Find your ancestors in Moreton Bay Supreme Court Records 1857-1859

MORETON BAY SUPREME COURT RECORDS 1857-1889

Do you have ancestry in Moreton Bay, QLD?

Originally, major civil and criminal matters in the Moreton Bay Region of New South Wales were dealt with by the New South Wales Courts; but The Moreton Bay Supreme Court Act of 1857 established a Supreme Court in Brisbane. The records indexed here include those of this court, as well as the Public Curator's Insolvency Files and the Crown Prosecutor's In-letters 1857-59 - 22 primary records. They have been digitised from the records held at the Queensland State Archives (QSA). They're a much sort after genealogy tool, and a must for anyone researching their family history or building their family tree.

The index lists the name, title (form of address), nationality (where known), type of record, date, occupation, notes on the involvement of the person, source and reference to the relevant record. The actual records may contain other information such as place of residence and family information.

"What information can I find in these records?"

  • Name - the index includes the names of people involved in civil and criminal matters, also other people mentioned in connection with the matter. In some cases only the surname is known, in these cases the given name is left blank.
  • Title (Form of address) and abbreviations used - Mr. is not indicated.
  • Nationality - only Chinese, Indian, German and Aboriginal nationality (where indicated) has been listed.
  • Type of record - these cover a range of civil and criminal records - bankruptcy, naturalization, probate, civil and criminal proceedings.
  • Date of record.
  • Occupation - this is only mentioned occasionally where indicated in the records.
  • Notes - these include short descriptions of the involvement of the people such as creditor, debtor, plaintiff, defendant, witness etc.
  • Source - description given in full.
  • References - following the source, there are columns for volume, page, column/folio. For the majority of the records only the source and folio/page number are required. It should be remembered that the Court had more than one Session during the year. Where the session number is known it has been indicated in the col/folio column e.g 1/2 indicates folio 1 in the second session.