Conservation for genealogists and family historians.

Have you ever wondered where to go for information about keeping and preserving family heirlooms, treasures, photographs and objects that are part of your family history that you wish to preserve for future generations. The Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, part of the University of Melbourne provides conservation services & advice on the care of collections for external clients within Australia. They specialise in the areas of Paintings, Paper, Objects, Textiles and Frames. The Centre has a range of products and kits available which include a Photo Survival Kit, Document Survival Kit and a Textile Survival Kit. These products may be ordered online or via one of the following:

Fax: 1300 78 11 46
Email: info@archivalsurvival.com.au
Post: PO Box 2394, Hawthorn Vic 3122

Ancestry launches New South Wales Calendar and Post Office Directory, 1832.

Descriptions of NSW people, places and roads circa 1832 more 'travel guide' than early P.O. directory. This directory is a precursor to today's phone book which, more like a travel guide than a directory, provides a detailed snapshot of life in the earliest days of the colony. Drafted by James Raymond, Postmaster of New South Wales, it also includes a collection of vivid descriptions of early residents, roads - and even travel times - bringing the colony to life as it would have been in 1832.. Also included is a map of Sydney in 1831.

The New South Wales Calendar and Post Office Directory, 1832 can be searched by first and surname, address and occupation, providing many with early New South Wales ancestors a chance to go back in time and gain a deeper understanding of the colony in which their ancestors lived.

Some of the famous residents in this directory of early Australians include:

William Charles Wentworth - The illegitimate son of convicts who became a poet, explorer, journalist and politician.

Sir William Macarthur - Prominent landowner and at the time regarded as one of the leading Australian viticulturists.

Sir John Wylde - Deputy Judge Advocate and although Wylde had left Australia and his family, the records reveal he still retained a great deal of property in NSW.

Major Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell - Explorer and Surveyor General of NSW.

Ancestry.com.au Content Director Brad Argent comments, "With its lyrical and narrative style, this one small book paints a wonderfully vivid picture of early settlement in NSW - it actually reads more like a travel guide to the past and is a terrific piece of genealogical history. The Directory is a 'must read' for anyone who has traced their ancestry back to those early residents of New South Wales as it provides a vivid picture of what their ancestors would have seen as they travelled down the colony's dustry roads almost 200 years ago."

The Ancestry database is available at Moonee Valley Library Services. Bookings can be made at any one of our five libraries for up to 2 hours per day.

Building Works - Public Records Office Victoria

As part of a program of building works being conducted by Public Record Office Victoria (PROV) to improve the Victorian Archives Centre in North Melbourne, there will be some disruption to our services from 1st June, 2009. As a result of the building works the Victorian Archives Centre will not be open on Saturdays or Mondays from 1st June, 2009 to February, 2010. This means that the Victorian Archives Centre Reading Room will be closed to the public on Saturdays and Mondays between these dates. This necessary work will ensure that the archival collections of both PROV and the National Archives of Australia stored in the Victorian Archives Centre continue to be preserved in state-of-the-art facilities.

New Family History Book

"Wind Flowers" by Marie Henkel, a Series of Short Stories Reflecting on Her Youth has been donated to the Moonee Valley Library Service by the author. In her collection "Grandma's Hats" Marie recalls Puckle Street, Moonee Ponds as a fashionable shopping centre in the 1930's and her family's sentimental attachment to Puckle Street and the surrounding areas of Essendon and Strathmore.