Unusual Collections

A talk on unusual collections by guest speaker Ron Hattersley will be the highlight of the Society's family history group meeting next Saturday 3 November from 2pm.

Visitors are welcome to join us for the meeting and afternoon tea at 2:00 pm on Saturday 20th October in the Ku-ring-gai Library Meeting Rooms, The Old Gordon Public School, 799 Pacific Highway, Gordon (adjacent to the Gordon Library at the corner of Pacific Highway and Park Ave).

Findmypast.com.au

The Society has amongst its online subscriptions available to members in the Society rooms a subscription to Find my Past (Australia). We recently received news of a number of new record sets available via this subscription. This might just provide the key to finding those elusive ancestors and cousins.

From Findmypast.com.au:

We're excited to announce that we have just added a huge 56 million new records to our Australia / New Zealand collection. This brings the total number of records available on findmypast.com.au to a staggering 1.5 billion!

New records in the Australia / New Zealand collection include:

·         Electoral rolls for New Zealand and Australia

·         Births, deaths & marriages for South Australia

·         Government and police gazettes

·         Directories, handbooks and almanacs

·         Unique records such as Radio Call and much more

See the complete list of records now available in our full list of records.

Mac Users Group

Did you know...

We have a Mac Users Group that meets every month in the research rooms. It is a discussion group where everyone is welcome (and encouraged) to contribute, and there are no dumb questions.

Initially most of our discussions were based around the different genealogy programs available on Mac and the pros and cons of each. We have amongst us, pretty much all the available programs in use, and many of the apps available for iPad / iPhone too.

Although still touching on genealogy programs, especially when there are new people, many of our sessions now cover various tips, tricks, shortcuts and latest software and gadgets.

You don’t have to be a member to come along to this group, just willing to participate and contribute. Questions and problems can be emailed in advance. Bring your MacBook, MacAir, iPad, iPhone, whatever and join in.

Our next meeting is on Monday 29 October at 2pm in the research rooms.

Email khs@khs.org.au if you need more details.

Jackie van Bergen

Member blog post

Society member, Jenny Joyce, shares some valuable information in her latest blog post. Follow the link below to read the post.

Maps from the City of Sydney Archives

White Coolies

Do you remember the radio serial White Coolies?

Then come along to our general meeting this Saturday and hear the story of a POW nurse and survivor of the Bangka Island massacre.

As a captive of the Japanese during World War II, Wilma Oram Young, an Australian nurse, experienced the worst of human brutality: starvation, deprivation and degradation. She went on to become the first female president of the Australian RSL and worked for the rest of her life to relieve suffering for ex-POWs. 

Barbara Angell will speak about her book A Woman’s War: The Life of Wilma Oram Young AM.

Barbara is the author of three other books and an experienced television comedy writer and entertainer.

Visitors are welcome to join us for the meeting and afternoon tea at 2:00 pm on Saturday 20th October in the Ku-ring-gai Library Meeting Rooms, The Old Gordon Public School, 799 Pacific Highway, Gordon (adjacent to the Gordon Library at the corner of Pacific Highway and Park Ave).

Treasures from Trove - Wedding Bells 16 October 1937

1937 'Family Notices.', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956), 9 October, p. 40 Supplement: Week-End Magazine, viewed 3 October, 2012, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11102265

Transcription

The marriage will take place at the Sacred Heart Church, Killara, Sydney, on Saturday, October 16, of Miss Beatrice Noonan, of Northcote avenue, Killara, daughter of Mr. J. B. Noonan, of Vallis-Vale. Brickwood street, Elwood (V.), to Mr. H. Terry Abbott, who is a nephew of Mr. Abbott, the  administrator of North Australia. His father is president of the Pastoralists' Association of New South Wales.

Treasures from Trove - Redleaf Estate

1929 'WAHROONGA SUBDIVISION.', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 14 October, p. 13, viewed 24 September, 2012, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16592723

Following is the transcribed text from this article that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald 83 years ago today

WAHROONGA SUBDIVISION.

£23,000 REALISED AT SALE.

A sum of £23,000 was realised on Saturdayafternoon when the Redleaf Estate, Wah-roonga, adjacent to the station, was put upfor auction by Richardson and Wrench, Ltd.(in conjunction with Raine and Horne, Ltd.,and Hardie and Gorman Proprietary, Ltd.).Mr. Beatty, of Richardson and Wrench, Ltd.,

conducted the sale.

The property, the Kuring-gai Council'smodel subdivision, compilsed nine businesssites, 24 residential sites, the residence Redleaf, and a brick cottage. Bidding was brisk,and the business sites brought from £23 "to£ 28 a foot, while the residential sites realisedfrom £7/10/ to £18/10/ a foot. Some ofthe latter were disposed of slightly below thereserve, and were sold subject to approval by

the vendor.

The residence Redleaf, on about 1 1/4 acre ofland, was sold subject to approval for £4800.Altogether 29 lots were disposed of.

Partial Demolition of Lennox Bridge Approved

This statement was issued in the latest RAHS E-News. A number of our members requested that we post it, to alert as many people as possible to this:

Partial Demolition of Lennox Bridge Approved: 
On Wednesday 3 October the NSW Heritage Council voted to allow Parramatta City Council to demolish part of the 1830s convict-built Lennox Bridge to provide for two riverbank cycleways. 

The Heritage Council still has vacant positions for an historian and a National Trust representative, who might have been able to influence the vote. 

To voice your disapproval please email The Honorable Robyn Parker, Minister for Heritage Robyn.Parker@parliament.nsw.gov.au, Heritage Council Chair Professor Lawrence Nield Lawrence.Nield@newcastle.edu.au. 

Parramatta City Council has yet to determine the Development Application so you should also contact the Lord Mayor Cr John Chedid jchedid@parracity.nsw.gov.au.

We are seeking your help once again to save an important part of Parramatta, Sydney & Australia's history. 

This development application was withdrawn by Parramatta Council the first time they presented it due to the amount of objections it raised by individuals and Family & Local History Groups.
Unfortunately, the council has re-presented the proposal which has now been approved by the NSW Heritage Council - for reasons that are unknown and completely incomprehensible to us.

Please voice your disapproval of this application by emailing the abovementioned authorities.
Thank you
Dorothy Warwick

Last Friday's Workshop

Around a dozen members gathered in the Society rooms last Friday for our workshop on  Social Media at KHS. It was an informal session with lots of lively interaction.

Topics covered were:

¡What is Social Media?

¡What does one need to engage via Social Media?

¡Social Media Categories

¡How can Social Media help my research?

¡Blogs and Facebook

¡Connecting with KHS

¡How does one get started?

¡How does one manage Social Media? 

As the response to this session was very positive we plan to run similar sessions in the future, some of which will be BYOD (Bring your own device) workshops where members  bring along and work with their own technology.

As promised a .pdf file of the powerpoint presentation and a list of links to sites mentioned have been posted  on your blogger's site : http://www.geniaus.net/khs/.