The Public Record Office Victoria’s Ballarat branch will release its archives at a seminar on September 12, aimed at teaching people to research the history of their houses and land.

Access services officer Liz Denny, who is co-hosting the seminar, said the forum would be separated into two workshops.

The first will show people how to use services and resources available at the Public Record Office Victoria, Ballarat Library and the City of Ballarat’s heritage database and the second will teach people to digitise their own archive collections.

There will also be information from research experts from Victoria’s Public Record Office who will teach attendees tricks of the trade, including using documentation like rates books, history records and heritage data to find out about the history of a building or land.

The seminar will also put heritage houses in Ballarat under the microscope in a bid to teach residents how to do the same with their own.

The archives had been collected from Ballarat and surrounding shires, including Hepburn, Moorabool and Golden Plains, Ms Denny said. There were also archives collected from further away, including Horsham and Stawell. 

Discover the Archives: Ballarat will be held on Friday, September 12, from 9.15am to 3pm, at the Trench Room, Ballarat Town Hall, corner of Sturt Street and Armstrong Street South, Ballarat. 

Entry is free. For details or to book, visit prov.vic.gov.au/whats-on

melissa.cunningham@fairfaxmedia.com.au