Publications
Society Members receive a 10% discount on their first purchase of any Society publication that costs more than $10.
In the list of Current Publications below, some titles have a direct link to an information sheet about the publication.
Our Newest Publication
They Were Here: The People of Newcastle
Contents:
• Introduction to the Rate Books
• Newcastle Council Rate Book for 1885
• Hunter District Water Board Rate Book for 1892
• Hunter District Water Board Rate Book for 1898-1900
Local Studies at the Newcastle Region Library has a large collection of old Newcastle Municipal Council and Hunter District Water Board rate books on film, and it is this resource that has been used to create the databases found in this publication. At the time these rate books were compiled, the Newcastle Council administered an area much smaller than today, operating within a space bordered by the neighbouring villages of Merewether, Hamilton, Stockton, Carrington and Wickham.
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People of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley – Volume I
Volume I contains 50 stories covering a wide range of individuals. Included are military heroes, early pioneers and business people. Within the covers you will read about:
• the unfortunate outcome of a visit to the cinema to see Clark Gable in A Night to Remember
• the story of the Wagnerian artist who rose from humble beginnings to strut the world stage and sing with Nellie Melba
• the photographer who has left an amazing legacy which records so much of our past
• a displaced person from the devastation of the Europe of 1945 who lost his life here in an industrial accident just months after his arrival
• and a boxing hero who fought under the name of a fan, filled the Victoria Theatre and is remembered with a star in the walkway at the shopping centre on the site of the old stadium.
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People of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley – Volume II
The fifty stories included in Volume 2 paint pictures of other times helping us better understand our past so we can plan a better future. They cover a wide range of subjects, from bushranger to civic leader, from war hero to an unfortunate lady killed by her admirer. In these pages you will meet:
• the young mineworker caught up in a strike, the result of which led to his death
• two little sisters who left home to pick wildflowers and met disaster
• an Englishman who became the father of a Newcastle suburb
• the policeman’s wife who became known as ‘Australia’s Grace Darling’ because of her bravery
• the Irish brothers sentenced for conspiracy to murder who left a headstone in a local cemetery with a seditious inscription.
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They Sent Me North: Female Convicts in the Hunter
This work is a comprehensive record of the women sent north from Sydney. They often arrived through the settlement at Newcastle but some travelled north as settlers with their families once they were free.
It comprises three distinct parts:
Part 1 provides a database of the more than 1400 women who made their way north to Newcastle.
Part 2 contains biographies of 70 of these women. Some of the stories are told by descendants of the subject, others by local history researchers looking to uncover the unique lives and circumstances of the women in the early Hunter.
Part 3 of the publication gives a brief outline of the work undertaken by members and volunteers for the Roses From the Heart project which recognises the contribution made by the female convicts sent to Australia.
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The Story of Lambton – A Suburb of Newcastle NSW
This work is a comprehensive record of the origin and development of the Newcastle suburb of Lambton.
Part 1 of the book provides a history of the suburb.
For Part 2 of the publication, some members of the Newcastle Family History Society Inc. volunteered to research and write on aspects of Lambton’s people and its development. They were greatly aided by many of the suburb’s senior residents who provided oral history and personal photographs for the project.
Part 3 of the publications contains six appendices which add to the broad scope of the work.
The work is fully referenced and indexed.
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Christ Church, Newcastle, NSW, 1804-1900
Transcriptions and Indexes of Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers
This work is a comprehensive record of the Christ Church, Newcastle.
Part 1 provides a chronological database of baptisms occurring between 1818 and 1900.
Part 2 provides a chronological database of a full transcription of the marriages between 1818 and 1900 and includes parents, witnesses and occupations where they were provided.
Part 3 provides a chronological database of burials in the Christ Church churchyard between 1804 and 1884. The burials are indexed.
The publication contains an extensive bibliography.
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Early Newcastle – The Fettered and the Free
This work is a comprehensive record of the first twenty years of permanent European settlement at Newcastle. It comprises four distinct parts:
Part 1 provides an outline of the development of Newcastle from the custodianship of the Indigenous people to the closing days of the penal settlement.
