VPRS 11685 Name Index Books to Adoptions

Full description

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.

Under the 1928 Act an adoption application could be heard by the Supreme Court, County Court or Court of Petty Sessions. The choice of court depended upon the circumstances of the case and the wishes of the parties. The Adoption of Children Act 1958 (No.6192) removed the jurisdiction of the Court of Petty Sessions to grant adoption orders. Since that time the County and Supreme Courts have had the power to grant adoption orders, although in practice most have been granted by the County Court.

Under section 17 (1) of the Adoption of Children Act 1928 (No.3605) and the subsequent adoption acts, the Government Statist was required to establish and maintain in his office at Melbourne a register to be called the "Adopted Children Register, (this series VPRS 11683) in which entries were made as directed by adoption orders.

Section 17 (2) required every adoption order to contain a direction to the Government Statist to make in the Adopted Children Register an entry recording the adoption in the form set out in the Schedule to the Act.

The adoption order further directed the Government Statist to annotate the birth entries in the Birth Register with the word "Adopted".

As part of the recordkeeping system a name index was created (as required by section 17 (6) of the Act).

This series comprises volumes of index books that provided access to adoption orders by surname of the adoptive parents.

The series date range and the relationship of this series with VPRS 11681 Name Index Cards to Adoptions is subject to further research.

Related Court Records

The Registry obtained the original court records (including Courts of Petty Sessions, Melbourne County Court and the Supreme Court) in 1988, following the proclamation of Section 8 of the Adoption (Amendment) Act 1987 (No.67). These court records include:

The court records were used by the Registry to obtain sufficient information to prepare more detailed birth certificates for adopted persons.