November 2015newsletter no. 156

What’s Happening Next for our Society:

12th November – Street Stall: don’t forget the street stall.  We have booked Thursday 12th November, outside Coles in High St, Wodonga.We are looking for help to set up the stall. If you or if you have a relative or friend who can spare an hour first thing on the morning of the street stall (7.30 onwards) to move the heavier items it would be greatly appreciated. We will also need people to help out on the stall.  We will be well and truly packed before 2pm.If you can help in any way, please leave a message with our Fundraising Officer Yvonne Wilson on 02 6025 5553 or via email on yvonnewilson4@bigpond.net.au

If you are donating plants could you please name them? Prospective buyers ask about the plants and we don’t necessarily know the names of the plants (some of us are not gardeners!!!).

17th November – There will be a sausage sizzle followed by a Scrapbooking session with Debbie Llewellyn.

16th December – This will be the end of year function with our Christmas Party at the Felltimber Community Centre. Partners of members are most welcome. The cost will be $10 per person and we will start at 6pm. Please contact our secretary, Wendy, by 9th December, for catering purposes, to advise if you are coming along.

19th January 2016 – This will be a Fun Night and members will be asked to provide suggestions for subjects for the year.

Disclaimer: The WFHS Inc. does not accept any responsibility for opinions oraccuracy of information contained in this newsletter.

Information is reproduced in this publication for educational purposes.

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Newsletter of the Wodonga Family History Society Inc.PO Box 289 Wodonga Vic 3689 www.wodongafamilyhistory.org

Email: secretary@wodongafamilyhistory.org

Published in February, May, August and November

ISSN 1327-3167

The Research Room is situated in the premises of the Upper Murray Regional Library in Hovell Street, Wodonga VIC. The opening hours for research are Tuesday & Wednesday from 10.30am to 3.30pm and Thursday from 1pm to 5pm.

Our meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month [except December] at 7.30pm at the Felltimber Community Centre, cnr Felltimber Creek Road and Melrose Drive, Wodonga. Entry is via Ritter Road.

Research enquiries: If you wish our Research Officer to do research for you, please include a business sized, stamped, self addressed envelope with your enquiry details. The initial research cost is $20.00.Please include all the details you can: names, areas, dates, any births, deaths and marriage details you may have and what you want the Research Officer to find out. There is no point in paying for what you already know.

Membership Details

Membership of the Wodonga Family History Society Inc. includes the benefits of receiving a quarterly newsletter and allows access to all the resources of the Society’s library which is growing all the time. Your attendance at our monthly meetings will ensure that you have contact with our researchers who share your interest in family history.

Subscriptions: New Members Joining Fee $ 10.00Annual Membership $25.00Part Year Membership[join between 1st April & 30th June] $10.00 + joining fee

Membership fees are due and payable in July of each year.

Committee members

President Norma Burrows phone: 02 6024 1591Vice President Heather LauritzenTreasurer Sue Jarvis Secretary Wendy Cooksey phone: 02 6056 3220

Barbara Baxter Doreen Gibbs Lyn Larkin Bob Cousins Lynda Cuper

Pat Hopkins Heather Lauritzen Dawn Newman Yvonne Wilson

Christine Young

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Researchers please note that you cannot gain access to the Research Room until you have signed the attendance book at the front Desk – signature & membership number is required. If you are a visitor, your postcode and phone number will be required.Items cannot be returned through the Library after hour’s chute or to the Regional Library staff. They must be returned to the Research Rooms during the designated opening hours mentioned above.

We are updating our members' information and would like to include details of a person to contact in case of emergency.  The information required is "Person to contact and contact number".  Please forward these details to: secretary@wodongafamilyhistory.org, call Wendy on 02 6056 3220 or post to PO Box 289, Wodonga, 3689.President’s ReportOur new treasurer is Sue Jarvis. Thank you to Sue for taking over this very important role.Did you visit the “Spirit of Anzac” display – it was certainly a great exhibit.Congratulations to the winners of the Bedella and Townsend Awards – Sue Black, Glynn Brown and Wendy Cooksey. I was lucky enough to win the Novice Award this year. The Street Stall is on the 12th November so we look forward to seeing you there. If you have any books, plants, cakes, etc., to donate they will be very much appreciated. Some members of our group knit and sew items for the Street Stall. If any members have wool which they no longer require Lynda would be happy to receive it. Our display in “Reflections on High” was well received. Well done to the members who put it all together.The members of the Project team, who do all the transcribing of records on a Monday each week, have now published three more DVDs. Details of these items are mentioned in this newsletter. The new publications are for sale and increase the number of items we have on offer to the public. Income is generated and so we are able to purchase more items for our library. Congratulations to Pat and the team.“Scrapbooking” is the theme for our November meeting. Our guest speaker will show us how to use our photographs to tell our stories in a creative way.Due to illness and retirements we are looking for more members as library volunteers. Two hours a month would be very helpful and if you have more time that would be great. Talk to Lyn, our librarian, if you can help. A reminder that our library opening hours on Thursdays are now 1 – 5 pm. This is due to a change in the operating hours of the Wodonga Library. Tuesdays and Wednesdays have not changed.

This year we have decided to have a Christmas meeting/party on our regular 3rd Tuesday (16th December). This will be held at the Felltimber Community Centre. As we are planning to have a meal, the evening will start at 6.00 pm. Details have not yet been finalised. We will let you know more details at our November meeting and on our website. We will want numbers for catering.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I look forward to seeing you all in 2016.Norma BurrowsPresident

In relation to the Bedella and Townsend Awards the judges were June Shanahan and Cheryl Ryan.  A big thankyou to those 2 ladies. They gave the entrants written feedback as well as giving a pen to each of the entrants who did not win to encourage them to keep writing.

Meeting Notes21st July - This was our Annual General Meeting. The meeting was well attended. At this meeting we put forward a resolution to change our fees and this was passed. For new members the joining fee is $10 and the annual subscription is $25.00 – a total of $35.00 when joining. The annual membership fee thereafter is $25.00. New members who join between 1st April and 30th June – the joining fee is $10 plus part subscription $10.00 – a total of $20.00. Annual membership runs from 1st July to 30th June and fees are due by 31st July.

New committee member, Sue Jarvis, is now our treasurer. Our guest speaker was Doug Elms from VicGum. He talked about the family tree programmes which VicGum covers. He also gave a very informative talk about the benefits available to people who become members of their group. Doug had conducted a Family Tree Maker Workshop on the 17th July. This workshop was very well attended and everyone came away with a better knowledge of their FTM programmes.

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18th August - Winners of the Bedella and Townsend Trophy Awards were presented with their trophies. The winning entries were read to the meeting. The winners were: Bedella Novice Award – Norma Burrows; Bedella Intermediate Award – Sue Black; Bedella Open Award – Glynn Brown; Townsend Award – Wendy Cooksey. The stories covered a varied range of subjects – Christmas at grandma’s, an ancestor who married more than once and ended up with a very large family, a musical memoir and the story of a convict lady who became very wealthy.

15th September - Members Barbara and Wendy gave insights into using some of the resources available on the internet. They demonstrated how to use some of the programmes available. These included Rootschat; Penwith Genealogy (Cornish information); Occupations in Australia; Rootsweb; Free BMD; VicGum and Random Acts of Kindness (RAOGK). We all went home with new ideas to try and I believe one member broke down a “brick wall” after this meeting. Helping each other is what it is all about!

Here is some useful information that Barbara Baxter gave to the members that attended the meeting on 15th September.

Useful Websiteshttp://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/. Rootsweb.  A free site that offers a wide variety of useful information and links. Be aware that there are search boxes under the toolbar that lead to paid sites.http://www.raogk.org/. RAOGK (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness). This site is where you can enlist assistance from genealogists worldwide to do such things as look up records or take photos.  You are expected to reimburse the person for costs incurred such as petrol, parking fees etc.  However, you NEVER pay for their time.http://www.freebmd.org.uk/. FreeBMD.  A boon for those researching England and Wales from 1837 forward.  Totally free.  Volunteers worldwide are transcribing indexes from the beginning of civil registration on 1st July 1837.  This site also gives details of movements of records, where they are currently held and contact details.http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/c.html. Hall Genealogy --- Old occupation nameshttp://coraweb.com.au/occsites.htm. Occupations in Australiahttp://www.cartes.freeuk.com/time/date.htm. Card Dating website - date an old photo.

