How to use the State Archives Collection

When looking for a person in the records, think about how or why that person may have interacted with the NSW Government during their life (eg land, law, employment), or in the event of their death (eg, estate, inquest).

1. Start by searching for the name of a place or person in our catalogue, which draws names from across our Subjects A–Z into one simple search.
2. Follow this with other key name searches. Many records relating to a person or place will not include the name in the series or item title in our catalogue. This is because records are described according to purpose (eg, registration, communication, process documentation or visual documentation). The name of the person or place may appear within a register, letter, file or photograph that includes many people or places, not just the one you are looking for.
3. Search next for agency correspondence records (letters received or sent) in the catalogue, including index and register series of letters received or sent, which are sometimes the only surviving record.

1. Start by checking our guides at Subjects A–Z.
2. Follow this by searching the catalogue using key words.
3. Next think about the agency that may have created records relating to the subject, and search for that agency in the catalogue, making sure the ‘agencies and persons’ filter is selected. Click on the relevant agency, and a list of series created by that agency will be displayed at the bottom of the agency description page.
4. Search next for agency correspondence records (letters received or sent) in the catalogue, including index and register series of letters received or sent, which are sometimes the only surviving record.
   Correspondence records are often the best place to find information on an activity, process or event. If the correspondence on a particular subject covered many years, government officials often bundled documents together. These are known as special bundles.

• Most of the State Archives Collection is open to public access after a period of 30 years. This is due to a variety of reasons, including that some records contain sensitive personal information. Some exceptions exist and are detailed in our Register of Access Directions.
• A large number of items are not included in our online catalogue, therefore only an item range will be shown in a series description (eg, 1/2345-2356). This number range can be used to check the item lists (in our Reading Room) to identify relevant item(s).
• Similarly, a number of series are not included in our online catalogue, so it is always worth checking with an archivist if there may be other series that could be useful to your research.
• If you can’t find what you’re looking for, try our Ask an Archivist inquiry service.

Some works are covered by current copyright restrictions. They may not be reproduced, communicated or copied (other than for the purposes of fair dealing, as defined in the Australian Copyright Act 1968) without the copyright holder’s permission. The NSW Government does not hold copyright in material provided by private individuals (such as letters) and other governments.

• See information on how to request permission to use state archives
• Our Copyright and Research Guide also provides more information on copyright management.

We may be unaware of any current copyright restrictions on some material. This may be because the term of copyright has expired or that copyright does not apply to this type of work. The majority of images with ‘no known copyright’ are images where Crown copyright has expired. Check on Flickr to see some of these images in our collection.

This licence is used on some parts of our website, like our finding aid material such as Research Guides. This licence means that you can republish and distribute this material, including adapting and modifying the work for any non-commercial purpose, as long as you attribute Museums of History NSW as the source. A more detailed explanation of this licence is available from Creative Commons.

Administrative histories

Please note the administrative history information provided in the State Archives catalogue is limited in scope and is not intended to be exhaustive. The administrative histories for government agencies found in the State Archives catalogue are intended to provide general information relating to a government body or agency, changes to organisational structure, governance, purpose and may also include details of relevant information and changes made to it from time to time. Major structural or functional changes are generally included to assist in understanding the context of the records held as State Archives. For specific information the relevant government body or agency should be contacted directly.