Explore police gazettes from Queensland from 1864 to 1900, and discover names, aliases, offences, occupations, and nationalities. Various offences are included in these gazettes, from child desertion to attempted murder. Learn about offenders’ prior arrests and their physical appearance.
Explore police gazettes from Queensland from 1864 to 1900, and discover names, aliases, offences, occupations, and nationalities. Various offences are included in these gazettes, from child desertion to attempted murder. Learn about offenders’ prior arrests and their physical appearance.
This database provides an index to the approximately 31,200 names and aliases mentioned in the Queensland Police Gazette from its commencement in 1864 to 1900. For each person mentioned in the Gazette, the following information is often included: name (and aliases), title (or rank), topic (including age, nationality, description of offence, occupation, supposed destination), and reference to locate the entry in the gazette (page, date, and volume number). A wide range of topics is covered in this collection and can be of great interest to family historians. During the years covered by this index, the following topics are included:
A range of offences including murder and attempted murder, highway robbery, theft, incendiarism, wife and child desertion, absconding from hired service, rape, and abduction. The Gazette records, where available, the names of the victim and suspected offender; addresses; place and circumstance of the offence; age of offender; nationality; appearance, dress, and other marks of identity; and a description, as accurate as possible, of property that has been stolen.
Information on offenders can include details of arrests, escaped prisoners, ship and military deserters, suspected offenders, discharged prisoners, and warrants issued. A variety of information is given including the nature of the crime, aliases, a description of the dress and physical appearance of the offender, age, and nationality.
Lost property reports include the name of the person, circumstances of the loss, description of the property, and location.
Lists of licences – including retail spirit dealers, wholesale wine and spirit dealers, publicans, packet, billiards, bagatelle, auctioneers, medical practitioners, and chemists and druggists – provide the date and location of the licences and most are extracts from the Queensland Government Gazette.
Police miscellaneous information – including lists of appointments, promotions, resignations, discharges, dismissals, reductions in rank, and transfers (1864-1868 only) – all with the register number, date, and place (where appropriate). Rewards to police officers also appear in the Gazette.
Missing friends – a section for those seeking the whereabouts of specific individuals, usually posted by relatives or friends of the individual in question. The gazette details (where known) the name, physical description, time last seen, occupation, age, nationality, supposed destination, and other relevant information to assist in locating an individual.
Government appointments cover Justices of the Peace and Magistrates.
Returns of deaths reported to the police where inquests were held – from December 1869, the Gazette recorded the deceased’s name, occupation, age, physical description and dress, date and place of death, and supposed cause of death, as well as the names of the persons last seen in the company of the deceased.
Extracts from Police Gazettes in other colonies – where it was supposed that an offender had travelled to Queensland, extracts from other Police Gazettes were published in the Queensland Police Gazette, particularly in the case of serious offences. Notices from the New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and New Zealand gazettes appear during the period covered by this index.
If you're building a family tree or exploring your family history and have ancestors who resided in Queensland – whether or not they were involved in the police force – this is a valuable genealogy tool worth searching.
The Queensland Police Gazette describes its entries as, ‘Information received in cases of Felony and of Misdemeanor, and against Receivers of Stolen Property; reputed Thieves and Offenders escaped from custody, with the time, place and circumstance of the Offences, and description of those who are not known; the appearance, dress, and other marks of identity, with every particular which may lead to their apprehension; and a Description, as accurate as possible, of Property that has been Stolen’.
The digital images in this collection are presented in PDF form. Searching through a PDF can be different from searching through other record sets.
The search feature uses direct search: it will only search for the exact words you write in the search field. For example, if you search for John Smith, the results will give you pages with John and Smith.
All search results will bring you to the page on which your search word has been found and not to an individual transcript. You can then read through the page to find your result.
To search for your ancestor by their name, write it as it would appear in the original record; for example, if your relative was known as Will, it is likely that the name used in official documents was William.
If you are unable to find your relative on your first search, you can try different name variations; for example, if your search for William Smith yields zero results, try searching for W Smith.
Page numbers correlate with the individual pages of the images rather than the page numbers printed in the publication. Therefore, page one pertains to the first page of a volume.