Gippsland Guardian online

Much Excitement!

The Gippsland Guardian is now online through Trove, for 1855 to 1868.

While some of the earlier issues are yet to be fully uploaded, if you find an article you want by searching, that is not yet loaded, you can click on the little orange envelope, and you will be e-mailed when that article is fully uploaded - some time in the next month.

You can search the title HERE, by typing your search term into the box on the top right, and clicking on the "Limit to issues of this title", also at top right.

Funding to place the title online (for $7,300), came from a Wellington Shire Community Grant, contributions from the members of the Wellington Heritage Network (and supporters) and the Gippsland Prospectors and Miners.

Copying Rate Books

 

Maffra and District Historical Society has dusted off a thirty-years-old copying stand they used in the days of film cameras, and are copying a swag of Rate Books. You can read more about it HERE and HERE.

White Box for Photography

Very good post on a white box for photographing at Carnamah Historical Society. Think I need one.

http://carnamah.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/digital-imaging-for-our-virtual-museum.html

Trove Tuesday - Dimond bros

Having a wonderful Trove Tuesday, looking up Dimond Bros.

Why?

Because I think they were the makers for a lot of opaltype photographs I have been looking at. I knew that they sent out salemen, or "canvassers with bicycle" (1919), but I wasn't sure of the exact business relationship. 

Enter Trove. Quick search, and found an account from the Adelaide Advertiser, where one of their agents tried to diddle the firm in 1910. There is was, all laid out in detail as to the schedule of commissions, when it was paid, and other goodies. Bit more in an earlier account, when he was first committed for trial.

Seems to have happened to them a bit - it was the same at Richmond, in Melbourne, as early as 1890. That one was acquitted though.

Thanks Trove!

Has anyone else got any of their photographs on white glass, hand-touched? Or any old framing with a label on the back? Would love to see photos of them.

Trove Tuesday - Looking for Orange Blossom

When the Cahill Collection of about 170 photographs and two autograph albums came into the Stratford Historical Society in the 1990s, with it was a small box with an orange blossom bridal head-dress that had seen better days. Accompanied by a note that it had been worn by 17 Dargo brides.

Recently we have been looking at the Cahill Collection again, and realised this 1920 photograph of Elsie Cahill shows her wearing it when photographed in Melbourne.

So, not knowing who any of the brides were, we decided to get creative, and see what we could find on Trove.

We think Margret McCarthy of Waterford in 1904 is close enough to Dargo to qualify as one, and Mary Nolan of Dargo who married at Cassilis in 1909 is probably another. Both are described as wearing a wreath of orange blossoms. So if there is anyone out there researching those famillies, who happens to have a photograph of the bride, it would be much appreciated if we could see a copy. Or photographs of any Dargo brides.

Other potential brides are Edith Cahill in 1902, and Maud Cahill in 1911, before Elsie in 1920, above.

There is just one other option, who is Edith Traill of Wurruk (but of the Waterford Traills), who married Norman King of Dargo in 1939. Could this have been in use for 40 years? 

If we include her, that is potentially six we can name - only eleven more to go. Amazing what you can find on Trove when you get creative. Can anyone think of any other ways to find them?

Significance Assessment workshop

Reminder below. Not only will this be an excellent day, it will be really good to catch up with people of a like mind.

A reminder that a significance assessment workshop is being organised through the Monash Centre for Gippsland Studies.

The details are as below so please support this activity and put the
date in your calendar. The day session will be based on the successful workshop run at Briagolong a couple of years ago.

SIGNIFICANCE ASSESSMENT FORUM

Organised by the Centre for Gippsland Studies

DATE; Friday November 23rd

Location; Monash University Churchill campus

Time; 9.30 - 3.30pm

Cost: $5.00 per person

Etiquette for Visiting or Accessing Collections

It is a really wonderful experience to be able to visit where your ancestors settled, and often this includes a visit to a local historical society and/or museum. I did it a lot when I started off on family history, and had a wonderful time. And found heaps. But this is a post I have been meaning to write for some time, after speaking about it at the GSV a couple of years ago. Because I am now on the other side of the counter, and I think there are a few things that need to be said. Make a cuppa, settle in, and feel free to add comments.

Firstly, this is a really hard post to write in a positive manner, so please bear with that. It is not intended to be negative, and helping visiting family historians is usually a pleasure - it is the ones where it is not that stand out though.

What to do before you visit? The best thing is to write or e-mail where you are visiting, with sufficient details about your family so they can give you best advice, or connect you to the best people. Just phoning does not work - and neither of the collections I work with will do family history over the phone, no matter how demanding people are. And sometimes they are, and I have seen elderly volunteers reduced to tears. Phoning to confirm times (after you have written) is fine - demanding family details over the phone is not. Write about a month ahead, with full details of anticipated time of visit. You should try to fit the normal opening hours, and understand if there is no-one available to drop everything for a time that suits you.

When you do arrive, please bring with you a family chart - you may understand your family, but telling people is no substitute for handing them a chart. Give a brief outline of your family, and then ask specific or general questions about the family, and listen to the answers. This is not an opportunity for you to talk to a captive audience at length about your family. If you arrive without notice, you cannot expect whoever is on duty to be able to access the computer to assist you.

Both collections I work with currently do not allow outside flash drives to be used with our computers as, virus concerns aside, too may people are out there boasting about how they have stolen entire databases and indexes off computers because they have been left alone with computers by unaware people on duty. For the same reason, we will not allow the use of portable scanners with archived photographs without prior arrangement and payment of a reproduction fee per photograph. The volunteers involved have been fund-raising for years to maintain these records, and should not be expected to hand them all over just because people do have the ability to copy them on the spot. There are also records that need to be checked to ensure there are no restrictions on reproduction. Many collections will not allow photography at all at the collection. If there is no signage, it is polite to ask first.

Once you have visited, send an update on the family for the collection's files. Please provide material in A4 format, or smaller. If you are sending digital material, send it as a widely accepted word processing document (eg many do not have Publisher). Do not set material up for display (eg as posters or framed) and expect it to be put on display. Make sure that you include your snail-mail address (e-mail addresses change), and give permission for the details to be given to anyone else enquiring about the family.

The bottom line is - how you interact with us will influence our actions if we find any further material on your family. If you have been courteous, filed material on your family and paid your way, there is every chance we will contact you again. If you are like one recent visitor, who went to both collections, and then wrote to each one complaining about the other, there is not a lot of chance we will.

Negative? Probably - but there comes a time when it has to be said. And it does need to be said that we get great pleasure from many of the family historians who visit. Just sometimes a little more thought about what you are doing makes it possible (or easier) to find information for you.