For my first Trove Tuesday post of 2017, I am highlighting the wonderful information that can be located in the seemingly boring Government Notices section of newspapers. Today’s topic is transmission by death notices and this is where property is directly transferred from the deceased to someone else, quite often a spouse, assuming there are no objections.
Transmission by death notice, Courier Mail, 18 Dec 1939
Information includes:
- Name of deceased proprietor with details of last residence
- Date of death
- Name of claimant, their address and relationship to deceased
- Description and situation of land
- Estate claimed to be transmitted
- Particulars of will or otherwise
- Date within which caveat may be lodged.
As you can see in the illustration, Adkins Spencer owned a number of blocks of land in Bulimba (Brisbane), at Redcliffe and at Bongaree on Bribie Island. Until finding this notice, I had not been aware that he had actually owned land at both Redcliffe and Bribie Island. From other newspaper notices, I knew that he quite often spent time at those places, but I had thought they were just holiday rentals. Obviously being a dentist was quite rewarding!
These types of notices can be a useful way into freehold land records as you have key information such as subdivisions, parishes and portions. It is also easy to locate properties on a map with these details.
Unfortunately most of my ancestors did not own land but thanks to Trove, I have found some blocks of land to investigate further. Have you found anything exciting in Transmission by Death Notices?
I learn something new everyday – thanks for enlightening me on the term “Transmission by Death.”I’ll link to this post from the Geneadictionary.
Thanks Jill. I have always been a fan of transmissions by death but usually look for them in government gazettes. Now with digitised newspapers, it is easy to find them in the newspaper too.