Search historical Victorian BDM free

The Victorian historical birth death marriage indexes are now online to search for free! The date range for deaths has been extended to 1988. The date range as I understand it, is as follows:
Births to 1914
Marriages to 1942
Deaths to 1988
Go to: Births deaths marriages Victoria

Victorian Historical Indexes

Family History Fest re-launches this week at Diamond Valley Library. An introductory session on searching the birth, death and marriage indexes in Victoria will take place this Wednesday at 1.30 pm.

Some useful websites to help you in this area include the following:

Digger
Describes Diggers features, Includes “Introduction to Digger” , a guided tour (downloadable)and tips.
Wiktionary Abbreviations for English given names
International Genealogical Index Another source to search BDMs
AFHC - Registries of Birth, Death, Marriage Australia
Spare BDM records for NE Victoria
Victorian Towns and Localities
list of all the current towns and localities in the state of Victoria, Australia, but also includes those that now no longer exist or those that had a previous existence under a different name. Useful to use against the abbreviations on the place names in the Digger indexes
Victorian Place Names Abbreviations from Digger indexes
Victorian Place name abbreviaitons
Index to Wills, Probate and Administration Records 1841-1925 You can now search for Wills, Probate and Administration records by name up to 1925. Links to digitised copies of these records where they exist.
What you can expect to see on a AUS BDM certificate

Victorian Crown Grantees Index

A new resource to the genealogy collection is the AIGS CD Victorian Crown Grantees Index (Part 2) 1838 to the present day. A searchable database of approximately 148,00 names and dates from 700 parishes can be searched. The Parishes listed are included on the AIGS website.
Holds for this CD can be placed via the catalogue.

Victorian Historical Indexes

Additional loan copies of the Victorian historical indexes on CD-Rom have been added to the collection. Holds for the following can be placed via the online catalogue from our website.

Pioneer Index 1836-1888

Federation Index 1889-1901

Death Index 1921-1985

Restriction of Victorian BDM Records

The Victorian Registry of BDMs has increased the embargo period for unrestricted access to indexes and certificates of birth records from 75 to 100 years. That change was implemented on 1 August.
For details see www.bdm.vic.gov.au/accesspolicy for all details.
That page also contains links to some useful details about access to BDM records.

Victorian historical indexes on CD-Rom are accessible at all branch libraries and individiaul CD-roms are available for loan.

Are you researching Victorian Volunteer Force personnel?

Researchers can now access an index to Victorian Volunteer Force personnel for the period 1860-61.

The index was compiled by Thomas Corfmat from information in Victorian Review: A journal of the Volunteer Forces and Civil Service, Bankers and Insurance Record, and Literary Gazette, 1860-61. It provides the name, rank, regiment and company for over 4,300 members of the various volunteer defence forces in Victoria. It is a valuable research aid, as volunteer force service records for the years 1860-61 simply do not exist (records from 1863 onward are held by the National Archives of Australia).

The index is available in microfiche format and can be accessed at Ivanhoe and Diamond Valley libraries.

Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages

The Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages will release a new Access Policy later this year. This policy governs the way people access records and the manner the Registry distributes the information it holds. Specific to family historians, the new access policy will state that the restriction period for birth records will increase from 75 years to 100 years. Restriction periods surrounding death and marriage records will remain unchanged, 10 years and 60 years respectively. Changes to the policy are driven by a need to better protect personal information held by the Registry as well as bring the Victorian registry in line with national standards. Additionally, life expectancy has risen since the last access policy review and without an increase in the access period of birth records a growing portion of the Victorian community would be left exposed to identity related crimes. Further information and a release date of the new access policy will be made available