Records and Archives

 Diocese of Grafton Records Centre

The Anglican Diocese of Grafton, extending from Port Macquarie to Tweed Heads, has established a Records Centre to function as an archives and resource centre.

Included in the holdings (along with a great quantity of general church archival material) are baptism, marriage and burial registers from 1824 onwards. Over 80,000 pages of these have been microfilmed. For privacy reasons, neither the original registers or the microfilmed copies are available for public perusal.

Searches are carried out by Records Centre staff for particular baptisms, marriages or funerals at a cost of $25 per search (effective 1 January 2010). A twenty four hour service is provided for the microfilmed material, including a certified copy of the information printed on parchment. Requests involving entries in registers still in use in parishes will take longer to process.

A Request Form can be downloaded from this site or obtained from the Diocesan Archivist whose address appears below. This provides for the name of the person, the type of event, the date and place of the event and other information helpful in making a precise and exhaustive search.

Researchers sometimes require details of a number of members of a family. This can be done and the cost will reflect the time taken for the research and the amount of detail required.

The Records Centre maintains a database on the 600+ clergy who have served in the diocese since 1824. This is a very popular resource for historical research.

A database is also being constructed on all church buildings erected in the diocese. This is a long range project.

Microfilmed copies of the "Diocesan News" of the Diocese of Grafton for the period 1894 to 1913 are held and are very useful for parishes celebrating centenaries. Hard copies of later publications are held.

The Diocesan Archivist and a team of volunteers are at the Records Centre on Tuesday and Friday of each week, so persons wishing to peruse original material can come then. Otherwise direct inquiries to:

Registry Office Ground Floor 50 Victoria Street (PO Box 4) Grafton 2460

email: archivist@graftondiocese.org.au Tel.: 02 6642 4122