Lutheran Archives holds a harvest of stories that show the stories of the congregations, departments and the people of the church. Lutheran Archives gathers and preserves these stories from all over Australia and the Pacific – wherever the church is involved. They share the stories of the LCA/NZ across the church and in the wider public.

A wide variety of people access these records: congregations, family historians, academic researchers, creative artists and filmmakers.

Records include:

• Parish registers of baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials
• Church department records, including of the missions to Aboriginal people
• Photographs (churches, schools, missions, pastors, teachers, church events)
• Congregation records and histories
• Biographical records of pastors and Lutheran teachers
• Synodical convention reports
• Published histories of the Lutheran churches in Australia
• Church periodicals, almanacs, yearbooks and statistical records (periodicals include Australian, US, German)
• Family history books
• Mission magazines
• School, education and Sunday school records
• Some shipping lists (South Australia, 1837–1870)
• Special collections (Bibles, hymnbooks, catechisms, sermon books, devotion books, theology, Luther’s works)
• Artefacts, maps and atlases.

For a list of the synods covered, please see the website.
Research themes:

• Church history: congregations, church ministries, departments, and organisations
• Family history: through parish registers of baptisms, confirmations, marriages and burials – indexes available on database
• Aboriginal languages, culture and history
• Refugee and migration history: including 19th century and Post WW II
• Settlement and local history: through congregation records and registers which document the settlement of Lutherans in newly opened rural areas
• Lutheran Schooling in history of education
• German-Australian language, traditions, media and cultural life – ‘Deutschtum’.

Open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9.30 am–4.30 pm. Closed Wednesdays, weekends and public holidays.