News - June 2025

Tuesday 17 June - 7:30pm General Meeting

VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct

GUEST SPEAKER: Kathy Rundle

TOPIC: Early Quakers in Tasmania and The Friends' School

Kathy's talk will begin with consideration of why Quakers needed to start schools for their own children as far back as the late 1600s in England and how these early schools' curriculum responded to Quaker ideals.

Moving on to the 1800s the Quakers desired to provide an education for their children in Australia and once Hobart was chosen as the place, families like Walkers, Mathers, Mays were involved in selecting the first Principal, Samuel Clemes. The people who helped the school in further development included the Benjafields and Goulds, Le Tall, Gower, Annels and Oats families. The talk will finish with a brief mention of The Friends' School in 2025.

Kathy Rundle has worked in a number of schools in Tasmania and England. She worked at Friends for many years and established the School Archives. Since retiring a few years ago, she has undertaken the task of Quaker Meeting house Archivist and also for the responsibility of the Quaker Burial Ground in Hill Street, West Hobart.

More for Your Diary

Thu 19 Jun - 10am Hobart Committee

VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive

Thu 19 Jun - 1:30pm DNA Group

VENUE: St Marks Church Hall, Scott Street, Bellerive

Thu 26 Jun - 2pm Library Committee

VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive

Tue 15 Jul - General Meeting

VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct

SPEAKER: Rebecca Read

TOPIC: What a new kid on the historian's block discovered about the VDL Convict archive

From Your Branch President

As winter sets in and the outdoors are not so tempting, it can be a good time to dig out those old photo albums. Do you have any photos that you can't identify? Or photos you took of photos in other family members' collections. Why not bring them into the Branch Library and consult Dating Family Photos 1850-1920 by Lenore Frost. It is a lovely little book written by an Australian using Australian family photos. I found it particularly useful to identify little clues like hairstyles, the sleeves on women's clothing and the lapels on men's jackets.

If the photo is an original Carte-de-Visite with the photographer's name on the back, you can search for when that photographer was in business at that address, and sometimes more specifically when the photographer used that style of advertising on the back. Some photos, like this one, even have a photo identification number (for reordering) which can be compared with other more easily identified photos from the same photographer, and that too can help with dating. All these details, plus the apparent age and dress of the woman, and the relative whose collection I found it in, enabled me to confidentially identify the photo as my husband's great-great-grandmother (1809-1896). She was widowed in 1851 and then took her eight surviving children from Adelaide to the Victorian Goldfields. She eventually settled in Maryborough, Victoria. There are no other known photos of her, so this find is particularly precious.

 

The cracks in this photo I took of a photo suggest it was printed from a glass negative. The man's checked trousers and his coat are very distinctive of the 1860s, as is her voluminous skirt, the style of her top and her hair. Everything, including the branch of the family who had it, points to it being the wedding photo of their great-grandparents who eloped from Ireland to Liverpool, had two children, then married in 1865 on the day after her 21st birthday. I read that back then, only married couples were allowed to be photographed touching. That smug, possessive look suggests to me that he wanted to send it home to her parents to say "See, she's mine now". He did well in life, they emigrated to Australia, and they had a long and apparently happy marriage.

Come in on a Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning or Saturday afternoon, with your unidentified photos and whatever information you have on them. See what you too can work out with help from Lenore's Frost's Dating Family Photos 1850-1920. The library assistants on duty will probably have a lovely time helping you.

Ros Escott president@hobart.tasfhs.org

Lever Arch Folders

The Hobart Branch has quite a few lever arch folders surplus to our needs and are happy to give them away. If you would like some, we have placed them on our front counter in the reading room at the Library, 19 Cambridge Rd Bellerive. Help yourself.

CONDEMNED

Last week I had the privilege of attending a performance of Condemned at the Cascades Female Factory. Condemned is the latest offering from the talented people at the Female Factory and consists of a 90-minute walk through the grounds while hearing the stories of four female convicts who ended their lives on the gallows, here in Van Diemen's Land.

At the end of the performance, you get to decide: Were they guilty? Did their crimes warrant punishment by death?

It is only running until 30 August and would make a special treat, even if you are familiar with the Female Factory, and a wonderful lasting memory for interstate visitors.  More information and booking details here: https://femalefactory.org.au/tour/condemned/ .

Andrew Cocker secretary@hobart.tasfhs.org

Margaret Lucas Headstone Unveiling

Saturday 30 August 2025 11.30 am
St. Clements Anglican Church 100 Beach Road KINGSTON TASMANIA

Descendants of the Lucas, Baynton, Gould and other associated families are invited to attend a Family Gathering at the newly restored headstone where a blessing and unveiling will be conducted by Senior Pastor Pete Adlem. Followed by lunch at The Timeless Way Shop 104, 29 Channel Hwy, Kingston. An optional tour of Margaret's residences at Tinderbox and Kingston will be offered for those interested.

Please RSVP Elizabeth: eecooper@bigpond.com .

Maree's Mutterings

Tasmanian Libraries, Name Index have been adding birth registrations to this index and currently 1900 - 1909 all districts appear to be added.

They seem to gradually be adding more, and Hobart appears to go to July 1911, Launceston to December 1910, Beaconsfield, Bothwell, Brighton, Campbell Town, Clarence, Deloraine, Emu Bay to December 1910.

Library Accessions 2025

 

The following items were accessioned during April/May 2025

Books

* National Trust Launceston's History in Trust 994.65 NAT

* I. Schaffer & T. McKay St. Peter's Church, South Bridgewater
Extracts of Burials Q 929.32099462 SCH

* J. I. Philp Whaling Ways Q 639.22 PHI

* Tas. Parliament Index to Parliamentary Papers of Tasmania, 1856-1956
Q 328.946 IND

* J. Ross Ellison's Hobart Town Almanack,1837 919.46 ROS

* E. Lynch Tasmania at Home 919.46 LYN

N. Haygarth Bush Lives 994.6 HAY

* R. V. & W. J. Hodgman Hodgman Family History Q 929.2 HOD

* I. Brand Port Arthur - a photographic essay 919.464 BRA

* TFHS Inc. Hobart Branch Undertakers of Hobart Combined Index
Hooper & Burgess, Nov.1992-Dec.1995
Vol.5, Part 5. Turnbull Family Funerals
Dec.1995 -Dec.2000, Vol.6, Part 1 Q 929.32099462 UND

* A. Cassar Woolpack Cemetery - St. Mary's
Anglican Church, Gretna, Burials Q 929.32099462 CAS

* D. Morris The Pioneering Emigrants 325 MOR

* Denotes complimentary or donated item