Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

A library visitor has told us that the couple in these unidentified wedding pictures might be Fred and Ann (or Anne) Dundas of Wellington Street, Flemington. I've been able to find out a little about the Dundas family. They lived in a grand house on Wellington Street named "Misteria" in the 1890s. Frederich was born in Mansfield in 1855, and became a wool and skin trader. Fred and Ann/e married relatively late, and had about three children. Ann/e is believed to have outlived Fred, living into her 90s. I haven't been able to find is any pictures of Fred and Ann/e to confirm it they really are the couple in our photos. If there is anyone out there who could confirm that this is (or isn't) Fred and Ann/e Dundas, please contact the library . And please, if you know anyone who maybe knew the Dundases, please share this post! Also, if you'd like to see more of the "unidentified photos" in our collection, and perhaps help identify some of the peop...

This image shows the Moonee Ponds Methodist Football Club of 1914. Two players, Sid Latimer and Cecil Seccombe, have been identified , but Lenore Frost is trying to identify the rest of the players, particularly any who may have enlisted in the First World War, for her database of local volunteers, The Empire Called and I Answered . The team were most likely drawn from the congregation of the Moonee Ponds Methodist Church, (formerly the Wesleyan Church) of Gladstone Street, pictured below. Picture from The Building and Engineering Journal , November 22, 1890. Julia

As mentioned previously in this blog, we have recently put together an album of photographs from our collection and asked for public help to  identify the  people and events portrayed in these images. You can view the album at Sam Merrifield Library or online .   The soldier in this image has been identified as Saddler Sergeant Alfred Robert Shurey of Ascot Vale. Fred, as he signed himself in this photo, enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, AIF, in October 1915. Records from the National Archives of Australia show that he served in France from March 1916 until the end of the First World War in 1918. He returned to Australia in April 1919. At the time of his enlistment he was 35, with a wife and 3 children. Fred died in Essendon in 1974 at the age of 93. His brother, Charles,  also enlisted in 1915 as a Saddlers ironmonger. Charles served in France and like Fred returned to Australia in 1915. Jennie