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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. In the General Register, each deed is identified by a unique book and number reference, with each book containing 1,000 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. A second index, the Purchasers Index, was introduced on 1 July 1896. Until 1 November 1992, both indexes were bound in books numbered in chronological order and separately grouped so they could be searched alphabetically by the last name of a vendor or purchaser. The indexes, together with all deeds up to Book 3,887 No 941, are available on the Historical Land Records Viewer (HLRV) .
With the introduction of the Conveyancing Act 1919, the Registrar General was authorised to establish additional registers of deeds, which are now recorded within the General Register of Deeds. These include:

• Miscellaneous Register (established 1920 to record any instrument whatsoever, whether affecting or relating to land or not. This register was discontinued on 30 June 1976 and is not available electronically at this time

• Register of Causes, Writs and Orders, established 1920

• Bills of Sale, established 1925

• Stock Mortgages, established 1898

• Wool and Crop Liens, established 1898

• Register of Resumptions, established 1930

• Powers of Attorney, established 1920

• Change of Name — the index for this register was kept in separately bound books from 1875 to 1967; from 1967 to 1996 deeds were recorded in the Vendors index; Records from 1992 to 1996 must be searched through Deeds Name Search; from April 1996 to date all change of name records have been kept by and must be searched through the NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages.
   

How to access the General Register of Deeds

Indexes to the General Register of Deeds have been maintained electronically since 2 November 1992. All items entered since that date can be accessed through the NSW LRS Online Portal or on public terminals located at NSW Land Registry Services (NSW LRS).
Public terminals can also be used for the following free index searches:

• Deeds name search

• Deeds number search

• Vendors/Purchasers (deeds name search)

• Resumptions (deeds name search)

• Unregistered Deposited Deeds (deposited deed packet inquiry).

• Vendors and Purchasers index, which contains all deeds prior to the digitisation of 1992 (up to Book 3887 No 9471); bound in books numbered in chronological and alphabetical order under a vendor/purchasers last name.

 Paid searches can be conducted over the counter at NSW LRS or through authorised Information Brokers for:

• Causes Writs and Orders

• Security Interest in Goods (SIGA) 

• Copies of deeds from Book 4192 No 1 onwards

• Copies of earlier deeds (available over the counter at NSW LRS only).

A Security Interest Index Search includes details relating to security interests, bills of sale, stock mortgages and crop and wool liens registered after November 1992, and aquaculture fish mortgage registered after March 2006.

Any securities and interests created after 30 January 2012 are now recorded in the Commonwealth Personal Property Securities Register. This is maintained by the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA). For further information please see their website.

Grant Register

The Grants Register index is a chronological record, in alphabetical order of the surnames or company names, of those who received grants of land from the Crown from 1792 up to and including 31 December 1862. Grants are identified by serial (book number) and page number e.g. Serial 1 Page 500.
The Grants Register is not considered to be part of the General Register of Deeds, and is available for manual searching at NSW LRS.