Lightbox information - historical records

Historical registration images

Historical registration images are scanned copies of the life event records held in our registers. These images are not certified by the Registrar-General and can't be used for official purposes.

We have made sure you get the best quality image of each record—age will affect the condition and how easy some records are to read.

We don't provide prints of images. 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.

Scans of church birth, death and marriage records up to 1856 may have 20 records on a page. Records after 1856 will usually have 1 image on a page.

Historical source images

Historical source images are scanned copies of the records which are from the informant to the event. These images include scans of original registration forms collected from the informant of a marriage or death or the parents of a child in the case of a birth.

Not all events will have source images.

We have made sure you get the best quality image of each record—age will affect the condition and how easy some records are to read.

We don't provide prints of images. 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.

Historical certificates

Historical certificates show the same information that you would see on historical images.

To print a certificate, we transcribe the information from the historical image and print on historical certificate paper. These certificates bear the Registrar-General's seal and can't be used for official purposes.

You can't download the image of a certificate, we will post it to you (in a DL envelope, 110 x 220mm).

Historical records

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.

Current life event certificates

These life event certificates are:

• births that took place within the last 100 years
• change of name (all)
• marriages that that took place within the last 75 years
• civil partnerships (all)
• deaths that took place within the last 30 years.