Australians Overseas

• birth/marriage of an Australian citizen/resident which took place before they migrated to Australia
• marriage/death of an Australian citizen that occurred overseas
• overseas birth of the child of an Australian citizen

Information about births and marriages which took place before a person migrated to Australia will usually be found on their application for naturalisation. For further information see the National Archives of Australia's Fact Sheet 68 – Naturalisation records held in Canberra, and the section on naturalisation in the Genieguide for the place where the person arrived in Australia. Naturalisation records have the benefit of being easier to locate than original birth, death and marriage records in the person's country of origin.

If an Australian citizen married or died overseas, or if their child was born overseas, this should have been registered with an Australian Embassy, High Commission, Consulate or similar. Access  to this information can be made through the National Archives of Australia's Reference Service (provided that the birth/marriage/death in question took place more than 30 years ago).

Requests for information about births, deaths and marriages that were registered less than 30 years ago should be directed to the following department. However, note that requests to access information about events that occurred less than 30 years ago may not be granted: