No:
64 |
June 2011
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News
June
seminars
None programmed at this time.
July seminars
4: Tracing your Scottish ancestors, Payneham
Library, 6:30 to 8:30pm
22: Identifying and dating old photographs Mt Gambier
12:00–1:00pm Unlock
the Past Event Mt Gambier
22: SA's major archives for family historians 2:25–3:25pm
Unlock
the Past Event Mt Gambier
27: Introduction to FH research (over 7 weeks with
sessions of 1.5 hrs each) 8:00–9:30pm WEA
Centre Adelaide
30: Practical Genealogy for Family Historians Session
1: Accessing the primary research stream—the family 10:15am–4:45pm
State Library for Flinders
University
See the seminar program
for more details and bookings.
NSW BDM Registry access
The NSW Registry has removed the wildcard search facility from the
their Internet index search. Wildcard * searching is an extremely
useful search strategy when dealing with names that have a potential
to be spelt in several ways. For example, Ann could be listed
as Ann, Anne or Annie. With the wildcard the search
provided a search for Ann* and it would bring up all possibilities.
The only way around this is to search each variation of a name. Sometimes
a wildcard reveals a typo and any other variation that may not have
been considered. The broader ? replacement is still allowed such as
in Clark?. This only provides one replacement letter and
more importantly does not allow for a no letter search. Thus a Clark?
search, for example, will not produce Clark.
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In
this issue:
News
June
seminars
July seminars
NSW BDM Registry access
Great Central State
13th Australasian Congress
Feature article
Land and the
General Registry Office
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Graham Jaunay
Adelaide
Proformat
Glandore SA 5037
Australia
Tel: +61 8 8371 4465
proformat@jaunay.com
Breaking news:
Services
• Research
• Drafting charts
• Locating documents
• Seminar presentations
• Writing & publishing
• SA lookup service
• Ship paintings
Adelaide Proformat uses
The
Genealogist - for UK census, BMD indexes and more online simply because it contains quality data checked by experts.
Proformat News acknowledges the support by
AWE
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Great
Central State
Book
reviews in this newsletter are unexpected, but the following is included
because it is simply a good read about a subject of great interest
to South Australian historians.
Great Central State: the foundation of the Northern Territory,
by Jack Cross was released in April after some forty years of off
and on research on the subject by the author. Professor Cross is well
placed to write on this topic and such a book is long overdue. Of
course the foundation of the Territory cannot be examined without
addressing the role of the host colony South Australia. Jack Cross
writes in a style that makes for easy reading while never compromising
on scholarship.
The role of the leaders in South Australian politics and the public
service and the methodology they employed to manage South Australia
and their relationships with one another, their masters in the mother
country and their subordinates within South Australia and the Northern
Territory are closely examined to reveal their strengths, weaknesses
and vacillations.
The much maligned Boyle Travers Finniss and his role in the first
failed attempt at settlement in the north rightfully gains a reprieve
under the Cross pen. Finniss was the scapegoat for the failed northern
capital of Palmerston on the Adelaide River and unfortunately the
government did a good job ensuring he alone remained accountable for
the bungling well into recent times!
While the book covers a serious topic the writing style is far removed
from that of a stodgy history textbook fixated on the European viewpoint.
If you buy any book this year, then Great Central State should
feature high on your list of considerations.
13th Australasian Congress
The 13th Australasian Congress on Genealogy & Heraldry will be
held in Adelaide 28 to 31 March 2012. The registration booklet is
now being circulated and should be available online at the Congress
web site shortly. You can also ask for a copy from Genealogy
SA (the SA Genealogy & Heraldry Society Inc).