Part 2 is a database of those in Newcastle between 1804 and 1824. About 4500 individuals are listed including some 750 soldiers. As well as noting the ship and year of arrival, any further transportation is listed as well as references for further information.
Part 3 of the publication contains stories of selected individuals who had some part to play in Newcastle’s early history.
Part 4: includes eight appendices which add to the broad scope of the work.
The publication is fully indexed.
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“Big Hill” Teralba and District Cemeteries
This cemetery is at Teralba, on top of what was known as ‘Big Hill’ then ‘Goat Hill’. Buried there are some of the early pioneers of that township as well as many young children belonging to those early families. The publication identifies many graves and burials in the cemetery and contains images of some graves taken in and before 2000.
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Coalmining Related Deaths, Hunter Valley, pre-1900
Although this study purports to cover the nineteenth century – 100 years – the absence of records for the early period could well conceal a greater number of fatalities than the 406 named here.
Early in the period the victims included convicts, ticket-of-leave men, emancipists and immigrants, whose were mostly from the mining areas of Scotland, England and Wales, but also from a number of other countries. Later in the century the Australian-born become more numerous, many of them being sons following their fathers into the mines. Their ages ranged from 11 to 76 years of age. In that century they were, of course, all males.
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Coalmining Related Deaths, Hunter Valley, NSW 1901-1925
In this relatively much shorter period of a quarter of a century, there occurred at least the 450 fatalities recorded here, as the result of accidents within the coal mines of the Hunter Valley, or other unfortunate deaths associated with the workings of those mines, such as drownings in colliery dams, and other mishaps.
The twentieth century reveals a significant movement into the region generally known as ‘The Coalfields’, such as Maitland, Kurri Kurri and Cessnock, with some lessening in the concentration of fatalities in the older areas.
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Coalmining Related Deaths, Hunter Valley, 1926-1950
In this third volume, some 470 fatalities are included, mainly the result of accidents on the many and varied jobs within the mines of the Hunter Valley, but also other deaths attributable to the presence of those workings – drownings in dams, accidents with colliery trains, at least one suicide – in over 90 collieries.
The bravery and self-sacrifice of men in dangerous rescue operations are a shining light in the darkness of nearly 150 years of tragedy and disaster. Several instances occur of men having to be restrained from rushing into dangerous situations before rescue work could be planned, and also of more volunteers offering than could safely be sent to an accident scene. There is no reason to suppose that this will ever cease, no matter the direction of this and other similar occupations.
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Coalmining Related Deaths, Hunter Valley, 1951-1975
The information in this last volume relates to more than 100 collieries. The coverage from 1951 to 1975 includes 355 fatalities, most of which were the result of workplace accidents. It also documents other deaths which occurred within the vicinity of old workings. Ages of those who died range from 18 months to 78 years.
Apart from the historical value of documenting another twenty-five years of mining history, this book aims to assist family historians to discover information about their extended families, through funeral notices, burial details when available, reports of coronial inquiries, and NSW State Records file numbers for inquests and workers’ compensation cases.
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Branxton General & Catholic Cemeteries, NSW
Branxton is a country town in the Hunter Valley between Maitland and Singleton. Branxton General Cemetery dedicated in 1853 but containing earlier burials, was originally known as Branxton Church of England Cemetery. Branxton Catholic Cemetery lies beside St. Brigid’s Roman Catholic Church. The oldest headstone dates to 1840 and it is estimated that the cemetery was established somewhere between 1820 when settlement first began and 1840.
Both cemeteries are indexed and the publication also contains a combined index.
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Coal and Shale Mining Non-Fatal Accidents, NSW 1876-1920
This work names over 4,000 non-fatal incidents in the coal and shale mines of New South Wales, from temporary, although painful afflictions, to distressing long-term or permanent disability with loss of sight, limbs or mobility.
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‘Old’ Wallsend Cemetery 1863-1896
‘Old’ Wallsend Cemetery was located in what is now Rest Park between Thomas Street and Newcastle Road, Wallsend, NSW.
In 1864 the Wallsend Coal Company granted a piece of land for a cemetery however some burials had occurred before this date. Official records remain from 1865, the date of the first burial for which a record was kept, until the cemetery was closed in 1896.
