The Ryerson Index is an online index of death notices from Australian newspapers, past and present, compiled by the Sydney-based

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Ryerson Index Incorporated. The index database has in excess of 5 million records compiled from more than 280 newspapers across Australia.

Obituaries An obituary (obit for short) is an article about a recently deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on positive aspects of the subject's life, this is not always the case. Acco ...

, funeral notices and

probate Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the sta ...

notices are also included. Indexing uses the

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

model, and is continuously updated by volunteers over the internet. The idea of an index was first suggested by John Graham of the Sydney Dead Persons Society in 1998. The concept gained momentum the following year when another member of the society, Joyce Ryerson, revealed that she had a 14-year collection of death notices from ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' kept in her laundry. A team of volunteers worked three years to compile the index from this initial material. Following this, additional records from other newspapers were added, and by 2005, there were one million entries. The Ryerson Index was named in honor of Joyce Ryerson's invaluable contributions; she died on 30 August 2012. The intention of the index is to help researchers locate notices in original published sources rather than act as a

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an Artifact (archaeology), artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was cre ...

. Currently, the index is used by both

genealogists Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

and non-genealogists all over Australia and countries worldwide.

References

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External links

Ryerson Index
Genealogy databases Online databases History websites of Australia