Winter 2017 EDITION

Joondalup Library, Local History102 Boas Avenue, Joondalup 6027

Monday – Friday 9.00am – 5.00pm Saturday 9.30am – 12.30pm

Sixteen Things to Write Down for PosterityGenealogists are often so busy trying to find and record all the details about their ancestors lives, that they forget their own history will eventually become family history.It is important to preserve information about your own life, so that in 100 or 200 years, your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews can understand your life and what you were really like.Here is a list of things to write down about yourself for posterity:1. Your full name and where and

when you were born.2. Your siblings’ names and where

and when they were born.3. Your parents’ names, when and

where they were born, what they were like, the kind of work they did, special memories about them.

4. How your parents met.

5. The same for your grandparents and great-grandparents, if you knew them.

6. Your childhood: the games and books you liked; your hobbies, sports and activities; where you went to school; favourite and least favourite subjects at school; what you wanted to be when you grew up; your chores around the house; trouble you got into.

7. Your high school years: school subjects you excelled at and struggled with, sports and activities, jobs, friends and dates, learning to drive, how you got along with your parents.

8. Your university years, job training, and/or transition into working life.

9. Experience serving in the military.10. Adult relationships and/or how

you met your spouse.

11. Where you settled as a young adult, your friends and activities, religious life, travel, work.

12. Being a parent: when and where your children were born, their names and how you chose them, what you loved and didn’t love about having children.

13. Life lessons you’ve learned and advice you’d like to share.

14. Family stories passed down to you, that you in turn want to pass down to others.

15. Medical struggles that might also impact others in your family – if you feel comfortable sharing them.

16. Of course, your genealogy discoveries.

Partially reproduced from the 31 May 2016 Family Tree Magazine Genealogy Insider eNewsletter

Do you have relatives who were married in Victoria Park early in the 20th Century?

The State Library of Western Australia has digitised the Church of the Transfiguration (Anglican) – Victoria Park Marriage Registers 1900 – 1930. To access the registers, please go to the State Library Catalogue website at slwa.wa.gov.au and type ‘Victoria Park Parish marriage registers’. It’s well worth a look.

Church of the Transfiguration (Anglican) – Victoria Park

Brian and Lois Darch ca.1940s.

Bride and groom, Marguerite Stubberfield and Charles Pearsall ca.1934.

The Royal Automobile Club (R.A.C.) of Western Australia historically published an annual Year Book and Road Guide. Some of the early editions included lists of every registered motor vehicle in Western Australia. The lists included the owner, their address, type of vehicle, its licence/number plate and the local authority it was registered with.The Carnamah Historical Society and the North Midlands Project have transcribed, indexed and created a searchable online database of motor vehicle registrations from throughout Western Australia*. The Index of Early WA Motor Vehicle Registrations website –carnamah.com.au/car-registrations can be searched by surname or keyword. The 80,153 entries comprise the following years:3,324 vehicles in 1917-185,495 vehicles in 1922-2310,693 vehicles in 1924-2515,322 vehicles in 1925-2619,975 vehicles in 1926-2725,344 vehicles in 1927-28

The growth in vehicles during the ten years from 1917-18 to 1927-28 was over 762 percent.It may appear that multiple people had the same number plate at the same time. However, this was generally not the case. Some local governments used the same numbering (but on different coloured plates) for private vehicles and those for trade or hire. In other places, such as Narrogin, there was both a road board and a municipal council - the former would include the dot in the middle while the latter contained no dot.Sometimes the road board and municipal council would use different letters, but not always. For instance, in 1926-1927 the Albany Road Board’s plates were ‘A’ followed by a dot and the Albany Municipal Council used ‘A’ without a dot – hence both A•21 and A 21 existed but were on different vehicles owned by different people.The digitised R.A.C. Year Book and Road Guides are available from the State Library of Western Australia’s catalogue.

Early WA Motor Vehicle Registrations

Top left: Henry (Snr.) and Maud Dennis with their children ca.1919. Top right: Vincenzo Sinagra at Pinjar ca.1946. Left: Alice Gibbs (nee Dennis) ca.1920s.

2 | Family and Local History

Trove and the Western Australian Genealogical Society have added some new West Australian collections to their online resources. These new records are a useful addition to the ever-increasing amount of information available to researchers online.Trove• Albany Mail and King George’s

Sound Advertiser 1883-1889• The Collie Miner 1900-1916• Coolgardie Mining Review

1895-1897• Group Settlement Chronicle and

Margaret-Augusta Mail 1923-1930Visit trove.nla.gov.au

Western Australian Genealogical Society• WA Biographical Index• WA Biographical Index – Eastern

Goldfields (cemetery cards)Visit wags.org.au

New Western Australian Online Resources

1. Note the names of witnesses to your ancestors’ baptisms, marriages and legal transactions. By researching those witnesses, you might glean new information about your own relatives.

2. Reverse ancestors’ first and last names when searching online databases.

3. Remember to search on both maiden and married names for females.

4. When using a general search engine such as Google, put your ancestor’s name in quotation marks (“John Farmer”) to limit search results.

10 Fast Tips for Finding Ancestors

*Extracted from the R.A.C. Year Book and Road Guides of 1917-1918, 1922-1923, 1924-1925, 1925-1926, 1926-1927 and 1927-1928

Family and Local History | 3

Family History Workshop – the Next StepSaturday 5 August 2017 10.00am – 12.00noonCity of Joondalup Libraries – Joondalup, Local History 102 Boas Avenue, JoondalupHave you attended the “Introduction to Family History” seminar?

