This note provides some background to what the Record of References to Pioneers is, how it orignated and how to use it.
PPPG Member Lester Stephen wanted as many people as possible who were in the colony when it was known as the Port Phillip District of New South Wales to be documented. This would help researchers to find details on these historic Pioneers. Verified members’ applications data were used as well as information from official source, newspapers and books. Other members helped.
He wrote all the documentation on scraps of paper (as this saved money) and bundled them in alphabetical order. These have subsequently been digitised by Barbara Hawkins. To protect privacy she has deleted references to living people and cut family trees down to the first two generations.
Lester continued to add to what was at the time called his Register (now called the Record of References) until 2009 when ill-health prevented him from continuing. He died on 15 October 2012, just short of his 86th birthday.
His lasting legacy is a unique record of the Pioneer settlers of this State.
Many members assisted in producing the Record, including Betty Meckle, Alison Stephen, Marie Orr, Edna Campbell, Betty Moyle, Dorothy Samson, Ken Smith, Alexander Romanov-Hughes and Darryl Wight.
There are over 63,000 images with mostly six entries on each image.
We have now transferred the images from hard disk to the website to give easier access to all members.
To access the records we suggest you start with looking up the pioneer in the Index. If there is a mention of them in Lester’s Record the image numbers will be listed. You can use those numbers to look up the images in the Record itself. It is worth reading the introduction to the Index first as that explains how it works.
Because of the number of images, we have organised them by groups of letters (A-E etc), which you can access by scrolling through from the foot of each group. You can search for individual images by entering its number (obtained from the Index) in the box at the top of each letter, or scroll through for the bar at the bottom of each letter if you want to browse.
To supplement the Record Marilla James commenced a record of references to pioneers in the applications of members received after Lester left off his work (in effect from member 1373 onwards). This is being regularly updated and is also available on the website to members as a simple spreadsheet in alphabetical order of pioneer names.
A step-by-step guide to accessing the Record can be found below the photo of Lester Stephen. Further details about the compilation of the Record can be found here
The background information above was completed using information prepared by Ken Smith for an edition of the PPPG Newsletter
STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO ACCESSING THE RECORD OF REFERENCES
Having arrived at and read this page, you should then use the Index (via the second box within the group of resources labelled Record of References) to find the particular ancestor or other early settler or settlers you are interested in. You need this because while the Record itself is organised alphabetically by name, the individual images are accessible only by image numbers, as given against each name in the Index. The Index itself will download b y clicking through from the Index box, and can be opened in Excel. Read the Index Introduction by going to the first Tab at the bottom far left of the Index and then select the relevant letter Tab.
Then open the third box within the group of resources (the Record of References itself). The introductory section explains how you can move through the thousands of images to find the ones you need:
We won’t repeat here what is explained on that page. Once you understand what to do, click View Records Here. From here you can select the image you want:
We hope you enjoy exploring this pot of gold now available on our website. If this sounds all too complicated, if you have any problems or if you want further assistance accessing the resources, drop us a line at info@pppg.org.au and we will see if we can help.