‘What’s the history of your house?’ - Resources for Goldfields Library

Why do people want to find out the history of their house? -Restoration & preservation -Improve the value of their house -Sense of place, history of their home -It’s fun!

What’s the process? -Start in the easiest place: the present -Find key points in the past -To help guide us through different resources & piece together the puzzle of the past

How do we do a history of a house? -Check a lot of resources! -Build up a layered picture -Jigsaw puzzle – not all questions can be answered

Resources - BUILDINGS -Parish plan 1st Crown grant PROV -Rates date, improvements BRAC, GRC -Title all owners & land over time Landata -Historic newspapersTrove -PhotosGRC, SLV, BHS -Wills & probatePROV -Heritage studiesCoGB / GRC -Local historiesGRC -Street directoriesGRC

Other Resources - BUILDINGS -Architecture styles -Apperly et al Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture -Butler et al Bendigo & Eaglehawk Heritage Study GRC -CoGB PPP & Heritage Design Guidelines, Planning Dept – late Lovell Chen Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History (chapter 6) age/Greater_Bendigo_Thematic_Environmental_History age/Greater_Bendigo_Thematic_Environmental_History -What house is that? A guide to Victoria’s Housing Styles house-is-that/index.html house-is-that/index.html

Parish plans -Public Records Office of Victoria

Parish plans – resource info -Created by Dept of Crown Lands & Surveys (now DEPI) -Recorded first transfer of land from Crown Lands Dept – owner & date -i.e. how it moved out of Crown Lands authority to another status -Private land in the goldfields is either freehold or mining leasehold -Public land remains in Crown Lands authority, but can have different management arrangements

Parish plans – private land Freehold: -Is the outright ownership to a piece of land & what is on that land -Can be traced through titles Landata Mining leashold, or ‘Residential Area’: -Is the permission of a person with a Miner’s Right to reside on that land -It’s a lease, so there’s no transfer of ownership & can’t be traced through titles -Initially managed through Dept of Mines until 1920s, then by the Dept of Lands PROV

Parish plans – how to use -Follow the steps on the Goldfields Research Centre handout ‘Parish land records’ -Or, follow PROV Guide Check the ‘Sandhurst Key Sheet’ to locate correct parish plan map for your address -Bendigo, Eaglehawk, & outer suburbs are under ‘S’ for Sandhurst -Other towns are alphabetically listed

Parish plans – a freehold example -Key plan: locate parish plan for your address - - Plan 17

Parish plans – specific plan -Locate your property Section 15B allotment 15B - First transfer: T Davey - Date of transfer: Area: 0 acres, 0 roods, 18 & 2/10 perches - Boundary: 50 x 231 x 50 x Survey putaway: S440 M - Survey putaway area: S53

Parish plans – a Residential Area example -Key plan: locate parish plan for your address - - Plan 11

Parish plans – specific plan -Locate the property Section K allotment 446A - First transfer: FB Shannon - Date of transfer: Area: 463 m 2 - Boundary: not noted - Survey putaway: none - Residential Area 2[1]5 - File cat.: Serial: 3614

Parish plans – specific plan analysis -Key points to note - Date of transfer: Residential Area 2[1]5 - Serial: File cat.:174 Conclusion: this is a Residential Area leasehold attached to a Miner’s Right

Parish plans – where to now? For the RA information, this person goes to: -DEPI Epsom - the file may be held locally, or PROV North Melbourne -For the PROV file, go to -Select ‘Access the collection’ -Select to ‘Search within a series’

Parish plans – where to now? (cont) -Enter VPRS 5357 for Land selection & correspondence files for Sandhurst -Search on the serial number – e.g. 3614

Parish plans – where to now? (cont) -This will return a few file results -Select the one you want & go into it -hit the ‘order item’ button

Parish plans – where to now? (cont) -There are thousands of Land selection & correspondence files -This search capacity is being developed progressively -If you can’t locate the file by serial number or the name, then the microfiche index will need to be used -The microfiche INDEX for Land selection & correspondence files at Sandhurst is at VPRS 7312 in North Melbourne

