Things to do Thursday: Get reacquainted with the Microfilm and Microfiche collection at Sam Merrifiled Library

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 tricks about how to make the most of these resources, have a look at Moonee Valley Libraries guides on Researching the History of a Building and Tracing your Family History to get you started. Whether you’re after an article from a past issue of the Essendon Gazette, divorce records from the 1800s, tracing your house throughout the decades using the Sands and McDougall’s directories or the searching the Pioneer Index from the 1800s, we’ve got you covered.


If you’ve been looking for a quiet spot with all the resources you need to research your family tree, history of your house or anything local history related, we’d love to welcome you back into the Community Heritage corner at the library.

You can book your 2-hour session on the Local History PC by phoning 9243 1950, or by speaking to one of our staff members in the library.

Happy researching!

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