Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

Often when researching family history records such as births, deaths and marriages the place of the event is abbreviated and difficult to understand the location of the event, if you visit the website http://www.historyaustralia.org.au/ go to IFHAA Internet Family History Association of Australia and under Miscellaneous is the site for Victorian Place Abbreviations which may assist with your research.

This is a travelling exhibition from the Australian National Maritime Museum at the Victorian Archive Centre in North Melbourne. The photographs record the daily lives of fishing and farming people living in isolated communities in the west of Ireland. The exhibition can be viewed from the 14th July to 8th November. Admission free. On Saturday 30th August, Public Records Office Victoria will be presenting an all-day program of talks and other activities in celebration of the Irish experience in Victoria. For bookings, contact PROV Public Programs (tel.: 9348 5600; email: ask.prov@prov.vic.gov.au ). Currachs are still used today by fishing communities in the west of Ireland. At day's end, resembling giant carapaces, they are carried beyond the high-tide mark for storage overnight in gardens or boat yards.

Artist Domenico de Clario's has several projects one of which is with the National Trust-listed Bonegilla Migrant Camp in which he looks at notions of identity, global culture and minority voice. In this case De Clario is using objects such as photographs, suitcases, letters, clothing, bicycles as part of an installation that examines the many Australians who passed through the Bonegilla Migrant Camp between the late 1940's and 1971. De Clario's Ossuary is at Albury Regional Art Gallery until September 28th http://www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au/ For more information about Bonegilla Migrant Camp visit the Belongings Online Exhibition which tells the stories of people who migranted to Australia between 1945-1974 through personal mementos, photographs and memories visit the website http://www.belongings.com.au/

This much anticipated Australian Newspapers BETA search is now available at http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au/ and from the Search tab on the Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program (ANDP) website http://www.nla.gov.au/ndp. This service is free to the public and currently contains 73,000 out of copyright newspaper pages (approx 730,000 individual articles) from 1803 onwards. The National Library of Australia welcomes feedback and suggestions from users of the service to enable further development.

Sam Merrifield died on 24th August, 1982, and shortly afterwards the Essendon Library was renamed, in his honour, the Sam Merrifield Library. Dr. Merrifield had spent many years serving the Essendon community. He was an A.L.P. member of the Legislative Assembly for Essendon from 1943-55 and from 1958-1970 he was a member of the Legislative Council for the seat of Doutta Galla. Dr. Merrifield played an active part in the City of Essendon including working with the Essendon Historical Society. In 1973 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by Monash University in recognition of his long career in public service.