Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

This week the National Library of Australia hosted an excellent online seminar on researching Chinese-Australian family history Their presentation was a gold-mine of information, with many tips that are applicable more widely to researching ancestors from other non-English speaking backgrounds. Here are a few of my top take-aways from the session: - Keep a file of name variations for each of your ancestors in cases where name variations are likely - When struggling with researching ancestors from a particular time and place with which you are unfamiliar, check the Family Search website for tips. They have dedicated pages providing specific research tips for various times and places around the world. - For Asian-Australian Ancestors who travelled back and forth from Australia the Records of Exemption from the Dictation Test Certificates database created by CAFHOV is very useful: https://www.cafhov.com/vic-cedt-index/ Above: screenshot of part of the ...

Whether you're just starting your family history or an expert theres is likely to be a useful website for you amongst the 101 listings in Family Tree Magazines annual best websites for genealogy article. You can find Family Tree Magazine in hard copy at Sam Merrifield Library (latest copy can be read in the library, older copies are available to borrow). Or you can browse and/or download an electronic copy on Libby (where you'll find lots of other great books and magazines from around the world to read for free with your library card too). If you don't already have Libby it is an app which you can download and use for free. Find Libby at your preferred app store, and link your account to your Moonee Valley Libraries card by following the prompts after downloading. Happy reading and researching!

Craigallan was built in 1891-1892. Designed by William Cleverdon it had a Gothic Revival style with an observation tower and a smaller tower, the latter for decorative purposes. The ground floor had an entrance hall, drawing room, dining room, breakfast room, small servant room and a main staircase which led up to the upper floor with its five bedrooms and one bathroom. William Rodgerson met Ann Bruce c 1850 when they were both servants in an Edinburgh household. They decided to go to Australia and made the long journey over on the ship Elizabeth. They arrived in Melbourne 1853, the same year as the registration of their marriage in Victoria. They had five children: Mary Ann, William Archibald, Mary Jane, David Bruce and Annie Isabella. William Rodgerson started working as a cartage contractor and was established as such in 1859. In 1891 he bought the piece of land in Moonee Ponds on which he had Craigallan built. Craigallan built c1891-92 formerly at 75 Park St, Moonee Ponds. P...

Ruth Hollick grew up in Moonee Ponds as the youngest of 13 children. Her parents, both English-born, were Harry Ebenezer Hollick, civil servant and his wife Frances Jane, née Cole. Without any formal training Hollick started taking portraits in her family home where she had set up a dark room. This was in her early twenties and by then she had already completed studies at the National Gallery school of design 1902-1906. In 1908 Hollick had bought a French car and travelled around the Riverina and Western District of Victoria, doing freelance photographer work. Most of this work was done in outdoor settings, with families and children casually staged. Trio of identically dressed children seated under one rain umbrella Author / Creator Hollick, Ruth 1883-1977 photographer. Date ca. 1910-ca. 1930. State Library Victoria Hollick later returned to Moonee Ponds and continued working from her family home until 1918, when she moved into a studio on Collins Street that she purc...

The Clocktower Centre is back with their first Theatre Season Show for the Season - and it sounds like a great one for history fans: Black Cockatoo is coming to the Clocktower Centre on Thursday, 17 March at 8pm. Inspired by the true story of legendary First Nations cricketer Johnny Mullagh and Australia’s first ever international sporting team, this is not just about cricket. This is a story of strength, resistance, hope and possibility. To find out more, visit clocktowercentre.com.au/black-cockatoo/ or call the box office on 9243 9191. Tickets are on sale now for both shows and selling like hotcakes so get in quick!

Over the last year or so over 200,000 pages of Australian Jewish newspapers from between 1871-2008 have been digitised and made available online via Trove. This is thanks to a collaborative project between the National Library of Australia (NLA), the National Library of Israel (NLI) and the Australian Jewish Historical Society (AJHS). The following titles can now be found in Trove: § The Australian Jewish Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1920 - 1933) § The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic. : 1935 - 1999) § The Australian Jewish News (Melbourne, Vic. : 2000-2020) § Australier Leben = Australian life (Melbourne, Vic. : 1931 - 1933) § The Westralian Judean (Perth, WA : 1924 - 1925; 1929 - 1955) § The Australian Hebrew Times (Sydney, NSW : 1894) § The Dialectic : Jewish Monthly (Fitzroy, Vic. : 1875) § The Australian Zionist Pioneer (Sydney, NSW : 1929)   § The Australasian Hebrew (Sydney, NSW : 1895 – 1896)   § The Australian Jewish Chronicle (Sydney, N...