Useful ToolSnipping Tool: Go to :  All programmes; Accessories; Snipping ToolThis tool enables you to cut a section from your screen and copy it into a WORD document or save it as a jpg, etc. It is useful when you find a record such as a census page that has a lot of black around the page.  You only cut out the part you want making a neater record.

Welcome new membersWe welcome the following new members to our Society:-Victor Addinsall and Dawn McQuiltonWe hope you will take advantage of the many resources we have available at the library.

The LDS family history room in Wodonga Place Albury has changed its open hours to only once a week: Thursdays 10am to 4pm

There are times when you discover something new. Perhaps you would like to share that information with the other members of our club. Send your titbits to our Editor Christine, with WFHS Newsletter in the Subject, at chrisyou@bigpond.net.au

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Members’ stories The WFHS committee are always trying to encourage you, the members, to write short pieces for the newsletter.The aim is to give you the confidence to keep writing short or longer pieces for yourself and your family to preserve and pass on your family’s history. It would be great if you wanted to share those stories with fellow members via this newsletter.

They can be as short as 300 words which is half a page, depending on the font you use, or up to a page and a half [approx. 900 words].

Here is a story from Lee Howard.“Holy Buttons”

The phone rang early one Monday morning. It was my clear thinking, organising daughter. She asked: “What is the religious meaning of buttons?”I hesitated. This is right off beam, don’t give a glib answer. “What do buttons mean? Why do you ask, when did you see it?”

Daughter: “Well we went for a drive yesterday and came across a cemetery [Mum is always wandering around cemeteries so let’s have a look]. We pulled into the gateway and there were all these buttons.”It was my turn to be puzzled, so I asked: “Just where and how were they?”Daughter: “They were all over the path, through the gate and up around a couple of large stones.” The large stones were memorial stones with plaques in memory of the pioneers.

Well I really couldn’t make any sense of what she was saying, so I said I would try to find out!

Two days later it got the better of me and I drove out to see for myself. Yes, from the roadway to the gate was a thick layer of grey work shirt buttons, this continued through the gate and along the path to the two stones where they gradually thinned out along the path.

Luckily there was a couple there tidying up their own family graves and after they realised who I was, told me a chap who has family there had ‘acquired’ all these buttons and decided to use them instead of gravel. “When wet they were very slippery”, I was told.

I later found out that the chap had attended the clearing sale at the YAKKA factory in Wodonga and purchased a large container of grey work shirt buttons. I don’t know if he had decided what to do with them before or after he purchased them.

Whilst visiting another local cemetery, where a young member of his extended family is, I was surprised, well not really, to see handfuls of buttons scattered there.

No daughter, buttons have no religious meaning, you are not losing your marbles, [but maybe someone else is]. So I owe you an apology.

The 2 cemeteries are Moorwatha on the Burrumbuttock/Howlong Road and the Goombargana on the Balldale/Rand Road.

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This article is from Harry Leggatt. Thanks to Harry for taking the time to create it. The photographs are great. The article has been scanned into the newsletter so I hope you can see the beauty of the wedding gown.

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Here is an article from Wendy Cooksey. It is from the Albury Historical Society’s publication and has the permission if Doug Hunter to be included in our newsletter. The article has been scanned into the newsletter so I hope you can read it properly.

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Does anyone know anything about an undertaker in this area named Charles Wolf?  He was operating in 1904.  Did he own a Funeral Home or did he work for someone? 

He is named on the death cert of a baby named Mary Barbara Haydon who was buried in the Wodonga Cemetery.  However the records show that her grave site is unknown. 

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Family members named Tenner (Mary’s mother’s maiden name) have headstones in Wodonga.  Is it likely she is buried with them?

If we knew who Charles Wolf worked for maybe there are records that could show Mary’s grave location.

Any information will be appreciated and can be given to Wendy Cooksey.

PROJECTS

The Tallangatta and Barnawartha Cemetery DVDs are available for sale as well as the Bethanga Land Claims Records. A plan of the Cemetery is included on the Cemetery DVD and we managed to locate an early map of the Bethanga township to add to the Bethanga DVD. The publication of these DVDs makes a total of seven for the year. Although the initial work was underway for some time, it is a remarkable achievement. A very big thank you to the wonderful workers who have helped make this possible.

