Recording and keeping our community stories may not be top priority at the moment but the Yass and District Historical Society archives are keen to keep adding to our significant collection of obituaries and funeral cards relating to past citizens of Yass and district.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
These records give us names of some of our earliest settlers, often giving extensive descriptions of their lives and experiences as well as their contribution to the community.
Information on businesses and properties can also be found in obituaries.
How else would we know about the family details of Earle Archer born 1908: the struggle to establish "Brooklyn", producing 30 to 40 bales of fine wool in a good year; the big steam engine and sawmill he and Victor Noakes established in the 1950s which enabled them to build a new shearing shed and new house from "Brooklyn" timber.
Nor the self-sufficient meals his wife Muriel cooked on the Rayburn with meat, vegetables, preserved fruit, cream and butter all produced on the farm.
We have the details of the life of Elsie Louise Hall, born November 1892 at Nanima Creek. She experienced the first tomatoes grown in the district, and collected drinking water in a repurposed kerosene tin from a well about a quarter mile from the house.
She married James Thompson in 1913 and eventually moved into "Greenfields", the Thompson family farm on the Yass River. She was delighted to find "a solid brick house with two sawn slab rooms for the kitchen and dining room; water was laid on, mail and bread delivered three times a week, a telephone and septic system." Luxury!!
It used to be the local newspapers who recorded the passing of local identities and citizens. Eulogies now are often the memories and tributes of family and friends that may not be published.
The archives would welcome copies of eulogies, obituaries, death notices and funeral cards from the 1900s and particularly the last 60 years.
From such sources we piece together our understanding of the past. These small details spark our imaginations to recreate the lives of our forebears: "that's how it was!"
Along with the relentless hard work, the joys and sorrows we sense their pride and satisfaction and hope.
They did it and so can we.
Yass Historical Society archives housed in rooms above the Memorial Hall may already hold details of your family. We are open Tuesdays 2-5pm and the first Saturday of the month 11am to 3pm and would love to assist you with an enquiry or make copies of obituaries and eulogies to add to our precious collection.
