Activities

GSV INDEXING PROJECTS IN PROGRESS

This is an outline of the indexing projects currently being done by the GSV. 

QUEEN'S MEMORIAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES HOSPITAL

ROYAL MELBOURNE HOSPITAL

VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT GAZETTES

QUEEN'S MEMORIAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES HOSPITAL

This hospital, often known as the Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital and now closed admitted its first patient on 1 October 1904. We have arranged to index the early the Admissions Registers which are held by the Fairfield Hospital Historical Committee. These Registers are typical of the day but also record the full street address of each patient, and the name and full street address of the nearest relative or the guardian. Most of the indexing has been finished and the data has been added to LION and GIN, with each index entry hyperlinked to an image to the relevant page

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ROYAL MELBOURNE HOSPITAL

By arrangement with the Royal Melbourne Hospital we have a copy of the one surviving Admissions Register which covers 1857-1860. This relatively small indexing job has been finished and the index is available on some PCs in the Library. There is a similar index on the Internet (http://busybee.aunz.com/~tfoen/meldeath.html) based on notices in the Argus newspaper. It is worth noting that the Argus reported only deaths of patients aged 21 and over. 

We have also arranged with the Hospital to have access to an estimated 2,000 'Ward Books' dated between 1860 and 1910. Ward Books were something like the equivalent of the present day records that are kept at the foot of each patient's bed and (based on the few we have so far seen) contain the patient's name, age, place of birth, occupation, often the time spent in Victoria and the disease or symptoms. This information is followed by the Doctor's notes of the treatment.

As the years went by the details of each patient became, sadly, fewer. We are indexing all of this information except the Doctors' notes and we will include the PRO reference to facilitate individual researchers finding the relevant Ward Book when they are deposited at the PRO. However only the Hospital will have a copy of the full index that contains the disease or simple summary of the symptoms. The Hospital will restrict the use of this index to bona fide medical researchers. Our index will lack the disease or simple summary of the symptoms. As we finish each batch of Ward Books they will be returned to the Hospital archives which, in due course will transfer the books to the PRO where they will be available to any researcher. This is a large indexing project and an important one because of the period it covers. The Ward Books are obviously unique and valuable. They may be especially valuable for medical researchers and those individuals who choose to include medical information about their ancestors in their family history which is increasing in importance as more is learnt about genetic inheritance.

We have completed more than 300 books and the index entries are being progressively added to the Library's Index of Names (LION) which is available on the Catalogue PCs in our library, presently amounting to 15,800 entries. In general terms the work done so far covers the period 1856 - 1880 (note that other books which are yet to be indexed are in this period).

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VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT GAZETTES

Much indexing of names appearing in the Victorian Government Gazettes has been done. This is a very large, on-going project, as anyone who has looked at one of these Gazettes will know. So far several hundred thousand names in the Gazettes have been added to LION (Library Index Of Names) in the GSV library and to GIN (Genealogical Index of Names) which is on the Members Only GSV website.

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Any queries, questions or comments, please email us.