Did you know that West Melbourne once had an enormous picturesque lagoon? Now the spot is an industrial hub of the freight terminal and a tangle of road and rail links. But once a great lagoon stretched out to the west of the city, from near where North Melbourne now stands, out to South Kensington and across towards much of West Melbourne, towards Footscray. The lagoon in 1844. View from Batman's Hill February 5 1844 looking North West Robert Russell, 1884.  Courtesy of the State Library Victoria Collection.  H24487. See the lagoon behind the city? View from the top of the Scots Church steeple, Collins Street, 1875, Photographic studio of Paterson Bros, 1875. Courtesy of the State Library Victoria Collection. H96.160/2713 Local public historian Lenore Frost curated an exhibition for the Royal Historical Society of Victoria about this fascinating but sadly now vanished waterhole. Sadly the pandemic limited access to the physical exhibition, but the RHSV have now made the exhib...

If you're interested in learning more about family history you might like to try the UK's Family History Federation's new podcast, The Really Useful Podcast .  So far they've discussed occupations and young people.

Did you know that while we've been in lockdown access to Find My Past and Ancestry Library Edition has been available from home for library members? If not, now you do! If you're not sure how to access them, give the library a call (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm or Saturday morning) on 9243 1950. At home access to Find My Past is due to end on 18th November, while Ancestry is likely to remain available until the end of 2021. These are both incredibly useful resources for family history research so make the most of at home access while you can!

In September 1943, around 60,000 war-weary Melbournians gathered to enjoy a morale-boosting display of RAAF aerial manoeuvres, but ended up witnessing the tragedy of the Second World War first hand. The North Melbourne air crash occurred just a few hundred metres from where the National Archives’ Victoria office is now located. Discover this fascinating wartime story through records from the National Archives and Public Record Office Victoria collections. Presented in conjunction with the Hotham History Project. Patrick Ferry from National Archives will present a webinar about this tragic event on 21 September 2021. Book your place for this free webinar now: https://www.naa.gov.au/visit-us/events-and-exhibitions/north-melbourne-air-crash

We’re still in the depths of what feels like a never-ending Melbourne winter, but not to worry- our friends at Trove have some ideas to keep us cosy in these chilly months. Usually the first thing that comes to the mind of this Community Heritage Librarian when thinking of Trove is research! But there is so much more to explore, and the experts at Trove have put together some handy searches to help us make the most of the digital resources that are available. Thos. [Thomas] W. Mitchell, Victorian Attorney-general, busily knitting in his office, 1951 . Courtesy of State Library Victoria. If you’re a knitter, quilter or embroiderer, there are some fantastic vintage knitting patterns available to keep your fingers nimble and warm this winter. Some simple searches put together by Trove are available via the links below- Winter knitting patterns in newspapers Quilting patterns in newspapers Embroidery patterns in magazines and journals You can further customise your search by using the f...

Once again, we find ourselves spending more time at home and many of us are getting re-acquainted with our local streets on our daily walks. If you’ve walked the same path every day and are looking for a way to change up your walks around your neighbourhood, we’ve got you covered! Your local Community Heritage librarians have put together self-guided history walks for four neighbourhoods in Moonee Valley, which you can access through our library catalogue . The walks include a stroll along the river in Aberfeldie, through Queens Park in Moonee Ponds, and around the streets of Niddrie and Strathmore. If these areas fall within your 5km radius, we invite you to take a (safe and socially distant) winter walk and visit points of historical interest in your area- you might even learn some fun local trivia tidbits! The Moonee Ponds Creek flooding in 1963 near Wallace Crescent in Strathmore. This view looks east towards Pascoe Vale South. (Photograph courtesy of Moonee Valley Libraries) Foll...

Back in May we were happy to announce that remote access to Ancestry.com had been extended until September 2021. Now we’re even happier to announce that this access has been extended further, to December 31, 2021! This means you can access all the records found in the library edition of Ancestry from home until the end of the year, just by logging in with your library card details. Three Boys with Train Set & Teddy, Backyard, Strathmore, 1949 , photograph courtesy of Museums Victoria Ancestry is always adding new records to their database (such as Paris, France, Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1792-1902 ), and updating the collections that have already been uploaded (like Canada, Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current ). So even if you’ve searched Ancestry before and haven’t found the information you were looking for, there’s a chance new records that might help with your research have been added in the meantime. It’s always worth having another search! If you haven’t accessed...