As stated in the previous Newsletter work is underway on the Yackandandah Rates (1920-1948) and School Attendance Records for 1861-1863. Photographs of the Wodonga Cemetery headstones and burial details of the local small cemeteries have been added to the computers in our Library. It is amazing what resources we have in our Library.

Shown below are 2 more front covers of CDs that are available for sale. The information in the CD’s has been recorded by our great hard working dedicated team.  

RECORDS FOR SALE

CD and DVD RECORDS FOR SALE

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These Records have been produced by the Wodonga Family History Society Inc. and may be purchased by contacting the Secretary at PO Box 289 Wodonga VIC 3690 or by email at secretary@wodongafamilyhistory.orgPlease Note: a full list of all our Records can be found on our website.Barnawartha Cemetery (DVD) contains copies of the original registers as well as photographs and transcriptions of the cemetery records and headstones.

$25.00 + p&pNEW 2015

Bethanga Cemetery (DVD) Includes Burial Register, Sextant’s Records, Headstone Inscriptions and Photographs of the Cemetery and Headstones

$25.00 + p&pNEW 2015

Bethanga Land Claims Records (DVD) contains a digitised copy of the original Register and transcriptions of the Register entries. Some loose certificates found in the Register have been included.

$25.00 + p&pNEW 2015

Courts of Petty Sessions (CD) Transcriptions of original records for convictions in the North East. (Bright 1890-1967; Milawa 1910-1915; Mitta Mitta 1928-1964; Rutherglen 1895-1948; Tallangatta 1892-1965; Walwa 1922-1965).

$20.00 + p&pNEW 2015

Mitta Mitta Cemetery (DVD) Cemetery photographs and headstone transcriptions to 2010.

$25 + p&p

‘Out of the Box’ (CD) A compilation of early residents from our local region obtained from records over many years. A valuable resource for family historians with a connection to the local area as it contains information relating to over 800 families.

$20 +p&p

Pupil Registers (CD) for some Schools in the Indigo shire close to Wodonga. (Baranduda 1903; Carlyle 1925-1952; Cornishtown 1865-1955;Dederang North 1914-1953; Lake Moodemere 1907-1952; Gundowring 1910-1952; Lockhart’s Creek 1906-1941; Prentice Freehold 1913-1950; Red Bluff 1910-1952; Tallandoon 1902-1971; Tangambalanga 1912-1952; Upper Gundowring 1910-1952; Kiewa Consolidated (1953-1983)

$20.00 + p&pNEW 2015

Talgarno Cemetery (CD) includes Headstone transcriptions, transcriptions of the Cemetery Register and photographs of the cemetery and headstones.

$20.00 + p&pNEW 2015

Tallangatta Cemetery (DVD) contains photographs of the cemetery and headstones and transcriptions of the burial register and headstones.

$25.00 + p&pNEW 2015

Wodonga Monumental Inscriptions up to and including 2007 (CD)Wodonga Burial Registers: 1 June 1861-Dec 1937 and 1938-2004.(Many internments were not recorded from 1861-1871). A Plan of the Cemetery is included.

$35.00 each + p&p OR$65.00 for the 2 sets + p&p

Wodonga Rates 1900-1948 (1938-1941 are not available) $35.00 + p&pYackandandah Cemetery Headstone Transcriptions (CD) $35.00 + p&pYackandandah Shire Rates 1875-1878 and 1884-1891 (CD) $20.00 + p&pYabba Cemetery (CD) Headstone Transcriptions and Photographs $20.00 + p&pNote: Additional cost for p&p - $5.00 for 1 or 2 CDs and/or DVDs. $10.00 for 3 or 4 CDs and/or DVDs unless otherwise stated.All CDs and DVDs are Word and Excel compatible.Attached to this newsletter is a flyer from Livid Productions about the musical thriller production of Sweeney Todd to be held at the The Cube in Wodonga in December – please the flyer for the dates and booking information. The cost of the tickets are $37.00 each and $31.00 for concession.

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Have a great Christmas everyone and we’ll be back again in 2016.

Wodonga Family History Society Inc., PO Box 289, Wodonga, VIC, 3689

The Wodonga Family History Society would like to thank Officeworks Wodonga for its support.

Officeworks is a great store with many services and products available for family historians.

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WODONGA FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY Inc.

PO Box 289, WODONGA 3689