Australia, Victoria, Wills, Probate and Administration Files, 1841-1926

What is in This Collection?

The collection consists of probate registers for the state of Victoria, Australia. The original records are located in the Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV), North Melbourne, Australia. A will is a legal document that sets out the instructions of a person in relation to the distribution of his or her property after their death. The will usually names one or more persons to carry out the wishes and directions in relation to the estate. This person is called the executor/executrix. The estate can only be dealt with after the will has been approved by the Registrar of Probates. This approval is called the Grant of Probate and the document giving the approval is called Probate.[1]

Depending on the length or type of testament you can find genealogical information to extend research for additional generations of ancestors. Wills may provide historical family information not found elsewhere. They are often the only record for the time period before census records became available, where all members of a family might be listed, or before the civil registration was implemented.

Additional records and/or images may be added to this collection in the future.

Computer Aided Indexing (CAI)

Some or all of the indexed records for this collection were created using Computer Aided Indexing (CAI) from records digitized by FamilySearch or its partners. For more information on CAI see FamilySearch Computer Aided Indexing.

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What Can These Records Tell Me?

The following information may be found in these records:

Collection Content

Sample Images

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  Will Cover of Benjamin Binder, 1893

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  Will of Benjamin Binder, 1893