Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

The State Library of Victoria's Family History Feast is back for another year. Celebrating it's 12th year, this free event offers great information for family historians. The theme for this year will be World War 1. With a wide range of speakers from the State Library, the Public Records Office of Victoria, the National Archives of Australia as well as lectures from historians, this look's to be a great day. Follow the link below to find out more. Bookings are essential and will sell out soon so don't miss this opportunity. SLV Family History Feast 2015

On the 19th July 1916 Australian troops took part in their first major offensive on the Western Front, the Battle of Fromelles. Over 7,000 Australians lost their lives. A shell damaged farm near Fromelles. Photograph from the Australian War Memorial Collection. In April this year a new museum opened in Northern France commemorating the Battle of Fromelles. This museum will be interest to those with ancestors who fought at Fromelles, as many men from this area did. Learn more about the new musuem at: www.musee-bataille-fromelles.fr or about the Battle of Fromelles from the Australian War Memorial: https://www.awm.gov.au/units/event_159.asp Julia

More records relating to the First World War have recently been made available through Find My Past. Find My Past have added 330,000 WWI Nominal Roll records and 340,000 Embarkation Roll records. Find My Past is an online database of records that can be used for family history research. It can be accessed at any of our library branches. Julia

As the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I and the Gallipoli landings approach, many people are seeking to explore the stories of family members involved in the conflict. This is why we've created an online guide to researching ANZACs . This guide takes you through some of the basic steps and resources that you can use to research the life and career of a member of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in WWI. In May, we'll also be having an introductory presentation that showcases how to use selected online resources to begin researching your own family's WWI history. At Sam Merrifield Library on Monday 5th May, 7pm. For more, see our events page . Book online: mooneevalleylibraries.eventbrite.com.au or call 8325 1950. Julia

We've mentioned this website before, but it is so good and so relevant, particularly as we approach the centenary of World War One, that I'm going to feature it again. The Empire Called and I Answered ( http://empirecall.pbworks.com/ ) provides historical information and photographs of over 4500 volunteers who contributed to Australia's First World War effort who came from Essendon, Flemington, Kensington, Newmarket or Ascot Vale. If you are trying to find out about the Great War contribution of a local from this area, this database should be your first stop. There is also an associated blog http://empirecall.blogspot.com.au/ which features fascinating stories and images drawn from the database. Congratulations and thanks to Lenore Frost for creating both the database and the blog - fascnating resources for our local community to explore. Julia