This publication has recorded over 3,700 burials in Old Wallsend Cemetery including 44 burials that occurred before 1864.
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Copeland Goldfield History and Heritage Cemetery
The town of Copeland (formerly Back Creek), located north-west of Gloucester and 142 km from Newcastle.
Copeland developed from a humble settlement into a thriving township where people put down roots and raised their families. By the last decades of the nineteenth century the mining situation was depressed and by the mid-twentieth century Copeland was almost deserted, with some optimistic fossickers continuing to try their luck.
This publication relates the early history of Copeland and its social fabric. It is illustrated with numerous photographs of the village and its citizens and includes the obituaries of 117 former residents buried in Copeland Cemetery as well as 14 children interred in an undocumented location near the Barrington River.
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Greta General Cemetery
Greta was originally known as Anvil Creek and is situated on the New England Highway between Maitland and Singleton. The Greta General Cemetery has graves associated with different immigration waves from a variety of countries over a period of time. By the mid-1800s German immigrants had begun to develop vineyards in the area. Coal mining began during in the 1860s and many miners moved to the area in search of work. The Greta Army Camp was established in 1939 and at the end of WWII this camp became one of the largest immigration camps in Australia. Immigrants arrived from countries including Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Italy and Greece and remained in the area until they were able to establish a life for themselves.
The Greta War Cemetery situated at the corner of Evans and Hunter Streets has also been added to this publication.
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Geographic Encyclopedia of NSW
The original volume is now in the public domain, having been published over 120 years ago. The Newcastle Family History Society decided to re-publish the book before the few rare copies remaining
in research libraries deteriorate beyond further use.
In 2004 the original book was scanned using OCR software. Following the efforts of Society members to eradicate errors introduced by this process, the text was converted to Adobe® Acrobat® files suitable for distribution both as a very large book and as a CD version. Pagination varies slightly from that found in the original book. In 2023 the 2004 files were converted so the publication is now available as a download. The download version is recommended.
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History of Merewether
The Society has reproduced Dixon’s volume, adding an index of surnames, 22 photographs showing images of old Merewether and a list of residents from 1910 to 1913 taken from the Water Board rate books.
The work is fully indexed.
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Huntington’s History of Newcastle and the Northern District
Huntington gathered together a rich collection of material. He records both great and small events and includes many interesting stories that have been up to now long forgotten. These stories remind us of the hardships and dangers faced by those who pioneered the Hunter district, while the author’s own comments shed a light on the thoughts and feelings of an educated man at the end of the 19th century.
Obvious spelling errors have been corrected but there may still be many suspect spellings to be found.
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Newcastle West Burial Grounds
In October 1999 NFHS published each of the old cemeteries in Newcastle West, NSW separately and in 2007 they were combined into a single volume.
Each burial ground is indexed and there is also a combined index of all three cemeteries.
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Souvenir of Civic Week 1929
The 2007 reproduction has a comprehensive index listing the names of those who played an important role in the development of local government and industry.
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St John’s Anglican Church, Newcastle
Part 1: provides a chronological database of baptisms occurring between 1887 and 1912.
Part 2: provides a chronological database of a full transcription of the marriages between 1887 and 1962 and includes parents, witnesses and occupations where they were provided.
Part 3: provides a chronological database of burial services performed between 1887 and 1982. The burials are indexed.
Part 4: contains a list of the inhabitants of 756 households, regardless of religious persuasion, living within the parish in 1871.
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St Luke’s Anglican Church, Wallsend
This publication includes a short history of St Luke’s plus details of: 2382 Baptisms (1826-1925); 1458 Marriages (1867-1965) and 2320 Burials (1862-1872), (1925-1985)
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Wallsend Cemetery 1896 – 2008
NFHS members surveyed the cemetery and the available records between 2003 and 2008 and compiled three volumes about those who were buried there till 2008.
The publication is in three volumes.
