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Rating Rate Books
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I’ve been living and breathing rate books lately. And it’s amazing how many ways these records can be used to answers some mysteries in history. The most interesting requests so far have included:
- Tracing the ownership of a stately home in Hawthorn – which so far has led to a family of clothing manufacturers from Footscray with links to French nobility!
- Attempting to identify the father of a number of children based on the owner/occupier of the address of where the children were born – a list of possibilities were found.
It is also surprising the variety in which rate records are arranged. The format and also the details included change from decade to decade and from council to council. Some are arranged alphabetically which is great for finding an individual amongst the thousands of names listed. This is not so good for tracking down a particular property though! But, on the flip side, some are arranged by streets within the suburb/township and are a breeze to search through – especially if the record has an index of streets.
For rural areas, rates can be a bit of a mystery though. Street names are few and far between and in most cases only the acreage and the general location are listed against a name. Some of the most organised rate books I’ve seen for a rural area are the ones from Beechworth. Against the name owner/occupier of the land is the section and allotment number of the parcel of land. A quick look at a parish map and you can be on your way to pin pointing the exact location of your ancestors land.
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