Quarterly Journal of The Genealogical Society of Victoria Inc Getting It Write Research Corner Copyright – or not Searching for nurses and midwives in Victoria VOLUME 33 ISSUE 4 DECEMBER 2016 Winner 2016 $15.00 ISSN 0044-8222 GSV Writing Prize Finding Mary Jane From Portland to Victoria Mary Barker Rae Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Family Tree The Impact of Tuberculosis in my Father's Family Sources to Add Flavours GSV Annual Awards Spotlight – Geelong Heritage Centre DiscoverDiscover a wworldorld ooff ffamilyamily hhistoryistory The Genealogical Society of Talks Victoria Inc DDevonevon RResearchesearch Presented by David Down & Mark Harry Come to this talk to learn about the resources held at the GSV that can Thursday 12 January 2017 assist in solving your Devon research. This talk leads on to the library 12.00pm – 1.00pm research day GSV Meeting Room Members $5.00 – AIGS/RHSV $15.00 – Non-members $20.00 Devon Library Research Day GSV Library 28 January 2017 – 10.30am to 1:30pm Members $10.00 – AIGS/RHSV $30.00 – Non-members $40.00 GGermanerman ResearchResearch Presented by Michael Rumpff An introduction on the correct way to trace your Ancestor back to their Thursday 9 March 2017 birthplace in Germany, and preparing for the Library Research Day 12.00pm – 1.00pm Members $5.00 – AIGS/RHSV $15.00 GSV Meeting Room – Non-members $20.00 German Library Research Day GSV Libraryrary 25 Marchh 2017 – 10.30am to 1:1:30pm MemberssPOSTPONED $$10.0010.00 – AIGSAIGS/RHSV/RHSV $30.00 – Non-members $40.00 Bookings with payment essential Make payments at GSV reception or online www.gsv.org.au CORRESPONDENCE The Editor, Ancestor, The Genealogical Society of Victoria, Level B1, 257 Collins Quarterly Journal of The Genealogical Society of Victoria Inc. Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000 Volume 33 Issue 4 / December 2016 Phone: (03) 9662 4455 or email: [email protected] EDITORIAL TEAM Margaret Vines – chairperson This time of year brings two special announcements: the Awards of the GSV Bill Barlow and the winner of the GSV Writing Prize. Barbara Beaumont Sue Blackwood It is always heartening to realise the amount of time and eff ort that volunteers Martin Playne contribute to the smooth-running of our society, not only in the public eye, but Jenny Redman behind the scenes. Details of the awards are on page 22 . Congratulations to all Jeanette Wickham award winners. CREATIVE Jeanette Wickham Congratulations also to Emma Hegarty, the winner of the Writing Prize. Her research into the life of her ancestor Mary Jane Walshe has been undertaken PRINTER Blue Star Print Vic over more than twenty years. Persistence, and a lucky break, have brought Mary Jane’s interesting life story into the light. As Emma concludes, Mary Jane’s life CONTRIBUTIONS story has been traced mainly through the documentation of the males in her We welcome the submission of articles on family history topics for possible life. This is often the case with female ancestors, a topic that the Writers Circle publication. tackled recently. We look forward to bringing you some stories on this topic in The editors reserve the right to edit the next issue. or abridge articles to meet space constraints and editorial considerations. Now that the 2016 competition is over, why not start planning for your entry Submissions should be the work of the next year? If you are not sure of your writing skills, consider joining the Writers author submitting the article and should Circle, which can off er help and advice. There are also guidelines on the GSV not have been published elsewhere website under the Ancestor tab for would-be writers. unless agreed. All material should be submitted in electronic format to Two of our articles tell of lives changed by migration. Robert Flew brings us a [email protected] story of quarrymen from Portland, UK who took up this trade in the western Please submit text as Microsoft™ Word suburbs of Melbourne, while Elaine Story tells of the slave background of her doc or docx fi les. Printed papers will not be considered for publication. Images ancestor Mary Barker Rae and her later life in England. Two of our articles should not be embedded in the text fi le, focus on conditions that affl icted members of their family: Levane Abdoolcader but sent as separate email attachments has researched the prevalence of tuberculosis amongst her forebears while as high resolution JPG or TIFF fi les James McDonald writes about how post-traumatic stress disorder aff ected two (minimum 300 dpi). Provide captions for members of his family long before that term was coined. Dorothy Anderson and each image in the text fi le. Articles should not exceed 3000 words in length. Shorter Richard Shiell have given us an interesting account of some unusual sources of articles with images to illustrate the