THE AUSTRALIAN GOLD RUSH 1851 - 1900

Gold Rush Era Records: Finding the Stories Between the Dates

A complete research pack for tracing ancestors through Australia's gold rush — 1851 to 1900

Most family historians hit the same wall with gold rush ancestors: the passenger list says "goldseeker," and then the trail goes cold. This pack is built to get you past that wall.

Developed for the Australian Family History Course (GSV, August 2026), this is the full research toolkit behind the presentation — not just the slides, but everything used to build them:

• The Attendee Workbook — a complete, ready-to-use reference guide to six record types most researchers never think to check: Occupation, Education, Health, Police, Parliamentary Papers & Gazettes, and Electoral Rolls. Every claim is independently verified against current repository information (including exactly which colonial Government Gazettes are — and aren't — actually searchable on Trove, a mistake that trips up even experienced researchers). Threaded throughout with a real case study, Joseph Harry (1824–1903), showing each record type in action.
• The Research Summary — the original research document behind the workbook: colony-by-colony repository breakdowns, the Blue Books vs Statistical Register distinction, and research tips and pitfalls for each record type.
• Research Images & Sources Log — every public-domain image gathered during research, including the ones that didn't make the final workbook: goldfields sketches, licence and Miner's Right specimens, petitions, and colonial-era illustrations.
• VIP GenealogyGPT (Basic) — a custom AI research assistant, available via ChatGPT, to help you apply what's in this pack to your own family research.

Whether you're chasing a Bendigo miner, a Ballarat publican, or an ancestor who simply vanishes from the record for a few gold rush years, this pack shows you where to look — and just as importantly, where not to waste your time.

By Fiona Tellesson — Professional Genealogist, Life Member of the Genealogical Society of Victoria, and founder of Experts in Genealogy.