ALEXANDRINA LIBRARY SERVICES
news
Mar 2008 by Dawn Juers
No 44
Well I hope you have all survived our present heatwave. Those of us who live in the South Coast are very lucky, as mostly our temperatures are usually below the rest of the State.
In the February edition of The South Australian Genealogist is an advertisement for the business PHILICIA ANTIQUES AND COLLECTABLES, 317 Goodwood Road, Kingspark. They promote that they have an extensive range of photos and postcards, along with the usual antiques etc. I visited the shop when I was in Adelaide and it is very interesting with the photos kept in folders and alphabetically listed (surnames) and some unknown ones (by Christian name). One of our volunteers also made a visit and said that it seemed so sad – all those gorgeous people and no-one knows who they are! Now I’m not paid to give them publicity but if you’re into family/local history the shop is worth a visit. Off street parking is available in the Church car park opposite.
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Websites:
Archaic Medical Terms on Death Certificates www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk/ArchaicMedicalTerms.htm
First World War Diaries (reports on operations,intelligence summaries)
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/war-diaries.asp
Sign the Murray Darling petition for more water
http://rivermurray.com/html/petition/online_petition.html
For those of you with Welsh or Irish ancestors the Australian Family Tree Connections March 2008 magazine has an interesting listing in their ‘Computers and Genealogy’ section of relevant websites. The magazine is held in our History Room and is available from newsagents
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THE NAMING OF GOOLWA STREETS
BEDFORD COURT From the Bedford family who subdivided the land.
BEDFORD DRIVE Same
BILLABONG ROAD Possibly descriptive as most of the adjacent land
now occupied by South Lakes Golf course was swamp.
BINGHAM STREET After Admiral Bingham, Y.B. Hutchinson’s uncle.
BIRCHALL ROAD After long time schoolteacher at Goolwa School.
[with thanks to Anthony Presgrave]
Recently while doing some research I came across the following article in the ‘Southern Argus’ 11th Sept 1879 –
“Two well known residents of Goolwa met their deaths on Friday last [5th] by an accident, the precise nature of which is still unsettled. At about 12 o’clock Wallace and Stockford, employees of Mr Clark, the brewer, left their employer’s establishment on the usual round with horse and dray, and after calling at the three licensed houses in Goolwa, proceeded to the foundry wharf to procure a cask which had been left by the steamer “Ruby”.
A man employed on the slip, Peter McConnochie, saw the men drive on the water side, but noticed no more. An hour or two later, and no sign being observed of the two men, information was given to the police, and
PC Thompson, finding that the wheel tracks ran to the river bank with no returning marks, engaged a boatman and dragged the stream.
At last Thompson brought up on the boathook a quantity of horsehair, and the drag soon brought to the surface the head of the horse. A rope being attached to the neck, about 20 stalwart arms soon dragged horse and dray up the bank. There is about 30ft of water in the Murray at this spot.
Shortly after Constable Thompson brought the body of Wallace to the surface. Dragging is continuing for the body of Stockford.”
A week later, the (18th Sept), the ‘Southern Argus’ reported that the body of Stockford had been found, two miles from Goolwa by J.J. Spencer and Peter McConnochie. William Stockford was buried on Monday 15th September in Currency Creek Cemetery. He was aged 53years.
William Wallace was 26. There is no record of where William was buried.
[What made the men drive into the river? Too much imbibing at the hotels they visited perhaps!!]
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Graham Jaunay in his latest Proformat News gives a lot of good advice on photographing headstones in cemeteries. One piece of advice was to take a small white board and marker to overcome the problem of lost notes. Just write down the details, draw a mud map etc and photograph the whiteboard! You can subscribe to his free newsletter at www.jaunay.com/newsletter.html or read it in our History Room.
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See if you can figure out what the following words have in common:
Banana, Dresser, Grammar, Potato, Revive, Uneven and Assess.
I’ll give you a month to work it out – answer in April!!
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Genealogy help is available by appointment on Thursdays, to guide you through your research. Please phone the Library on 8555-7000 to make an appointment. For comments, suggestions or to receive this newsletter – email
historyroom2004@yahoo.com.au or phone me, Dawn Juers on 8555-2885.
Back copies of this newsletter can be sourced on the Alexandrina Council website –
http://www.alexandrina.sa.gov.au/site/page/cfm
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