Keynote speakers
Colleen Fitzpatrick |
Jenny Higgins |
David Holman |
Daniel Horowitz |
John Kitzmiller |
Paul Nixon |
Daniel Poffenberger |
Stephen Young |
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Supporting speakers
Barbara Baker |
Anne Burrows |
Jenny Carter |
John Coldwell |
Kath Ensor |
Kerry Farmer |
Jan Gow |
Elspeth Grant |
Shauna Hicks |
Heidi Ing |
Stephanie James |
Graham Jaunay |
Roger Kershaw |
Todd Knowles |
Noeline Kyle |
Janette Lange & Lois Zweck |
Jan Lokan |
Suzanne Maiden |
Anitta Maksymowicz |
Mike Murray |
Diane Oldman |
Sue Reid |
Lesley Silvester |
Chris Watts |
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Land and the General Registry Office
Since this resource was mentioned in Newsletter 12 in 2007, it has
moved to Building 4A at 300 Richmond Road Netley SA 5037. It is located
in the store previously occupied by State Records before it moved
to its own building at Gepps Cross.
The GRO holds records relating to land transactions from the establishment
of South Australia until 1858. Any new parcels of land transacted
after 1858 should be under the Real Property Act and those records
should be at the Lands Titles Office (LTO). However, for all parcels
of land owned prior to 1858, the records may remain at the GRO as
the land concerned may still not have been brought under the Real
Property Act because there was no compulsion to do so until the Real
Property Act (Registration of Titles) Act of 1945. In spite of the
1945 Act, the author has been reliably informed that there are still
parcels of land outside the Real Property Act. It is therefore important
that if research fails to locate a land ownership record in the index
at the LTO, that a similar search be made in the indexes at the GRO.
Clearly the nearer the research window is to 1858, the more likely
a visit to the GRO is required.
The present day location of the GRO is not all that obvious to the
visitor and one should note the location carefully.
Essentially the GRO registers deeds and under the system used prior
to the introduction of the Torrens Title System, it was through deeds
that land ownership changed hands. In simple terms a deed is an any
agreement between parties and can be devolved for any number of reasons.
The role of the GRO was to give deeds a legal status. Thus the deed
was the traditional way of passing land from one owner to another.
In fact when it comes to land, deeds could be arranged to cover mortgages,
leases, Wills, probate and the like as well. Not only did the Torrens
Title System streamline all this process, but it linked the ownership
of a parcel of land to one legally recognised document called a Title.
It also overcame the problem under the old system where buyers had
to go to expensive lengths to satisfy themselves the seller was legally
entitled to do so! Each time land was sold or mortgaged, a separate
deed had to drawn up. Proof of ownership required the tedious examination
of a series of deeds, known as a chain of deeds.
The process of giving a deed legal status was by a process called
memorialisation that produced a document called a memorial that was
in effect a summary of the deed concerned. Accessing the memorial
does not give access to the document, but just a seven column form
as illustrated. The columns were headed:
1. Date of the instrument.
2. Name of Parties.
3. Name of Witnesses.
4. Nature of Instrument.
5. Description of the property conveyed.
6. (If a conveyance or mortgage) consideration, and how paid: or if
a lease the amount of rent.
7. Any other particulars the case may require.
All need to be read carefully and the reader may find difficulty with
the handwriting.
For example, as mentioned above, the deed could in fact be a Will
involving land and the associated memorial the researcher can access
will not be a copy of the Will, but the memorial detailing the property.
The memorials held at the GRO are held in 536 hefty books linked to
even heftier index books. The researcher locates the person of interest
in the index books noting in fact that all the persons with common
names may be lumped together on the one page of the index. The reference
in the index will lead the researcher to the appropriate microfilm
as the memorial books are not accessed by the public. The facility
exists to take a copy of the memorial for the rather strange sum of
$8.10. A hint is to ask the staff (nicely) if they will make the copy
for you. They have a far better copying machine and you will secure
a much better version as featured below. (Memorial 240/281 which means
it is #240 in Book 281)
While at the GRO the visitor should also check the other significant
group of records known as deposits. These records cover land grants
as well as a range of other agreements and fall into two groups. Enrolments
are exact copies of any document that has been registered, whereas
a deposit is either the original or a certified copy that has been
lodged for safe keeping. This facility owes its origins to Statute
27 Henry VIII (ie a law introduced by Henry 8 in the 27th year of
his reign (1563) and enrolment comes from the fact that the record
was copied into a roll.
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