Name indexes are now available online for free from NSW Land and Property Information (LPI). The indexes available are:
- Grants Index 1792-1862
- Torrens Title Purchasers Index 1863-1971
- Old System Vendors Index 1825-1986
- Old System Purchasers Index 1 July 1896-1985
Go to the Historical Land Records Viewer (HLRV) at images.maps.nsw.gov.au. You will have to accept the terms and conditions before you will be allowed in.
Click on Search by Attribute. The drop-down list ‘Search By’ will become available:
Select Surname Initial and type in a search criteria:
- For the Grants Index and the Torrens Title Purchasers Index type the first initial of the surname, for example ‘S’ for Smith
- For the Old System Vendors Index and the Old System Purchasers Index type the first two letters of the surname, for example ‘SM’ for Smith
The list of results will open at the bottom of the screen. This example has used the surname initials ‘EA’ for Eason:
The Purchasers Indexes are first, followed by the Vendors Indexes. They are not necessarily in date order.
Find the date range you want and click on it. You will be shown the first page. You can page through one at a time to find the name you are looking for, or you can use the drop-down to ump pages. There may only be a few pages, as in this example, or there may be hundreds of pages.
There is no way to jump straight to a name, you have to scroll through the pages, as you would with the pages of the original volume. The names may not be in strict alphabetical order, particularly in the early years, so you must check every page.
The Reference Book and No refer to the original deed. The deeds are being slowly digitised, and the books are gradually being removed from the shelves at the Lands Office in Queens Square. If you want a copy of the deed you will have to purchase it.
Here is an example from the Torrens Title Purchasers Index:
The Volume and Folio in the last two columns refer to the title.
You can also see the Old Form Torrens Titles in the HLRV. Later volumes are not available, so just try the one you want and see if it comes up. Use the attribute Vol-Fol (Volume and Folio, separated by a dash).
Use the same page control to see the other side of the title with the transactions.
Very early titles may have four pages – the black and white microfilm images, and the recent colour images.
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