Moonee Valley Family & Local History Blog

At Moonee Valley Library branches you can now access British Newspaper Archive , an online resource which allows you to view millions of pages of British historical newspapers published since 1800. As well as searching news articles and advertisements, you can also search family notices, letters and obituaries– which makes this an extremely useful resource for researching British ancestors. British Newspaper Archive is not available to access from home, but it is so easy to use and fascinating to view that it is well worth paying us a visit to try it out.

'Daisy Chain': memories of a young marriage"by Marie Henkel is the second volume of her life story. Daisy Chain focuses on her time raising six children under five, being one of the first women to continue to be employed as a teacher in Victoria after her marriage. This book provides a glimpse into the lives of women in the 1950/60's in Australia. Marie's first book Wind Flowers: a series of short stories reflecting on her youth are both available at the Moonee Valley Library Service.

The latest edition of Ancestor focuses on the Pepper family of Gippsland. The article is the result of research by Simon Flagg that he started in 2004 when he was the joint reference officer for PROV and NAA. Both PROV and NAA have a large amount of records directly relating to Victorian Aboriginal people. His initial research started with the Koorie Index of Names (KIN ). The result of his work is the touring exhibition 'Footprints: an exhibition about Lucy & Percy Pepper', recently completed by the Public Records Office Victoria about an Aboriginal Victorian family. The book 'Footprints: the journey of Lucy and Percy Pepper' is available from the Moonee Valley Library Service. This exhibition will be touring in 2011 to Eastern Regional Libraries (Healesville and Lilydale) 6th September-30th October, 2011.