The General Register of Deeds commenced on 16 November 1825 with the introduction of the Registration of Deeds Act 1825. It was established to keep a record of deeds for all registered common law (now known as old system) land transactions. Each deed was (and still is) identified by a unique Book and Number reference with each book containing 1000 deeds. Initially, an index known as the Vendors Index was set up to record vendor and purchaser names, deed type, book and number and a summary of the land transaction details.
