Early Church Records

Copies of a number parish registers for the Port Phillip District are held by the Registry of Births, Deaths   Marriages in Sydney. Here is a listing of their holdings PORT PHILLIP DISTRICT PARISH REGISTERS IN SYDNEY MELBOURNEBaptisms:Marriages:Burials:Church of...

Deaths by Drowning

The record of the Inquest for Mathew Hogan was found at the Victorian Public Records Office (VPRS 24, Unit 8, File 43/1851). It was conducted by the Coroner J. H. S. Wilmot and held at the Prince Albert Hotel. This Hotel, run by proprietors Jeremiah Slattery and John...

It’s a Small World

Since I began entering the details of our pioneering ancestors into the records from 1977 onwards, there have been many amazing co-incidences and stories that have emerged, but none more so than the tale which can now be told. Two men – James Sandle Ford,...

Rupertswood and the Clarke Family

Tony Menhennitt of Rupertswood Mansions Pty. Ltd. gave us an insight into the history of the Sunbury property named “Rupertswood”. The mansion has been owned and lived in by several generations of the Clarke family, Hugh Victor McKay (of Sunshine...

On the Origin of the Batman Family

The Port Phillip Pioneers Group internet website bore fruit in August [2001] when a visitor to the site, Faith Rekowski, sent me an e-mail from Canada. Faith’s maiden name was Batman and her family have long believed that they are related to Melbourne’s...