VPRS 8286 Manuscript Parish Record Plans [HARD COPY RECORDS NOT TRANSFERRED]

This series consists of what was thought to be the unmarked, and probably the original, of many but not every, parish record plan, known as the ’manuscript’, put away, presumably for safe keeping. Parish record plans that were subject to amendment after issue are located in VPRS 16306 and a digitised set of working record plans copies annotated by local land offices can be viewed and downloaded in VPRS 16171. The first parish record plans were created in the late 1860’s/early 1870’s and thus the manuscript versions date from the same period. Some evidence exists to suggest that manuscript plans were amended in line with amendments made to the relevant record plans, but this is still to be confirmed. The type of information contained on these plans is the same as that contained on the parish record plans in VPRS 16306. A very small number of manuscript plans were used to replace badly damaged record plans in VPRS 16306 that needed to be replaced. Once this occurred the manuscript plan was no longer regarded as such and was used as the relevant replacement record plan with amendments accordingly made. As record plans were not created for every one of Victoria’s parishes, likewise manuscript copies of these were not created. For detailed information about parish record plans refer to the series descriptive text for VPRS 16306. Manuscript record plans also do not contain the handwritten annotations made on other copies of parish record plans distributed and used by regional land offices. For a detailed description about the digitised working parish plans refer to the series descriptive text for VPRS 16171. As hard parish record plans ceased to be created after the introduction of an electronic version in a system known as LASSI in 2001, it has been assumed that the creation of hard copy manuscript plans also ceased at this time.