A guide to family history research using the major Victorian resources
Post office, telephone and trade directories are useful for confirming when and where a person resided at a particular address or operated a business and can help to trace the movement of a person or family.
Most directories are arranged alphabetically by surname or business name, however many historical post office directories include a geographical section, which allows you to search by suburb and street name. Directories usually contain the name and address of the main householder, not all family members. Some historical directories also include the occupation of the householder.
Trade directories contain commercial listings and many historical directories include professional listings, the names of government officials and those employed in specific industries such as banking, law, education and ecclesiastical institutions
When using directories it's worth remembering that over time, boundaries may have moved, so make sure you are checking the right suburb listing for a particular era. Also, a listing in a directory was neither compulsory nor free, so not everyone is listed.
| 1839-1867 |
Port Phillip / Victorian Directories |
GMF 98 |
| 1840-1849 |
Kerr's Melbourne Almanac, and Port Phillip directory, 1840, 1841, 1843 The Port Phillip almanac and directory.1847 |
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| 1857-1880 | University of Melbourne has digitised every year of the Sands & McDougall directories from 1857 to 1880. | Online access available from home |
| 1860-1974 | One in every five Sands & McDougall directories from 1860 to 1974 are available through the State Library Victoria. Keyword searching available. | Online access available from home |
| 1860-1942 |
Australia, City Directories, 1845-1948 |
Available at the Library on the Ancestry Library |
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1860-1942 |
Victorian Post Office, Trade and Specialist Directories Collection on CD-ROM.
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Available on PCs NFH1 - NFH5 in the Newspapers & Family History Reading Rooms |
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1857-1974 |
Sands & Kenny Melbourne Directories, 1857-1861 Sands & McDougall Melbourne Directories, 1862-1911 Sands & McDougall Victorian Directories, 1912-1974. These directories include:
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GMF 98 |
| 1868-1881 | Bailliere's Official post office directory of Victoria (not published every year) | GMF 98 box 41 |
| 1884-1900 |
The Victoria post office commercial directory {Wise} |
GMF 98 box 42 |
| 1933-1942 | Ramsay's Melbourne and suburban business and professional directory. 1933, 1936, 1937,1938 and 1942. |
Held in storage |
The library holds copies of Victorian telephone directories from 1913 onward.
Here is a summary of our main collections, including directories available on microfiche in the Newspapers and Family History Reading Rooms.
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Metropolitan telephone directories on microfiche |
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1913-1914 & 1923-1924 |
GMF 98 Box 44 |
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1925 -1995 |
Melbourne residential directories (various title changes) |
GMF 98 Boxes 56-62 |
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1918, 1935 -1997 |
Melbourne classified directories (various title changes) |
GMF 98 Boxes 63-67 |
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The residential and classified directories for the metropolitan area, experienced many name changes since 1925. A complete list of titles, with location details, can be found in the Melbourne telephone directory family tree |
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Online |
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Regional telephone directories on microfiche |
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1913 -1914 & 1923 -1924 |
GMF 98 Box 44 |
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1931 - 1970 |
GMF 98 Boxes 45 – 51 |
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1980-1995 |
GMF 98 Boxes 52 – 55 |
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A list of residential and classified directories from 1986 onward can be found in the regional directories family tree. The tree includes location details. |
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Online |
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White pages directory on CD includes coverage of Australian wide telephone directories from 1996-2003 (incomplete)
Available online in the library on PC’s NFH 1 to 5
A detailed list of regional and municipal directories can be found in the above PDF document.
