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Series VPRS
7933
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Non-Issued Probate Applications
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| Date Range: |
Series |
By 1909 - cont |
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Series in Custody |
1909 - 1988 |
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Contents |
1868 - 1988 |
| Public Access: |
Open |
| Location: |
North Melbourne |
| Format of Records: |
Physical |
  | Agency which created this SeriesAgency which created this Series |
| Agency currently responsible for this SeriesAgency currently responsible for this Series |
| Description of this SeriesDescription of this Series |
- How to use the Records
How to Use this Series
The Index to this series is held at the Probate Office and researchers need to visit the Probate Office to consult it. Researchers should search for the name of the deceased and note the file number.
Function/Contents
This series contains the various documents which must be lodged with the Registrar of Probate prior to the making of a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration. These files contain documents lodged for applications which did not result in a grant of probate. Such applications are known as "non-issue".
Probate, the legal proof that a person is entitled to act as "executor" of someone's estate and distribute and dispose of assets according to a Will, is granted by the Registrar of Probates, as an Officer of the Supreme Court. The Registrar, through the Court, also grants Letters of Administration where a person dies without a Will or executors nominated predecease the testator.
The granting of Probate or Letters of Administration is dependent on a series of steps that a person has to undertake, as executor to an estate, to provide the proof that he or she has the last Will that was made and that he or she is the executor named in the Will.
The Probate Office requires that the following tasks be undertaken:
Examination of the Wills Index - this records the lodgement of Wills with the Registrar General's Office
Examination of the Caveats book at the Probate Office - this book records Caveats - legal documents which in this case serve to provide advice to the person applying for Probate that there is someone objecting to the granting of probate.
Examination of the Application and Grants book at the Probate Office - this records all applications for grants and is checked to establish whether anyone else has applied for a Grant of Probate
Examination of the Issues Book which records grants/issue of Probate
Examination of the Non Issue book (the Index to this series)
Once these tasks have been completed the person wishing to be granted Probate completes a legal document called an Affidavit of Publication of Notice and Searches. The applicant also supplies the Probate Office with the original Will and a list/inventory of the assets of the estate (including their value).
In some cases the process of applying for the Grant was aborted and Probate was not granted. This could be because a named executor had died in the midst of the process of applying for the Grant, or another Will had been found, or the documentation was incomplete or incorrect, or a caveat had not been acted on or reissued (they only last for six months unless they are renewed). In these cases the documentation that had been completed as part of the process was described as "NON-ISSUE".
The actual files may contain many, or all, of the papers required by the Registrar of Probate for a Grant of Probate or Letters of Administration including
Affidavits
Inventory of Estate
Publication Notice
Praecipe etc.
Some files include a Will.
System of Arrangement and Control
Unlike other records created by the Registrar of Probate, the non-issue files are registered within one continuing single number sequence.
As at 1994 applications which are found to be incomplete or deficient in some respect, are filed temporarily in an alphabetical sequence in the "stops file" where they remain until the applicant (solicitor, executor etc) provides the necessary documentation for the application to proceed to a grant of Probate or Letters of Administration. If no action is taken to finalise the application, the documents remain in the "stops file" for approximately a year. They are then withdrawn and recorded in the Non-Issue Register from which a registration number is allocated. To assist the identification of files to be culled and registered, incomplete applications are now stored in colour coded folders, each colour representing the year in which the application was lodged. In earlier years the culling and registration of files was governed by storage needs, that is when space was required in the "stops file", earlier documents were removed, declared to be non-issues, registered and stored elsewhere.
If an application is subsequently reactivated and completed, it is withdrawn from the non-issue series and registered and filed within VPRS 28 Probate and Administration Files. Consequently there are some gaps in the sequence of non-issue files in custody.
It is uncertain when the practice of registering non-issued applications commenced.
The files in the first 26 units of VPRS 7933/P1 are arranged in strict alphabetical order. It is apparent that the files were so arranged prior to the initial allocation of registration numbers. A slip documenting the registration number, the name of the deceased and often their occupational status and date of death has been placed at the front of each file. From unit 27 the files are no longer in strict alphabetical order and it seems likely they were culled intermittently from the "stops file" and registered. It appears that this practice commenced in about 1909 and hence the series has been dated from this time. The date is confirmed to some extent by the existence of a few files dated 1908 within the initial alphabetical sequence.
It is very difficult to date the contents of the files given their alphabetical arrangement. An examination of the files in units one and two revealed that many were dated from the 1870's to the early 1900's and that in several cases a long period had elapsed between the date of death and the filing of the affidavits. The earliest file identified in these units was dated 1868 and this has been tentatively identified as the commencement date of the contents of the series.
- Function / Content
- Recordkeeping System
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