Trace Your Family History

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 microform 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 and the library provides free access! The database gives access to billions of genealogy records from the Australia and overseas.

To help you get started make an appointment with Port Phillip Heritage Centre staff.

Please note: Users must be on site at one of our library branches in order to access Ancestry via our Wi-Fi or public PCs.

Browse Ancestry Library Edition

FamilySearch

FamilySearch is an extensive genealogical database which houses millions of records from all over the world. Our library service is a FamilySearch affiliate library, meaning that if you access their site from one of our library branches, you have access to many records that would otherwise be unavailable.

To help you get started make an appointment with Port Phillip Heritage Centre staff.

Please note: Users must be on site at one of our library branches in order to access FamilySearch via our Wi-Fi or public PCs.

Browse FamilySearch