VPRS 17879 Index to Parents of Wards

This series was created to index the records pertaining to wards by reference to their parents. Judging from the content of the majority of entries in these volumes, it appears that its function was primarily to find the relevant ward history in VPRS 4527, ward registers.As children were identified by the wardship number, the indexes can also be used to locate files relating to many of these children that are extant within VPRS 10071. (For some children. however, these registration numbers would have changed and so the file will exist with a different file number. Refer to the description for VPRS 10071).The entry for each ward in these indexes records the names of both parents, the ward registration number of each child and an identifier that identifies the volume in VPRS 4527. This was the volume number used by the creating departments to identify each volume. This should not be confused for the unit number allocated by PROV.It appears this series was used to identify parents for every ward up to the end of June 1961. However, between July 1961 and 1966 it appears these indexes identifies the parents only for those wards managed by the Family Welfare Division of the Social Welfare Branch. This Division only handled wards who were aged up to 14 years of age.No further indexes of this type were created after the Department ceased creating new volumes in VPRS 4527 during 1966.

本系列档案旨在为涉及受监护孩童（ward）的记录构建以父母为参照的索引。从这些卷册的多数条目内容来看，其核心功能为检索VPRS 4527（受监护孩童登记册）中的相关受监护孩童档案。由于孩童以监护编号进行标识，本索引亦可用于检索VPRS 10071中留存的大量相关孩童档案。（但部分孩童的登记编号曾发生变更，因此其档案会使用不同的档案编号，具体可参考VPRS 10071的档案说明。）
本索引中每条受监护孩童的条目均记录了父母双方姓名、每名孩童的监护登记编号，以及用于标识VPRS 4527中对应卷册的标识符。该标识符为编制部门用于标识卷册的卷号，请勿与维多利亚公共档案馆（Public Record Office Victoria, PROV）分配的单元编号混淆。
截至1961年6月末，本系列档案曾用于为所有受监护孩童匹配父母信息。但在1961年7月至1966年期间，本索引仅能为社会福利部家庭福利处管理的受监护孩童提供父母信息匹配服务，且该处室仅负责处理14岁及以下的受监护孩童档案。
1966年相关部门停止在VPRS 4527中新增卷册后，未再编制过同类型索引。