I try to take some of the hard work out of finding the records you’re after. If I come across something that I think might be of interest to people (state wards, pupil registers etc) I’ll set to work on indexing it to make it more accessible. I’ll often get help from volunteers on my Facebook page too. Scroll through the different data sets below and start your search.
I hope you find something you’re looking for.
This index contains 19,492 names of children who were made wards of the State between 1910-1922.
If you find a name in this index, you can use the Ward No. to access the full ward record at PROV.
This index contains over 113,000 names of pupils who attended Victorian primary schools over the past 150 years. It currently contains data from over 245 schools across the state.
If you find a name listed in the index, contact me about obtaining a copy of the full digitised pupil register.
This database lets you search the 906 names of individuals who were licensed to record evidence heard during Supreme Court trials.
Shorthand writers were officers of the Court while in performance of duty in taking down and transcribing evidence.
This lets you search the index of the Employee Register for the Ports and Harbours Branch. The index provides the page number where the entire staff record is shown in the physical record at PROV.
This database contains over 6,000 names of individuals who were employed at the Beechworth Asylum between 1867 when the asylum opened and 1966. Search by name and then access the DIGITAL IMAGE to view their full record - which includes their date of birth and various remarks relating to transfers, termination, etc.
This database uses information from the indexed State Ward records on the PROV website but displays the data in a different way to allow for more interesting browsing of location and cause of commitment data.
I've created this map based on information from VPRS 795 (Building Files) which I've extracted from the PROV website. It allows you to see the location (with varying degrees of accuracy) of 2,500 odd schools in Victoria.
This database contains approximately 3,000 names of children deemed 'juvenile offenders' between 1893-1925, taken from VPRS 545. This was compiled by volunteers from the Archival Access Facebook page in 2020.
This map lets you search for building permits from the Borough of Queenscliff between 1960 and 1989. Taken from VPRS 17038. Search by keyword (name, street etc) or by browsing the map for a location of interest. Original records can be ordered and viewed at PROV.
This is a transcription of the Index to Divorce Cause Books (VPRS 5335/P4/3). Since this was done, digitised divorce files are available on Ancestry up to 1940, but this is still useful for finding records for 1941-1942. This was compiled by volunteers from the Archival Access Facebook page in 2020.
A court of petty sessions operated at Kiewa between 1891 and 1893. Only 78 cases were heard in total before the court was closed. This is a full transcription of the Kiewa Court of Petty Sessions Register (VPRS 8557). This includes 11 cases heard at Yackandandah in 1903/04, presumably making use of a fairly empty court register!
This is a small project I've been tinkering with using inquests files where the exact location of the death is known. For inquests where this can be determined, I've plotted the details on a map of Victoria. Adding another dimension to these files.