Volume I: (A to G)
Volume II: (H to Parsons, C)
Volume III: (Parsons, E to Z)
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Current Publications
Bulletins and Journals (1983 – 2017) (CD/USB Only)
Branxton General and Catholic Cemeteries, NSW
Catherine Hill Bay Cemetery, NSW Gravestone Inscriptions 1896-1994
Christ Church, Newcastle, 1804-1900 Transcriptions & Indexes of Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers
Coal & Shale Mining Non-Fatal Accidents, NSW, 1876-1920
Coal Mining Related Deaths, Hunter Valley, Nineteenth Century
Coalmining Related Deaths, Hunter Valley New South Wales, 1901-1925
Coalmining Related Deaths, Hunter Valley New South Wales, 1926-1950
Coalmining Related Deaths, Hunter Valley New South Wales, 1951-1975
Copeland Goldfield, NSW History and Heritage Cemetery
Diaries of John Reid, Victorian Schoolmaster, 1853-1856 (Currently out of print)
Diary of a Voyage on the Dirigo, Liverpool, UK, to Rocky Creek, NSW
Early Newcastle – The Fettered and the Free
Family Record Charts
Geographical Encyclopædia of NSW Originally Published in 1892 by William Hanson
Gloucester: Copeland Goldfield, NSW History and Heritage Cemetery
Greta Cemetery, NSW
Lambton: The Story of Lambton – a Suburb of Newcastle NSW
Lambton: Newcastle Pasturage Reserve (“The Commonage”) A List of Applicants to Purchase
Maitland: Irish Relief Fund List of Subscribers Published in the Maitland Mercury in 1846
Maitland Municipal Petitions 1861-1862
Mayfield/Waratah: St Andrew’s Church of England Burial Ground, North Waratah (Mayfield) 1862-1902
Merewether: History of Merewether
Minmi – A Private Town – A Private Cemetery
Newcastle: Christ Church, Newcastle, 1804-1900 Transcriptions & Indexes of Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers
Newcastle: Civic Week Souvenir, Newcastle City Council 1929
Newcastle: Huntington’s History of Newcastle and the Northern District, August 1897 to August 1898
Newcastle: Knaggs Almanac – an Index to the Newcastle Section, 1866, 1868-1899, 1901-1906
Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners’ Advocate Court Reports 1879-1898 (irreg.)
Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners’ Advocate Domestic Notices, Accident Reports 1879-1898 (irreg.)
Newcastle: Remembrance: Newcastle’s First World War Memorials
Newcastle: St John’s Anglican Church, Newcastle, NSW
Newcastle West Burial Grounds (Presbyterian, Roman Catholic & Wesleyan Methodist)
Newcastle West Burial Grounds (Presbyterian, Roman Catholic & Wesleyan Methodist)
Newcastle & Lower Hunter Region Pioneer Register – Pre 1900 & 1920 Index Only (Limited copies)
People of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley – Volume I
People of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley – Volume II
People of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley – Volume III
Research Guide 1: Family History – How to Begin
Research Guide 2: Is There a Convict in the Family?
Research Guide 3: Family History Through Family Photographs
Research Guide 4: Is There a Serviceman or Woman in the Family?
Small Cemeteries in the Hunter Valley
St John’s Anglican Church, Newcastle, NSW
St Luke’s Anglican Church, Wallsend, NSW
Stockton Cemetery Burials, NSW 1890-2005
Stockton Cemetery Burials – Photographs of Headstones
Surgeons at Sea: Index to the Filmed Surgeon’s Journals on the Convict Ships to Australia, with Some Strays
Teralba (Big Hill): A Tribute to the Pioneers Interred in Teralba and District Cemeteries, NSW
They Sent Me North: Female Convicts in the Hunter
Wallsend Cemetery, NSW (Burials in the ‘old’ cemetery) 1863-1896
Wallsend Cemetery, NSW (Burials) 1896 – 2008
Wallsend: St Luke’s Anglican Church, Wallsend, NSW
Waratah/Mayfield: St Andrew’s Church of England Burial Ground, North Waratah (Mayfield) 1862-1902
Waratah/Mayfield: St Andrew’s Church of England Burial Ground, North Waratah (Mayfield) 1862-1902
West Wallsend Cemetery
