VPRS 11682 Adoption Orders / Adoption Order Memorandums

Full description

This series comprises copies of adoption orders forwarded to the Office of the Government Statist and Actuary (OGSA, VA 989), and from 1983, the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM, VA 983) for the purposes of registering adoptions and amending birth registrations. From 1988, the courts ceased sending copies of adoption orders, and adoption order memorandums were filed in their place.

Information found in Adoption Orders included name and occupations of the adoptive parents; birth name, adopted name, date of birth, birth registration number and place of registration; as well as specifics of the case such as the date of the adoption order, the location of the hearing and the court jurisdiction (i.e. Court of Petty Sessions, County Court etc.).

From 1988 the Memorandum of Adoption Order included more specific information than the Order itself, which was obtained from the various documents supplied to the court in the process of the adoption hearing. The Memorandum, as specified in the Adoption Regulations 1987 and subsequent regulations, included:

• Birth name, date of birth, place of birth, sex, and adopted name of the adoptee
• Name, maiden name (if applicable), usual occupation and place of birth of the adoptive parent(s)
• Date and place of Marriage of the adoptive parents (if applicable)
• A list of names of any children of the adoptive parents
• Court jurisdiction and location
• Court signatory name and signature
• Date of adoption order
• Existing relationship of adoptive parent(s) to adoptee (i.e. aunt, if applicable)
• If child was Aboriginal, the Aboriginal Agency responsible for arranging the adoption (if applicable)

Responsibilities of the Government Statist / Registrar
The adoption of children was first regulated by the Adoption of Children Act 1928 (no 3605). This Act established adoption as a legal transfer of custody and of parental responsibility and gave responsibility for making adoption orders to the courts. Prior to this time, adoptions were informal arrangements often made by private infants’ homes.

Section 17 (1) of the Act specified that the Government Statist was required to establish and maintain an “Adopted Children Register” (VPRS 11683) in which entries could be made as directed by the adoption orders granted by the courts. Section 17 (2) required the Government Statist to register each adoption as directed by the order and annotate the Birth Registration of the adopted child with the word “Adopted.”

The Adoption of Children Amendment Act 1936 (no. 4381) allowed for Adoption Orders to be varied or discharged. Upon receipt of a variation or discharge of an Adoption Order, the Government Statist was required to amend the adoption and birth registers accordingly.

Interstate adoption was first legislated by the Adoption of Children Amendment Act 1942 (no 4903). It was the responsibility of the Prothonotary of the Supreme Court (VA 2549) to forward the Government Statist adoption orders received by other states or territories of the Commonwealth, or received from Victorian courts concerning children born in other states or territories of the Commonwealth. Once received, these adoption orders were treated as any other adoption order and filed in this series, and the Adoption Registers and Birth Registers amended accordingly. The accompanying correspondence can be found in VPRS 11688 Correspondence Files (Interstate Adoptions) (see also VPRS 19746 and VPRS 19747). International adoptions were also administered this way.

The 1964 Adoption of Children Act (no 6192) specified that the courts were to send memorandums of adoption orders to the Government Statist, which then formed the Adopted Children Register (VPRS 11683). Although the courts were no longer required to send a copy of the adoption order, it continued in practice so that data could be verified and indexes could be made.

In 1988, under the Adoption Act 1984 and associated Adoption Regulations 1987 the data requirements of the adoption memorandum became more comprehensive and courts ceased sending copies of orders to the newly established Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (VA 983). To accommodate the new requirements, the physical register was replaced with a comprehensive database and adoption memorandums were filled in this series in place of the adoption orders. Adoption records created by the courts up until that time became the responsibility of BDM so that a more comprehensive database could be maintained for adoptions made prior to 1989.