27/01/2026
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📣 Calling all family history groups!
Across Australia, there are thousands of local newspapers holding invaluable family notices — births, deaths, marriages, funerals, inquests, and community milestones — many stretching back into the 1800s and early 1900s. These records are irreplaceable pieces of our shared history.
At Ryerson Index, we focus on the death, funeral, memorial service and similar, but we simply do not have enough individual indexers to tackle the sheer volume of material that still remains unindexed. Nor do we have the ability to physically reach every library, archive, or historical collection across the country.
This is where family history groups can make an extraordinary difference.
Groups with a local presence and library access are uniquely placed to help:
Accessing newspapers on microfilm or hard copy
Back-indexing older editions, particularly early regional papers
Gathering notices for others to index
Or running a full working bee model — gatherers extracting notices, indexers entering them into the Ryerson system, and images forwarded to us for safe digital preservation
Every contribution matters. Whether your group gathers the data, indexes it, or works as a team doing both — you are helping ensure these records are not lost to time.
If your group would like a Zoom presentation, we are more than happy to talk you through the process, options, and how we can support you every step of the way.
🙏 Please, please, PLEASE consider taking on this challenge.
You may truly be the missing piece in someone’s family history puzzle — helping future generations discover where they came from, and who they belong to.
If your group would like to start a conversation, please get in touch with us here or email secretary@ryersonindex.org