This follow-up workshop will help to break down brick walls and show you how to find information that has so far eluded you.

Bring your current research and any questions. Have them answered in a friendly environment.

Cost $8.00*.

An Introduction to Family History Tuesday 3 October 2017 10.00am – 12.00noonCity of Joondalup Libraries – Woodvale 5 Trappers Drive, WoodvaleTracing your family history is a favourite pastime for many but where do you start? Woodvale Library is hosting “An Introduction to Family History”, a two hour seminar to help enthusiastic researchers get started.Participants of this seminar will learn how to begin researching their family tree. Explore useful family history resources with expert genealogists Olive and Wendy. Discover all the best tips and resources to begin researching and receive the “Tracing your family tree: a beginner’s guide”. Cost $27.00*.

August is National Family History Month. The City of Joondalup and the State Library of Western Australia (SLWA) have a number of resources (electronic and hard copy) that can be borrowed and/or accessed by family history researchers. During National Family History Month there are lots of (often free) genealogy events taking place in the Perth Metropolitan area. Pick up an events brochure from any City of Joondalup Library or download the program from slwa.wa.gov.au

National Family History Month

5. Try using a wildcard (? or *) to broaden your online searches. On ancestry.com for instance, use a question mark (?) to replace one unknown letter. A search for Anders?n will turn up results for Anderson and Andersen. Use an asterisk (*) to represent between zero and five unknown letters. A search for Rob*son will find people named Robson, Robertson or Robinson. Similarly, a search for Fran* will show results for Fran, Franny and Frank.Want to find records that mention Martin Sullivan, Martin James Sullivan or Martin J. Sullivan? In Google, you can use an asterisk to search for all three versions of the name at the same time: Type “Martin * Sullivan” into the search box.

6. Don’t assume that your immigrant ancestors arrived at one particular location. Check other ports. Your ancestor may have travelled overland to get to their final destination.

7. Check every available census taken during your ancestor’s lifetime. Record the data provided for each family member in the household – not just your ancestor.

8. Search on more than just your ancestor’s full name. Try typing a last name, event, date or place into a general search engine. You may find databases and other resources that you’ve not yet explored.

9. If your ancestor had an unusual first name, try searching databases for it alone or combined with the name of his or her home town.

10. Seek out living kin who might have family photos or who may be willing to swab their cheeks for a DNA test project. Use “reverse genealogy” (working from the past to the present) to find these long-lost cousins.

Partially reproduced from the Family Tree Magazine eNewsletter, 28 June 2010.

Rose Vlahov with family and friends at the forestry camp, Wanneroo ca. 1934.

*Book and pay online via the City’s event calendar, or call 9400 4751 for further information.

4 | Family and Local History

The Joondalup Library and Civic Centre will celebrate its 20th birthday on 13 July 2017. The library will host a morning tea and children’s party to celebrate this milestone.

Plans for a comprehensive civic and cultural precinct for the Joondalup area had been talked about since the 1970s but it wasn’t until the 1990s that the project went ahead.

In 1994 the City of Wanneroo awarded the planning brief to Hames Sharley who developed the Joondalup Civic and Cultural Master Plan. The original Master Plan included: Council accommodation, library, museum/art gallery, performing arts centre, youth entertainment venue, child care and community care. Due to government funding cutbacks only the civic centre, function area and library were built.

The contract for the first stage of the project; a state-of-the-art library, public function areas and modern civic

Built of durable, low maintenance limestone designed to complement the natural environment the buildings were officially opened on 13 July 1997 by Peter Foss, MLC, Attorney General, Minister of Justice and the Arts and Cheryl Edwardes, MLA, Minister for the Environment, Employment and Training.A distinctive element of the buildings was the public art component. Five artists were commissioned by the City to create artworks linking the themes

chambers was awarded in 1995. Designed by James Christou and Partners and built by Doric Constructions, the new buildings adjoined the existing City administration building and formed part of the Joondalup City Centre, adjacent to retail and commercial areas and transport.

of bushland and lake. Facade banding of the classical alphabet along the external wall of the buildings on Lakeside Drive, a circular glass window in the council chambers, a wood and stone floor inlay in the civic chambers foyer, a mural at the library entrance and bronze plaques on the limestone columns linking the two buildings were designed.

Joondalup Library opened with 70,000 items and its own Reference and Local History section to house and preserve the City’s heritage. The Library was the biggest in the state by size and in the number of resources available. On its first full day, 4,423 items were borrowed and by day-two staff had signed up their 1,000th member.

In 2005 refurbishments to the staff area and children’s section were undertaken to brighten and enliven the space. In that year the library issued its four millionth item as the focus turned to creating an enjoyable community space for all.

Today Joondalup Library continues to evolve and build on its 20 years of community service. Happy birthday Joondalup Library and Civic Centre.

Happy 20th Birthday Joondalup Library and Civic Centre

Joondalup Library, Local History

T: 08 9400 4746 F: 08 9400 4743 E: local.history@joondalup.wa.gov.au 102 Boas Avenue Joondalup WA 6027 PO Box 21 Joondalup WA 6919

joondalup.wa.gov.au

This document is available in alternate formats upon request.

Joondalup Civic Centre and Library, 1998.

Clearing the ground, November 1995.

Joondalup Library from Boas Avenue, August 1996.

Official opening, Cheryl Edwardes and Brian Cooper.

Metal floor inlay Joondalup Library, 1996.

Stone floor inlay Civic Centre, 1996.