Titles -Landata -

Titles – resource info -Created by the Registrar of Titles -Records the history of ownership on a piece of land & whatever is on it -Any changes to the land will create a new title or several new titles e.g. subdivision -Any changes to the ownership will cause new entries on the title e.g. change of mortgager/s or mortgagee/s -Getting all the titles for a property means you can compile a list of all the owners for Rates research

Titles – how to use -Select ‘Titles & Property Certificates’ -(Register / Login) -Go through the steps as prompted

Titles – current title -Get a ‘register search statement’ -Register search statement result shows all previous transactions on the title -E.g. transfers (Crown, freehold), mortgages & subdivisions

Titles – entire title history -For titles back to original transfer from Crown -Go through the steps on each parent title -Parent titles are titles that are superseded

Titles – cancelled title -Get ‘cancelled title search’ -But how far back might you have to go….? -SEE Parish plan first grantee information

Troubleshooting If someone has a current title: -The second page has parent information at the top e.g. volume 5353 folio 474 Old / general law -A small number of titles have not been transferred to Torrens system -There will be no parent volume or folio -Pay a research agent to obtain history

Rates - Goldfields Research Centre -Rates database 1856 – c Search options: surname, address, year -‘Exact’ or ‘like’ options - Bendigo Regional Archives Centre -Rates books 1856 – 1970s -Refer to BRAC Guide 4 -Look at entries written over 100 years ago!

Rates – resource info -Created by the council / shire by the Rates assessor -Rates are based on the value of structures, to raise revenue for council services -The value reflects the use & construction history on a piece of land -Any changes to a structure / use of the property will be reflected in the ‘Net Annual Value’, or NAV -NAV can also fluctuate due to local economic circumstances, for e.g. 1890s Depression

Rates database – how to use -‘Like’ search yields more results -Names were spelt a variety of ways until post WWII - use misspellings on names & shortenings eg. ‘Adam’ for ‘Adams’ -Use combination searches - name with street or year -Streets in mining areas would have started as gullies or creeks, so they’ll have a different name originally -Street numbering began in Can search on ‘The Crown’

Rates records – how to use -Stable identifier is the name – SEE Titles -If in doubt, identify property by confirming neighbours – SEE Parish Plans -Ideally, can trace back to ‘vacant land’ -NAVs for this region: -£2 - £4 tent, hut or other temporary structure -£6 - £8 miner’s cottage -£10 - £16 brick house -£18 + mansion or commercial business

Rates records – how to use (cont) -Slight increase in NAV can be an addition or alteration, e.g. extra rooms, verandah -Dramatic increases tend to be a new structure, e.g. demolition & rebuild -Newspaper sources will reveal if a fire or other disaster is part of this history -Identify first instance of the property with the name & then use rate number to quickly locate in next & following years -Rates assessor can reverse walking pattern – go back to name searching & / or use neighbour identification

Wills & Probate -Public Records Office of Victoria

Wills & Probate – resource info -Created by Registrar of Probates, Supreme Court -Recorded transfer of goods & chattels after death -Administered this transfer when deceased was intestate, i.e. died without a will -Records all assets & effects that the deceased possessed or was indebted for at time of death -Access to digitised copies 1841 – Online index for 1926 – 2009

Wills & Probate – how to use -Follow the steps on PROV How To Guide (more resource info also available in PROV Guide Go to Wills & Probate page at probate probate -& click to search Online index at =54 =54

Wills & Probate – example -William C Vahland, died 21 July VPRS 28 Probate & Admin Files P3 unit 559, p.11 extract

Photos -State Library of Victoria -Airspy collection: C20th aerials of Victoria

Heritage studies City of Greater Bendigo es/Heritage/Heritage_studies -Citations for places with heritage overlays

… & there you have it – a very fast tour of resources for doing ‘who’s been living at your house’