Family History Resources

Using resources from the Port Phillip Heritage Centre, learn about the history of family members who lived in South Melbourne, St Kilda, or Port Melbourne.

Search through extensive directories on microfiche at the Port Phillip Heritage Centre

Family portrait of the Renowden family, 1927 (Port Phillip City Collection PM2632)

The Port Phillip Local History Collection holds a significant range of reference materials useful for researching family history. Some of these are local newspapers, Council rate books and reports, electoral rolls, history books and directories. Using these and other resources, you can research family members who once lived in South Melbourne, St Kilda, and Port Melbourne.

Ancestry Library Edition

Ancestry Library Edition is a major resource for family historians. The data base gives access to billions of genealogy records from the United Kingdom, American, Australia, Canada, and many other countries.

Please note: Users must be on site at one of our library branches in order to access Ancestry. 

Browse Ancestry library edition

Find My Past

Access cemetery records, death records, probate, land & court records, migration records, directories, criminal reports, electoral rolls, almanacs, military records and government gazettes for Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Ireland and the United States.

Please note: Users must be on site at the Port Phillip Heritage Centre or one of our library branches in order to access Find My Past. Find My Past allows only one user to access the page at a time.

Access Find My Past library edition

The British Newspaper Archive

Access census records, easy-to-search birth, marriage and death records, the UK's largest collection of parish records and historical British newspapers for England, Wales and Scotland. 

Please note: Users must be on site at the Port Phillip Heritage Centre or one of our library branches in order to access the British Newspaper Archive. The British Newspaper Archive allows only one user to access the page at a time, and patrons are required to register with an e-mail address and password.

Access the British Newspaper Archive

Books about Port Phillip

All titles available at the Port Phillip Heritage Centre

First People: The Eastern Kulin of Melbourne, Port Phillip & Central Victoria by Gary Presland (2010)

The History of South Melbourne by Charles Daley (1940)

South Melbourne: a History by Susan Priestley (1995)

The History of St Kilda 1840-1930 vol. I and vol. II by John Butler Cooper (1931)

St Kilda: The Show Goes On by Anne Longmire (1989)

A History of Port Melbourne by Nancy U'Ren and Noel Turnbull (1983)

The Borough and its People: Port Melbourne 1839-1939 by Margaret and Graham Bride (2013)

Mrs Dorothy Dalzell and Family in St. Vincent Gardens, Albert Park, 1928 (Port Phillip City Collection SM2049)