Women's Voluntary Service diaries

31,401 pages of diaries by members of the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) are available to view for the first time.  The diaries date from 1938-1942 and cover more than 1,300 different cities, towns and villages across Great Britain.
They were inscribed on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World register in 2010 as one of the most important historical documents in the UK, but have only just been digitised after RVS raised £28,000 for the project from over 700 members of the public via the website Kickstarter.
Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, founded the WVS in May 1938 and toured the country throughout 1938 and 1939, telling audiences “the greatest disservice a woman can do at the moment is consider herself useless”.  By the end of August 1939, over 300,000 women had joined the organisation and more than 1,200 WVS centres had been set up around the country.
During the war, one in ten British women was a member of the WVS. The jobs these women did were rarely glamorous, but success of the WVS was in using the skills women already had, the skills of wives and mothers; knitting, sewing, cooking, and of course compassion and diplomacy. Where new skills were needed, such as driving in the blackout, extinguishing incendiary bombs or making jumpers from dog’s hair, training was given and many stepped up to the task.
Every account is written in a different style by a different woman. Some are long, others short but all give a fascinating window on a world which is soon to be out of living memory.

London School Records

Over 60 years of London school records will be available to search on Ancestry.
The two new collections contain an index and images of school admissions and discharges from 1912-1918 and Poor Law school district registers from 1852 to 1918.

In total, they contain records of 319,000 children, and can include details such as their name, age, address, parents’ names, religion, previous schools and whether they were an orphan or illegitimate.
The Poor Law Commission, established in 1834, required each union to set up a residential school for pauper children. The 1870 Education Act introduced a national requirement for children to be educated to the age of 10, and by 1918, the school leaving age was 14.

Family History Feast at the State Library of Victoria

One again during Family History Month the State Library of Victoria is offering their Family History Feast, a wonderful day of free Family History sessions by a group of great speakers.  This year the Feast will be held on Monday 21st August, and bookings will open 9am on Monday 24th July.  While the Feast is free it is vital to book as there are only so many places and it does tend to book out.  If you do miss out, don't despair as the Feast will be filmed and broadcast live
.
To give you a taste of what the Feast has to offer, below is the program from the SLV's website.

Family History Feast 2017 Program

9.30am Doors open
10–10.05am
Welcome
Kate Torney, Chief Executive Officer, State Library Victoria
10.05–11am
Exploring Koorie history and genealogyJohn Patten, Manager Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Museums Victoria
11–11.45am
Overview of Public Record Office Victoria land records 
Charlie Farrugia, Senior Collections Advisor, Public Record Office Victoria
11.45am–12.05pm
Care and preservation of your family history collection
Conservation staff, State Library Victoria
12.05–1pmBreak
1–1.45pm
Farmland and manor houses to air fields and hospitals: military property acquisition during WWII
Terrie Page, Assistant Director Access and Communication, Victorian State Office, National Archives of Australia
1.45–2.15pm
From cattle yards to war workers: the plan collection of Bendigo Regional Archives Centre
Dr Michele Matthews, Archives Officer, Bendigo Regional Archives Centre
2.15–3pm
Family history on the map
Sarah Ryan, Coordinator Map Collection, State Library Victoria
3–4pm 
2017 Don Grant Memorial Lecture – Families and land: land settlement and the role of families, Victoria 1870–1940
Dr Charles Fahey, Convener History Program, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University
Introduced by Jan Parker, President, Victorian Association of Family History Organisations (VAFHO)

Family History Month Blogging Challenge

While looking through the many events listed on the National Family History Month website and asking myself if I can possibly fit anything else into August that I have not already committed to (answer - probably, but I may have to give up sleeping), I found the NFHM Blogging Challenge.

What a great idea!  I do like blogging challenges - they get me thinking and blogging about topics I wouldn't have come up with in my own - and I especially like the literary theme (I am a librarian).  I have read all four books listed - some many years ago - and I love the inclusion of All the Rivers Run, as I can remember the filming of the miniseries here in Echuca back while I was at school.

So now its time to revisit the books and start thinking about how I will respond to each for the blogging challenge.  Have a look at this and the many other NFHM activities and see what is there for you.  Thanks to everyone out there who is participating - the more the merrier!

Family History Month

August is Family History Month and Campaspe Library is offering a number of free classes at all our library branches during the month.  Below is the schedule and bookings are now open via our homepage.  Check out the Family History Month website for all the wonderful events taking place around the country and see what is available in your area - there is sure to be something to interest you.

Library	Topic	Date and Time
Echuca	Ancestry Library Edition	Tuesday 1st August 2.30pm
	FamilySearch	Tuesday 1st August 3.30pm
	German	Tuesday 8th August 2.30pm
	Irish	Tuesday 8th August 3.30pm
	National Archives Aust.	Friday 11th August 2.30pm
	Workhouses	Friday 11th August 3.30pm
	Trove	Tuesday 15th August 2.30pm
	PROV	Tuesday 15th August 3.30pm
	Military Records	Friday 25th August 2.30pm
	Convicts	Friday 25th August 3.30pm
	Online Resources	Sunday 27th August 2.30pm
	Online Resources	Tuesday 29th August 2.30pm
	Organising your research	Tuesday 29th August 3.30pm
Kyabram	Ancestry Library Edition	Wednesday 2nd August 10.00am
	Convicts	Wednesday 2nd August 11.30am
	National Archives Aust.	Wednesday 2nd August 2.00pm
Rochester	Ancestry Library Edition	Monday 28th August 10.00am
	German	Monday 28th August 11.30am
	Convicts	Monday 28th August 2.00pm
Rushworth	FamilySearch	Wednesday 9th August 10.00am
	Trove	Wednesday 9th August 11.30am
	German	Wednesday 9th August 2.00pm
Tongala	Military	Wednesday 16th August 10.00am
	PROV	Wednesday 16th August 11.30am
	Irish	Wednesday 16th August 2.00pm