Archival Access Victoria

A great little collection of 131 photographs of Victorian State schools can be found on the PROV website, very handy if you are researching a school or if you'd like to know what you ancestors school looked like back in the day. A large portion of the photos are of school in Melbourne and Ballarat and their surrounding areas, but there are a few for some further flung areas of the Victoria.

The photos can be found in VPRS 1396 and are downloadable in small JPEG's or larger TIFF's. Well worth a look even if you can't find one for your school…

I first read about friendly societies after Googling a name I saw on a remarkable building at the junction of Elizabeth Street and Victoria Street in Melbourne. The name was ‘The Independent Order of the Rechabites' – a friendly society that began in England in 1835. I arrived at a Wikipedia page giving me a brief description of the Order, and as is the nature of Wikipedia, I was soon clicking on links and reading about other friendly societies – the Oddfellows, Australian Natives Association and the Forresters (who still exist today).

These societies existed for the purposes of insurance, pensions and savings with membership often formed according to religious, political or trade affiliations. With the culmination of a number of Acts in 1855, the Friendly Societies Act 1855 was put into affect – and as history has taught us, legislation means documentation - which is great for us family researchers!

PROV holds Friendly Society Registration Files (1867-1991) which contain registration documents, including the rules and their subsequent amendments, lists of Trustees, and details of the dissolution or amalgamation of the order or one of its branches.

I had a look at the registration files for the Rechabites in Yackandandah on my last PROV visit. I wasn't expecting to find my family mentioned anywhere in the file as numerous appearances before the court at Yackandandah for drunk and disorderly would have made affiliation with a society promoting temperance unlikely! The file contained useful information about the Order in the town though, most interestingly the change of trustees over time.

Fortunately – the entire collection of registration files has been indexed (but not digitised – but I can help with that!) and you can search online via the PROV ‘Search within a series' function. The VPRS number for the series is 284 and you'll probably be most successful using a town name/location as your search term.

Quite often I’m asked for assistance in tracking down historical details of private companies and their employees. This is a tricky task at PROV as they are the government archives; they just don’t have these types of records. But governments do like to regulate and, fortunately, the Victorian government liked to regulate those who operated a factory.

VPRS 1399 contains factory registration papers, arranged chronologically and (thankfully!) alphabetically by the name of the factory occupant. The records range from 1886 to 1973 and provide us with the following details:

• materials used in construction of the building
• means of escape in case of fire
• number of closets and toilets
• number of workrooms (including dimensions and fit-out details)
• number of persons employed in each workroom
• number of persons employed
• number of males and females employed
• nature of the work to be carried out
• particulars of any mechanical power to be used
• full name of individual or company occupying premises
• the address of the premises
• initial and ongoing payments made by successful applicants

Although the records don’t appear to list employees, this series may be of interest to those whose family operated a factory in Victoria.

If you think there may be some trace of your family amongst these files – send through the details you know and I can look in to it for you.

Some researchers are content with a name and a few dates for the members of their family tree – but there is so much more to discover, so many pages you can add to an ancestor's story. Anyone who gets this newsletter probably knows this already – especially if I've done some digitisation for you!

I came across a record a while ago that adds a bit more ‘meat to the bones' of patients admitted to the Ararat Asylum between 1867 and 1868. The record was a single volume entitled ‘Patient Property Book'. There was no description of this record on the PROV website, but my first guess at what it might be was right – a record of the personal possessions the patients at the Ararat Asylum brought with them to the facility. It also details amounts of cash the patient had in their possession on arrival – with one patient, Mr Murray Owen listed as having £162 on his admission in November 1867 (and using inflation figures available from 1901, would be today's equivalent of well over $21,000!).

Also interesting, and a little worrying, is the amount of knives people had with them when entering the Asylum! Almost every second patient in this register had at least one knife…

If you have an ancestor who was admitted to the Ararat Asylum between 1867 and 1868 (if you'd like to find out, check out the register of patients here), and you would like a list of their personal effects – let me know.

