From Crown Grant to Title Deed:
Researching Australian Land and Property Records
Follow the land. Find the story.
Land records can reveal far more than who owned a particular piece of property. They can place an ancestor in a particular place and time, identify neighbours and family connections, reveal transfers between generations, and sometimes preserve correspondence and other details found nowhere else.
From Crown Grant to Title Deed: Researching Australian Land and Property Records is a practical, hands-on course designed to help family and house historians understand how Australian land records work — and, importantly, how to use them.
Rather than approaching individual record collections in isolation, you’ll first learn the foundations of Australian land research: how Crown land passed into private ownership, the terminology you’ll encounter, how to read parish and cadastral maps, how to interpret key land records, and how to trace a property through successive transactions.
You can then put those skills into practice through your choice of state-specific sessions covering New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, learning where the records are held, how to navigate the major online resources and how to develop an effective strategy when the records you need aren’t online.
The course combines explanation with practical exercises, real records, worked examples and hands-on searching. It is designed for both family historians tracing people through land and property records and house historians investigating the history of a particular property, with both rural and urban land covered.
A special first cohort for 2026
Ahead of the full 2027 launch of From Crown Grant to Title Deed, we’re offering a special first delivery to a Foundation Cohort of just 10 participants.
The small cohort will allow for a particularly interactive experience, with opportunities to ask questions and receive help with your own land research challenges.
Foundation Cohort participants will receive the course at a special 2026 price. We’ll also ask for your feedback on the course content, activities and resources, giving you the opportunity to help shape the program before its wider launch in 2027.
Only 10 places are available in the 2026 Foundation Cohort.
Andrew Redfern
Andrew Redfern is an enthusiastic family historian and accomplished speaker, having delivered presentations both in his home country of Australia and internationally over many years. His innovative work with Artificial Intelligence has been sought by numerous family history organisations globally. Additional areas of expertise include the use of technology in genealogy, colonial Australia, convicts and land records.
Cathie Sherwood
Family History Academy
Cathie Sherwood is a professional genealogist, educator and international speaker, and founder of Family History Academy and Ancestor Discovery. An experienced researcher with a particular interest in Australian and British records, she is passionate about helping family historians develop the skills and confidence to tackle challenging research and make sense of complex evidence.
The complete course
Core module plus all three states — 10 hours of live online workshops via Zoom, not recorded webinars.
- Live sessions with Q&A throughout — a cohort of just 10
- Session recordings available for 14 days
- Downloadable handouts and cheat sheets
- Bring your own land research puzzle
- A direct hand in shaping the 2027 program
©2026
Contact Us: courses@pastinpractice.au
Family History Academy