Geelong District – Honour Boards plus more

May 20, 2012 1 Comment

The featured index in the latest bundle of additions to the Geelong & District Database is for names on numerous Honour Boards in the Geelong district.  These Honour Boards include those commemorating servicemen in the region but they also include other Honour Boards for various organisations.  Some boards include Presidents, Life Members, Members and other groups of people.  The initial entries were extracted from the Geelong Family History Group publication Index of names listed on Geelong & District Honour Rolls which has been out of print for some years.  More boards have been added in addition to those from the GFHG book – see the list of Geelong and District Honour Boards already included in the database.

Entries include name, date(s) [where available], and the title of the board.  At the recent meeting of the Geelong & District Historical Association, members adopted the Honour Boards as a new global project for all members.  Already we have photos of some of the boards and plan to expand this for all existing boards in the database as well as all additions to the project.  Most of the boards in the GFHG publication were transcribed many years ago – before digital cameras made this exercise so much easier!  Sadly some no longer exist – it is believed that the Geelong Golf Club entries were destroyed in the Club’s fire – at least we have the names from the board.  

This is the list of additions since 6 April making a total of 1,277,102 entries in the database:

  • Geelong District: Honour Boards – 3,648 entries
  • Geelong District: Orphan Immigrants 1848-1850 – 366 entries
  • Colac Shire: Rate Books 1900-01 [GRS 1393] – 2,759 entries
  • Book – A Grand Vision: the first 150 years of the Geelong Agricultural and Pastoral Society – 2,062 entries
  • Geelong District: names from the Geelong Times [groups, prizes etc.] – 359 entries
  • Geelong District: Hospital Admissions from the Geelong Times – 181 entries
  • Geelong: Immigration Depot Funerals 1853-1857 [VPRS 22] – 38 entries
  • Geelong: Immigration Depot Returns 1851 [VPRS 116] – 168 entries
  • Geelong District: Reports of Felony and Stolen Horses [VPRS 124] – 120 entries
  • Geelong: Register of Seamen Engaged 1856-1889 [VPRS 22] 1857 – 564 entries

Details on these indexes can be found in the Geelong & District Potpourri pages.

And don’t forget to search again for your ancestors in the Geelong & District Database – they could have been in the last load of additions!

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Lost a male ancestor near Geelong between 1856 and 1889?

December 24, 2011 Leave a comment

You might just find them in VPRS 22 Unit 21 at the Public Record Office Victoria!

This is a wonderful register dating from 7 August 1856 through to 1889 – Register of Seamen engaged Geelong and is the latest project being indexed by our Geelong & District volunteers.

So far, entries for 1856 have been added to the Geelong & District Database – 308 in total.

Details in the database for each entry: 

  • NAME: Name of seaman
  • DATE: of Engagement
  • PLACE: [of engagement] Geelong
  • COMMENT: Name of ship
  • REFERENCE: VPRS number and UNIT number (entries are generally in chronological order)

Additional columns of information in the register:

  • Capacity = rank i.e. AB [Able Seaman], Mate, Cook etc.
  • Nature of Voyage – Coasting, Foreign etc.
  • Reference [if Foreign] to Duplicate Agreement
  • Name of Master
  • Name of Licensed Agent
  • Last Vessel – on which engaged
  • Last Certificate of Character
  • Remarks

You can obtain this additional information and copies of the entries by visiting the Public Record Office Victoria at North Melbourne or submitting a (paid) Research Request to the Geelong Family History Group.

As the first part of the index was uploaded to the Geelong & District Database on Christmas Eve, it’s appropriate to select the seamen engaged on 24 December 1856.

NAME SHIP CAPACITY Prev SHIP REMARKS
John DORAN Ann & Maria Able Seaman Red Jacket Discharge lost
James LOW Mary Ann Cook & Steward Shalimar Discharge lost
George H GREEN Vibilia Mate Vibilia  
John ANLESS Vibilia Able Seaman Martha  
James AULD Vibilia Able Seaman Braces  
James KERR Vibilia Able Seaman Vibilia  
Andrew YILL Vibilia Able Seaman Vibilia  
George F CLEMENT Vibilia Cook & Steward Rattler  

All three of these ships were coastal traders which had arrived from Newcastle [NSW] laden with coal.  They returned to Newcastle carrying ballast and no passengers.  The Ann & Maria, a brig, departed 28/29 December, the Mary Ann, a brigantine, departed on 29 December, and the Vibilia, a schooner, departed on 24 December.

This is an ongoing indexing project – we’ll probably add entries a year at a time – I hope you enjoy this terrific index and register.

Merry Christmas to all from the volunteers in Geelong & District.

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