Did you know that between 1858 and 1869 you could have a fire investigated by the coroner if you were happy to part with five guineas?

Neither did I - until I came across the Fire Inquest Deposition Files (1858-1940). An interesting series, and from PROV's description they are more complete than the normal inquest files found in VPRS 24.

The Act for Preventing the Careless Use of Fire 1858 established that irrespective of whether a death occurred, the damage to or destruction of any building, ship, merchandise or growing crop could be investigated by means of an inquest. All you had to do was notify the coroner in writing and part with the previously mentioned fee. The investigations followed the same rules as those concerning cause of death.

In each file, you will find an inquisition form, a number of depositions and a cover sheet noting the subject, date and place of the inquest. But, you may also find items of documentary evidence, Victoria Police reports and the original written request or order and the receipt for payment of the fire inquest fee.

Another great thing with this series is that it has been indexed – and you can search for relevant entries on the PROV website. To do this, go to ‘Search within and Series', enter 407 as the VPRS number and then enter a LAST NAME or a LOCATION in the next field. Probably best to stick to the town name if searching for a general location, but some files have the street name listed also.

Good luck with your searching!

No doubt some of you have sat down to watch the first few episodes of the second season of Who’s Been Sleeping My House on ABC (8PM Fridays!). If you have missed them, you can catch up online on the shows website.

Watching this show always make me wish I lived in a house with a story – unfortunately I don’t think my unit in Ascot Vale has much of a story to tell. For those with a more interesting house than mine, the new title records at PROV (mentioned in my last newsletter) may help your walls to start talking! The new title records provide a history of ownership of land alienated from the Crown from February 1862 onwards, when the Torrens system of land title was introduced in Victoria.For land alienated prior to this point, a system of general law titles was in place. Records exist for these properties too – see my tip sheet for searching Applications for Certificates of Title.

So – how do you get started? Well, if you own your house you’ll most likely have details of your title locked away some where. If you do, you’ll need the Volume and Folio number from your title document. Each title lists your volume and folio number and, most importantly for research purposes, the parent volume and folio number. The parent volume and folio numbers allows access to the previous title – letting you know who held the property before you. That previous title will have its own ‘parent’ details as well, allowing you to go back a step further and so on. Eventually, you’ll have a list of all owners of the property going back to (in most cases!) 1862.

With a list of names of previous owners you’re well on the way to unlocking the history of your house through TROVE, wills and probates,inquests and plenty of other sources.

So, if you’d like to discover who has been sleeping in your house – locate your title details, send them through to me and I’ll get the ball rolling.

And for the month of April – research into the history of your house (be it titles, rate books etc) will only be $25 an hour!

If you’d like to do some further reading on the Torrens system, follow this link.

Cheers

Mark

Although not officially announced yet, digitised Victorian land titles are available for access in the PROV Reading Room! I was at the Archives two Saturdays ago and on my way out I enquired as to when the records would be available (previously promised in early 2013) – to my delight I was told that the records were available now, although, the systems ‘how to' guide had not been published. Needless to say, I didn't leave PROV for another half an hour or so while I took the titles program for a short test drive.

The system allows searching under volume and folio numbers – which can be found in land files, wills and probates and of course, on a title you already have. I was told that an index may be available sometime in the near future that may allow searching by address, which would be a great boon for researchers – I have a list a mile long!

The new records are ideal for people wanting to research the previous owners of their house – as the current title document will have details of the ‘parent' volume and folio numbers, allowing you to trace back ownership to the time the property was registered under the Torrens system.

The system seems simple to use, and best of all it doesn't require any pre-ordering of records like most things at PROV.

In light of the new records available, I think a sale is warranted in April (more details to come!) This will give you all a bit of time to scour your records and start putting together a list of volume and folio numbers.

