Hobart Branch’s Unique Collection of Funeral Registers 1885–1975

Since 2003 Hobart Branch has been indexing and publishing in book form the names recorded in Funeral Registers, as maintained by the various undertakers in the Hobart area over the past 135 years. These records are an invaluable asset to any family historian interested in families from the Hobart area, and especially so for:

•  deaths that occur after 1930 when the Tasmanian Federation Index to Deaths ceases
•  deaths not published in any newspaper,  and
•  deaths after 1954 when information ceases for all Tasmanian newspapers on TROVE.

Our website includes a complete list of all registers (approaching 50) published to date.

The details recorded in the Funeral Registers are not uniform or consistent from company to company and often differ from one time period to another. However, besides naming the deceased, other details are included in the indexes whenever it has been recorded, such as:

•  age
•  place of birth
•  place of death
•  cemetery where buried, and
•  next of kin.

More information is usually available in the Registers, but again, not always consistently e. g.

•  occupation
•  cause of death
•  name of the person taking the funeral service
•  current address of the deceased, and
•  the names of extended family members.

Later records from Millingtons also include a copy of the Death and Funeral Notices from the newspaper as well as a schedule of fees.

Hobart Branch holds images of all the original pages from all of the Undertakers’ Funeral Records, with the exception of Pierce J Keating. In 2003, prior to suitable cameras, photocopiers or scanners being available, details from each page of the six volumes of Pierce J Keating Burial Accounts, Ledgers and Cash Books were transcribed on to pro forma pages. These were scanned at a later date. The original Pierce J Keating volumes are now available to the public by prior request in the History Room at Libraries of Tasmania.

Copies of the funeral registers produced by Hobart Branch may be purchased or viewed in person at the Hobart Branch Library.   Images of the original pages may viewed by first searching the Undertakers Database held in the Branch Library.

Indexing continues for Alex Clark & Son, Millingtons, and Hooper & Burgess and will be published in the future.