In 1856, Queensland started compulsory registration of life events. We keep records of life events (births, deaths and marriages) that took place in Queensland from 1829—within the available records years.
Anyone can buy a historical Queensland birth, death or marriage certificate, or an image from an event that took place in the state. You do not have to provide proof of ID.
We recommend that you sign up or login to your QGov account when you start searching so that you can view your purchases and download any images as soon as you pay for them.
If you don’t login when you pay for an image, you will need to sign up or login with the same email address you used for your purchase. Once you have logged in you will be able to download previous image purchases—these images will be available for 12 months.
Changes to your login
The QGov account you use to download your purchased images will be replaced by the Queensland Digital Identity (QDI) on Sunday 16 March 2025.
We recommended downloading all of your purchases before Sunday 16 March 2025. If your QGov account is not transitioned for any reason you may lose access to purchases.
If an image is available for a record, you will be given the option to add the historical image product to your shopping cart.
Signing up to QGov allows you to view image purchases at any time—this will be changing.
If you are unable to sign up to QGov images are not emailed to you. Be aware that you need to download images immediately to your computer from the receipt page.
To order historical Queensland certificates or images online:
bookmark the page so you can return to the record later or make your purchase.
To make your purchase
select ‘add to cart’ for the product you want to buy
check the quantity and the product is correct in the cart—edit if required.
Select ‘checkout’ to order, pay by credit card (Mastercard or Visa) and download images immediately from the receipt page.
A receipt for your payment will be sent to the email address you give us during checkout.
If you are not sure which result is the record you want, you can contact us before you buy the record. We don’t issue refunds if you have chosen incorrectly.
an image of the original register (if available) that you can view, download or print from your own computer
a certificate printed on historical paper that we post to you.
We suggest that you download and save purchased images as soon you have paid for them.
If there is no image available to purchase, this means that there is no image for the record. A historical certificate shows the information that would be available on a historical image. Be aware that you cannot download the image of a certificate.
certificate (A4) for $34.70 (standard postage included).
Historical records are:
births that took place more than 100 years ago
marriages that took place more than 75 years ago
deaths that took place more than 30 years ago.
We also hold some historical church records for:
baptisms and burials between 1829 and 1856
church marriages between 1839 and 1856
marine birth and death records until 1920
death records for service personnel who enlisted in Queensland for World War I and World War II.
Birth records
1829 to 1925—images and certificates
Death records
1829 to 1979—images and certificates
1980 to 1995—certificates only
Marriage records
1829 to 1950—images and certificates
Life events before 1856 have a registration number beginning with 1854, this may not be the year of the even.
What do we mean?
If you find a record for John Citizen born 01/01/1835, the registration number will start with 1854 even though the event happened in 1835.
The historical image you buy will be available for you to download and print from your own computer after you pay (from the receipt page) and in your QGov account.
The cart will update with your orders, the quantity ordered and the total amount to pay. You can edit the number of items in your cart.
Purchasing online is convenient.
However, keep in mind that the built-in settings, browser and history or cookies on your device may create their own issues.
If you are getting a message that your shopping cart is empty:
select the green checkout button to continue
try a different internet browser
clear the browser history or cookies
use a different device.
To continue searching and buying records, select the ‘Back to search’ button. This will take you back to the search page.
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To change your order before you pay, select the ‘Edit cart’ button at the bottom of your cart. This will allow you to remove items from your order or change the quantity of an item you are ordering.
Make sure that you only have 1 copy of an image in your cart. These images can be viewed through your QGov online account or downloaded onto your own computer, so you don't need more than 1 copy.
When you have finished editing your order, you can:
select the ‘Checkout’ button to pay
select the ‘Family History’ link to return to your record.
To finish and pay for your order, select the ‘Checkout’ button at any time.
Follow the instructions to give us your contact and delivery details before you pay by credit card (Mastercard or Visa).
Once you have filled in a birth, death or marriage certificate application form, you will need to submit it to us along with the application fee of $34.70 for a historical certificate, by post or in person.
This price includes standard postage for us to send your certificate to you (in a DL envelope, 110 x 220mm).
After we get your application and payment, we will print your certificate and post it to you within 10 working days.
Historical records show information that was correct at the time of the event and the information held in our historical records can't be changed.
If you think information on a certificate or index record is incorrect, we can review the record to find out if the error occurred in transcription or when the information was provided at the time of registering the event.
You need to carefully research and make sure that you order the correct historical record. We don’t issue refunds if you have chosen incorrectly.
Please read our refund policy before you contact us.
To ask for a refund for a historical Queensland certificate, send us an email at bdm-mail@justice.qld.gov.au—we will review your request and reply to you.