As much as I can't complain about my trip overseas last year – there was one event in Melbourne that I was disappointed about missing in my absence, but I'm looking forward to attending this year. It is called "Open House Melbourne” – and the name really does say it all.

Open House provides the public with a free (and rare!) opportunity to discover the hidden treasures in historic buildings nestled around the city. Although there is your fair share of historic buildings, this event is for the engineers and the architects too with some of Melbourne's ‘grand designs' open to the public also.

Guided tours, interesting talks and a chance to see some icons of Melbourne like never before – and all for free!

The Open House Melbourne website is being slowly updated with the 2013 program, but check it out regardless and sign up for the newsletter.

And, mark your diaries for the 27 and 28 July 2013!

Ever thought of reaching out to some of your distant relatives to see what stories or photos they may have of your ancestors? If you have, you've probably wondered how to make contact with these people – a difficult task considering a few generations may have passed and marriages and name changes have taken affect. Adding to the trouble is the availability (or lack thereof) of birth,death, and marriage information beyond that listed in the Digger Indexes.

But, where there is a will, there is a way!

Will and probate files contain some useful information of next of kin and other family members of the deceased. In most cases, you will get the full name/s of the beneficiaries of the will, and also details of the executor/s – which in some cases will also be a family member. Once you have a name then all it takes a bit of sleuthing in the White Pages and perhaps a couple of phone calls to find the right person (fingers crossed the next of kin is not John Smith!). The files may also list certain belongings – a family bible perhaps, and the name of the person it was left to.

I've put the above into practise over the past weeks in an attempt to find where the personal affects and family photos of my grandfather’s cousin, who passed away in 2006, may have ended up. She had married, but never had any kids – so, whereto from here? As usual, answers can be found at PROV!

I was fortunate that will and probate files are available at PROV up to 2007,previously only available to 1993 until early last year. I ordered the file for the deceased and, to my delight; the file listed her husband’s four nieces and nephews as beneficiaries. Fortune bearing down on me once more, the names of the nieces and nephews were not common – and after a quick search in the White Pages I had the contact details for the individuals listed.

After making a call to one of the nieces I was told that it was her sister that had collected her auntie’s belongings upon her death and that she would be the one to contact. So, another phone call and before I knew it I was on the phone for almost half an hour talking about the family, explaining what research I had done and hearing stories she had to share about her auntie.

I was also pleased to hear that she had a number of photos of the family that she will dig up for me and get copies to me. SUCCESS!

Take a walk through any Victorian town and you’re bound to come across certain landmarks that most people would tell you have been there as long as they can remember. These are the churches, the cemeteries, the school and the parks. And, just like any good bureaucracy, the Colony of Victoria was adept at creating paperwork – which is fortunate if you are researching these public spaces in your town.

One series I've been introduced to recently is VPRS 242 Crown Reserves Correspondence Files. This series includes files relating to land reserved for public purposes. In the few boxes of records I've gone through I've seen correspondence relating to not only churches and cemeteries, but also farmers commons (Mordialloc) and a rifle range (Glenrowan).

I came across one file which caught my eye – it related to Tawanga (in the Kiewa Valley) circa 1890 – a time and a place where my ancestors found themselves for a short while. The file contained two letters and a petition. The first letters shows a Sarah Cooper asking the Minister for Crown Lands if a block of land set aside as a timber reserve could be made available to her for selection. She claims that the timber on this land is of‘little or no use’ and that it is miles from the nearest mill. In contrast, the next letter was from a Forrester named Giblett, written three years prior -claiming that the timber reserve contained timber of good quality, including"white gum, blue gum, peppermint gum and a few specimens of stringy bark”. The petition attached to Giblett’s letter was from 41 local inhabitants in support of the land being made a timber reserve –a great find.

If you’re interested in what can be found amongst the Crown Reserve files, drop me a line– I can get a list of Crown Reserve files for your town / parish (free of charge!) and you can decide if you’d like to follow any of them up.