For any interested, > My handout with my talk on VPRS 7933/P1 "Non-Issued Probates & Admins" > includes: Can't find a name for probate or administration? > Consider: > No Assets in Victoria. (May have sold off property, may have mortgaged > the property and not paid off the calls for interest, etc, so lost > control, may have placed the property with trustees for the future > benefit of family members, etc) > No application made at time of death (I've seen applications up to 80 > years after the death of the original owner). > Could be an "entailed" estate, where the original owner of the > property willed the property to the "eldest son of the eldest son" in > perpetuity. Thus the property is not able to be left in a will > subsequently, but automatically passes to "the eldest son of the > eldest son". Most of these estates were "disentailed" from about the > 1960s when several Trustee Companies which controlled these estates > went to the wall owing millions. > The name on the "Grant Index" may be mis-spelled. > The deceased may have lived under an alias, or purchased land under an > alias... if you can find the alias you find the property. > The clerk may have mis-indexed the particulars (rare, but I have seen > a second given name indexed as the surname.. I admit only once) > > One should check the LAND TITLE files for a property if there is a > missing will. A copy will with a record of the trustees appointed to > control the land is usually filed with the title deeds. > > One should check the files of the Equity Courts: > e.g.VPRS 12025/P1 for 1852-1886 and > VPRS 12024/p1 for 1886-1922 > Here will be recorded appointment of guardians for children and > trustees to oversee the estate, applications by widows to gain money > for maintenance out of an estate, etc Quite often I have been unable > to find probate/admin for these families. Also check my index to "Non-Issued Probates & Admins" > Indexes to these courts are at the VPRO, in the reference shelves > under "Courts" where several of my indexes can be found.. centre > aisle, to the left as you face the window, last booth near the window, > about chest height. I hope the archives staff have put my latest index > with the "court" indexes by the time you read this. I have also donated these "non-issued" indexes to the GSV, and I believe members can request a "lookup" by research staff? Not sure if there is a fee? (less for members?). I've never asked. > There!! It can be a complicated business, deceased property, with no > visible connections between the probates and the courts, each > conducting their business as though the other arms and decisions never > existed! That's the reason I have been sorting and indexing such files > for the past 20 years. > > Regards Ada >