History in the scanning

Researching family history from the early days of the Marion district is about to become much easier thanks to a donation from the Marion Historical Society.

The society has pledged several thousand dollars to pay for a professional consultant to create digital scans of council rate assessments from 1854 through to 1925.

“Volunteers at the City of Marion’s Marion Heritage Research Centre are frequently asked to help people find out where their ancestors lived, or when a house was first built on a property, and often the best source is information is the early council rate assessment,” said Marion Historical Society committee member Heather Latz.

“However, these records haven’t been digitised. They are hand-written in large heavy books and can only be viewed in person by visiting State Records at Gepps Cross.

“Several of our members volunteer at the research centre so we are looking forward to having these digital rate records readily available to help members of the public.

“Over the years, the historical society has benefited from a number of council Community Grants which has helped us publish three books written by or about local residents, which give readers an idea about life in the area before it became suburban.

“Donating the rate assessment images is a way of ‘giving back’ to the City of Marion.”

Marion Heritage Research Centre coordinator Danielle Trewartha said the historical society had spent more than 30 years raising the profile of Marion’s heritage.

"Without the historical society, Marion's long and rich history might have been forgotten,” Danielle said.

Scans of the rate records will be available at the Marion Heritage Research Centre in the coming weeks.

Image: Marion Heritage Research Centre coordinator Danielle Trewartha, left, and Marion Historical Society committee member Heather Latz.

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