  • BDA links records of life events to create a Biographical Report. From one report, subscribers can hyperlink to another biography, to spouses, parents, children, witnesses, employers, employees and so on, through the entire database. See Sample.
  • Future stages of BDA will add more data from all states and territories, expanding from early records towards the present, including Aboriginal people, convicts and immigrants of all nations. Coming soon: User contributions and corrections function.
  • Cultural advice: BDA contains text quoted from historical published and manuscript sources which may contain terms or reflect views that were acceptable in some Australian or colonial cultural contexts at the time they were written down, but may no longer be considered appropriate and do not reflect the views of the Biographical Database of Australia.
  • BDA is committed to acknowledging the First Peoples of Australia.