The Croker Prize for Biography is a great way to hone your writing skills and share your family history stories

The 2025 Croker Prize for Biography is now closed. 

The Croker Prize for Biography is a wonderful opportunity for you to hone your writing skills, share your family history stories and demonstrate your research. It also enables the Society to showcase your work to assist other members with their research and writing.

Entrants are to write a 800-1000 word biography on an individual, based on original research, which must be related to the selected annual theme. 

Entries are judged according to the following criteria:

·       Entries must relate to the identified theme and be about the entrant's relative.

·       Entries should be well written, informative and entertaining.

·       Entries must be logically organised with an introduction and conclusion, using good grammar and spelling.

·       Entries should demonstrate good genealogical research skills, as evidenced by referenced sources.

For entry form, click here.

Full terms and conditions for the 2025 prize are available here.

Please refer to our Referencing Guidelines for more detailed information.

ABOUT

The annual Croker Prize for Biography was established in 2014 in memory of Colin and Loas Croker, who thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Society to research their family trees. Through this annual prize, we acknowledge the very generous benefaction they left to us after their deaths.

A different theme for the competition is set each year, which is announced in the Autumn/March journal and on the website. Members can submit one entry each on that theme, with the winner chosen by a committee of former recipients and Society representatives. A cash prize of $1000 is awarded to the winner and their entry is published in the Spring/September issue of Descent.

All entries remain on the website for the current and previous year and are then transferred to the Society's digital archive system, where they will be found through the MIDAS catalogue.

The theme for 2025 was: My Relative's Journey

Click on the links below to read all 28 entries.

2501: Journey of Sarah Crosby

2502: A Long Journey - 23,000 Kms by Rail and Sea

2503: Bound for the Colonies

2504: The Journey that Began in a Remote One-Roomed School

2505: Philip Markham – Convict, Absconder, Orchardist

2506: Leaving Home: Penelope Jenkin's Canadian Caper

2507: A Journey of Lies, Mystery, Loss, and New Beginnings: John Burgess 1855-1937

2508: Journey into Hell

2509: A Passage from India

2510: Edward William Moore: A Chequered Life

2511: Tough

2512: A Vintage Journey

2513: Ellen Utanaya Heaven

2514: Redemption of a Remittance Man

2515: A Journey Counted Not in Steps

2516: They Called it Baby Farming. She Called it Survival

2517: A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea

2518: A Life in a Window

2519: Alice

2520: Do Widzenia, Aloha, Helo, Czesc and Bonjour

2521: Thanks, Jane: 'Twas all because of You

2522: A New Land

2523: My Nan Ethel: A Personal Journey of Strength

2524: A Life's Journey

2525: Chasing Prosperity: A Life on the Move

2526: Earnestly Seeking Salvation

2527: A Childhood Continent Spanning Four Continents

2528: Jessie's Journey

Use the link below to download and read entries for the previous two years.

2024

2023

Previous Themes and Winners

2024 – 'A Special Family Connection'  – Winner: - Maxine Elder - Clara's Story

2023 – 'A Family Myth' – Winner: Michael Considine - Reds Under the Bed

2022 – 'Where Did I Come From?' – Winner: Bob Wright - Collits Inn

2021 – 'My Most Unexpected Research Finding' – Winner: Michele Bomford - Conduct Unbecoming: Matthew Burnside and the 'Providence' Scandal, 1826 

2020 – ‘My Most Elusive Ancestor'  – Winner: Bill Dudley - The Sad Tale of Lieutenant Philip Connor

2019 – ‘A Woman of influence’ – Winner: Wendy Pryor - The Indomitable Miss Jane Skillicorn

2018 - 'A life-changing experience' – Winner: Patricia Smith - A double-edged sword

2017 - 'A Tough Life' - Winner: Kim Hatherly – A Boy from Shoreditch

2016 - 'The Ancestor I most admire is ... ' – Winner: Christine Collins - Dan's Legacy

2015 - 'My immigrant's story' - Winner: Bob Wright – Granny Greenhalgh (2015 Board Prize & 2015 Members' Choice Prize)

2014 - 'The blackest sheep in my family's flock was ...' – Winners: Elizabeth Adams - Sailing Uncharted Waters - the wreck of Master Mariner William Whitfield (2014 Board Prize) & Bob Wright - Old Brine: Terror of the Richmond River (Brian O'Neil) (2014  Members' Choice Prize) 

Image: Narrabeen Newport bus 1919, SAG Manuscript and Image Collection, Item 6/1338