VPRS 19957 Supreme Court, Adoption Orders Book

Full description

This series comprises handwritten or pasted copies of adoption orders granted in the Supreme Court of Victoria in Melbourne from 1929 to 1947. Although the volume was printed for the Court of Petty Sessions, it was repurposed by the Supreme Court and does not contain any information of cases heard in the Court of Petty Sessions.

The volume was used by the Supreme Court to reference and report on adoption orders. Included in the adoption orders are the date of adoption order, description of court by which order was made, name, sex and date of birth of the adopted child, and name, address and occupation of adoptive parent(s).

For the full case file, refer to VPRS 11846 Supreme Court, Adoption Case Files.

Agency Responsible

With the changes brought about by the Adoption of Children Act 1984 (Vic), the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) (VA 983) obtained the original court records, wherever possible, from the Courts to enable them to obtain sufficient information to prepare "birth certificates" containing more information for adopted persons. All records in custody of the courts as of 1 January 1989 therefore came under the management and control of BDM. BDM also provides adoption information to Adoption Information Services from these records. Any records created after that date are still the responsibility of the respective Court as BDM are only able to request a memorandum of the adoption order, rather than the complete file.