information that have contributed to their family research. article are preferred. Finally, be sure to read the President’s page as it contains some interesting For further information on style to follow in preparing your article, please see indications of possible future directions for the Society. gsv.org.au/ancestor-journal/ Barbara Beaumont guidelines-for-authors.html. If you have further questions, email: Editorial Team [email protected] ADVERTISING Advertising space is available. Our Media Kit is available at gsv.org.au/ancestor- journal/advertise.html © The Genealogical Society of Victoria. Material in this publication must not be reproduced without consent. The views expressed in Ancestor are those of the Author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of The Genealogical Society of Victoria. Our cover: Melbourne from the southward c1850, by James Graham Boyd. State Library of Victoria photo collection No.H5505 Pen of the President David Down Pen of the President Pen Future Directions resolved. Discussions have commenced with other major The GSV, along with many societies, is facing diffi culties libraries in Victoria in an endeavour to ensure that our with a steady and sustained decline in membership which collection is preserved. However the Society must be severely impacts on our ability to operate in a fi nancially prepared for the circumstance where other institutions viable manner. Throughout Australia and overseas, clubs are unable to house our collection in its entirety or, and societies have generally suff ered a reduction in their indeed, in part. membership base. This would appear to be a general trait • We are examining systems and procedures that would of modern society and, in our circumstances, possibly a enable us to greatly extend the range of information that reaction to the growth in the popularity of the commercial is accessible from home. We are not in a position to fully databases. implement these systems in the immediate future but are working towards a solution. Our Society has suff ered a 40 per cent decline in membership over the last decade, Successive Councils The lease of our current premises will terminate at the have recognised the problem and have taken a number of end of November 2018. Our lessor has recently off ered actions in an endeavour to focus the Society’s direction and us the opportunity to exit our lease in the near future. As operations. A review of our operations and staffi ng levels has a consequence Council has agreed to vacate our current resulted in more focused programs and fewer staff . premises at a mutually agreed date most likely to be in the fi rst quarter of 2017. We will be seeking smaller premises in Our members, when responding to the survey conducted the Melbourne City Council area with ready access to public two years ago, advised us that they are seeking greater transport. At the time of writing this article we have just access to information at home and for personalised research commenced the search for alternative premises that would assistance when attending events in our library. We have suit our needs and restricted budget. responded in a number of ways including increasing the number of one day research workshops, instituting library Changes to our Society will occur quite rapidly now and I research days, increasing the records available on our online recognise the need to keep members appraised in a timely databases, converting our webcasts to a format more suitable manner. A full mail-out to members is very expensive so our for downloading and promoting our Discussion Circles. main methods of communication will be via our website, by email and through each edition of Ancestor. We have Over the course of recent years attendances at our library email addresses for approximately 80% of our members. If have decreased signifi cantly. Our extensive collection of you have not provided us with an up-to-date email address books and other written material are consulted infrequently. we would greatly appreciate it if you could do so as soon as Access would appear to be primarily by members of our possible. Our program of events as advertised on the ‘What’s Research Team in the course of providing paid research On at the GSV’ pages may be subject to change at short services to members and the general public or during the notice. The Events pages on our website will contain the conduct of Library Research Days. latest information and should be consulted frequently. A number of issues are being considered: The Society is in a state of fl ux. Despite our declining • There are a number of family history societies in membership it is considered that a viable family history existence in Melbourne each of which are experiencing society can be created by combining our eff orts and similar reductions in their membership.