Essendon Airport is gearing up to celebrate it's centenary in August!  Photograph courtesy of Moonee Valley Libraries To mark the momentous occasion, our friends from Essendon Fields have installed a fantastic new display in the Community Heritage area of Sam Merrifield library. Pop into the library and learn about this important piece of Moonee Valley history, and relive your own memories of Melbourne's first airport (and one of the world's oldest!). The display will be in place until August 10th at Sam Merrifield Library, 762 Mt Alexander Road, Moonee Ponds. The airport will also be hosting a range of initiatives and events throughout 2021, keep an eye on the Essendon Fields  website and social media to stay in the loop and celebrate this milestone in our local aviation history. @essendonairport #essendonfields  #essendonfieldsairport

Book now for a wonderful opportunity to experience what it was like to watch a movie during the silent film era, when music was played with the film live. On Saturday 29th May 2021 Sounds of Silent will accompany films from the silent era, featuring Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Book now for this free event: https://clocktowercentre.com.au/sounds-of-silent/

Research your family history with Ancestry, you might discover something like this-  The exterior of 45 Finsbury st in Newmarket from the 1880s, with occupants- mother and child. Good news for all those who have been getting stuck into researching their family history from home- Ancestry Library Edition remote access has been extended! ProQuest, who we thank for providing remote Ancestry access to our library members, issued this statement last week- “Access to Ancestry Library Edition has been temporarily expanded to library cardholders working remotely, courtesy of ProQuest and its partner Ancestry.  Remote access will be available until  September 30/2021 and will continue to be re-evaluated.” This means you can access all the records found in the library edition of Ancestry from home, just by logging in with your library card details. Visit our library catalogue here , and you’ll find Ancestry under the Research tab, in the Family History in the Library list of res...

Cover image: Charmaine Keene Hamilton, ‘Possum skin family history’ (2019). Moonee Valley Libraries staff are very pleased that we can offer to you an upcoming collaborative session all about researching Aboriginal Family History. This online workshop will be happening on Monday May 17 th  2021, 9.30am-12.30pm. Join Jenny Bates from the Koorie Heritage Trust this Heritage Month for this introduction to researching Aboriginal family history. Tracing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family histories poses a unique set of challenges. This workshop will provide an overview of these three organisations, resources, and how they can help: Koorie Heritage Trust - Koorie Family History Service; State Library of Victoria - Koorie Heritage Unit; Public Records Office of Victoria and National Archives of Australia - Koorie Records Unit. Other topics covered will include how to get started, tips on staying organised, overview of what useful records are available, researching names & pl...

Interested in getting started with researching your Family History? Join us on Zoom for a Family History Online class. Discover free online tools such as Ancestry, Find My Past and Trove and learn basic skills and techniques to discover more about your family’s past. In this 2 hour class we'll discuss how to begin researching your family history, particularly using online research tools. The content is aimed at beginners, so covers how to get started, as well as some basic tips and tricks that are important to keep your research in order and on track. The main focus of the session will be on online research tools that you can use for family history research. In particular, we'll be focusing on Ancestry and Find My Past (two fantastic family history research databases that can be accessed for free by Moonee Valley Library members), as well as the Trove website - which is, as the name suggests, an amazing treasure trove of historical information. If time permits we'll also co...

The Essendon Gazette and Flemington Spectator- available on Microfilm Our Local History computer at Sam Merrifield Library has been in need of a facelift, and we are excited to report that it has been upgraded and is now available for all your local history research needs! And with this upgrade comes the good news that our Microfilm and Microfiche collection is back in action!!! There are many resources in this collection that aren’t available elsewhere physically or digitally, and they may hold the missing piece to your research puzzle. The collection includes locally relevant information including newspapers, cemetery records, births, deaths and marriages, land sale notices, and various other indexes. If you’ve never used a microfilm/fiche reader before, there’s no need to worry- there’s a handy step-by-step guide to using the machine in hard-copy next to the computer, and in a PDF file on the PC’s desktop. An example of an Ascot Vale Land Sale Notice on microfilm For some tips and t...

My Story is a project developed through the COVID-19 Community Art Exhibitions Recovery Arts Initiative. The Recovery Arts Initiative project My Story , focuses on creatively documenting the stories of Senior Community members and how they have been affected throughout the pandemic. Moonee Valley City Council is calling for 10 community members aged 65+ (and your care givers/support persons) who’d like to tell their story as part of the My Story Project. We want to hear YOUR stories and reflections of your time spent throughout the Lockdowns. The My Story project creates connections, heal and recover, offering opportunities of expression by utilising digital storytelling. What’s your story? To encourage further engagement with the wider Moonee Valley community, the My Story audio project will be complimented by a visual art poster project accompaniment. The Audio stories will be linked via QR code to a designed Poster. The poster project will be installed on A0 poster paste ups, ...