I belong to a Local Exchange Trading System otherwise known as LETS. Members buy and sell goods and services for units instead of cash.

http://adelaidelets.org/

I decided to offer my services as a researcher to anyone who would like a hand with their family tree or would like research done for them.  I’m currently doing research for two people and will be starting some for a third person soon.

I love the excitement and discoveries when starting a new tree.  Here are some of the things I’ve found so far.

I’ve been researching an English architect and came across the Royal Institute of British Architects.  They have a comprehensive database of architects which includes some biographical data.  I’ve emailed them and will be ordering some documents soon.

In another family I’m researching I found on a marriage registration in Victoria, Australia that the bride was born in Adelaide, South Australia.  This discovery led to finding her birth record, the names of her parents and from there a branch of the family leading back to the Scottish Highlands.  In researching this family I came across the Royal Commission On The Ancient And Historical Monuments Of Scotland (RCAHMS) website.

Canmore is the heart of the RCAHMS archive, providing searchable, map-based information on buildings and archaeological sites throughout Scotland.

If you have the name of a house or property in Scotland you can search for it on this website and find out where it was, what parish it was in, the current and former name of the district and the county.  On a marriage certificate I had a place name which Google Maps couldn’t locate so I tried it on this site.

I don’t know for sure if this is the right place yet so I’ll keep looking for other sources to disprove or confirm it.

Following in his father’s footsteps William Thomas Chapman was in the postal service for forty-five years.

Chronicle (Adelaide, SA) 1928-03-24 56

A POSTAL VETERAN. MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS.

A POSTAL VETERAN.

MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS.

Mr. William Chapman, of Howard-street, North Kensington, who celebrated the 84th anniversary of his birth on Sunday, was born at Sevenoaks, Kent, and came to South Australia with his parents when he was five years old. Although so many years have passed since Mr. Chapman

Mr. William Chapman.

landed by the sailing ship Asiatic, he is hale and hearty, and still in possession of all his faculties, being able to recall with minute detail many interesting incidents of the early days. He is the oldest living scholar of Pulteney Grammar School, and among other things he recalls in his youth having been among the first to tra- vel, by train between Adelaide and Port Adelaide. When he arrived in South Aus- tralia the only means of transit between the city and the Port was by bullock dray.   Mr. Chapman can also remember attending

one of the first burials at the North-road Cemetery. On the death of Mr. Stock,   who conducted the school in Pulteney street, Mr. Chapman transferred to the Waymouth-street school, and he well re- members playing cricket in the large grounds existing at that time between 'The Advertiser' office and the Thistle Hotel. On leaving school he worked for a Rundle-street fruiterer, then transferred to the Government Printer, whose office was situated in a paddock in Gouger-street, close to the Supreme Court. Trying his hand at commerce, Mr. Chap man joined up with Messrs. Samuel and Matthew Goode, and on November 1, 1863, he entered the Postal Department. In that service he remained for over 45 years, his 'beat' for 35 years being Rundle, Cu- rie, Waymouth, and Hindley streets and North-terrace. In the early days a red coat was included in the postman's outfit, and the veteran still retains portion of the uniform he wore half a century ago. In the latter end of his engagement with the Post-office Mr. Chapman was employed as a letter sorter. In the period he was connected with the department as postman he reckons that he walked the equivalent of six times round the earth. The mail matter, when letters from England came in, sometimes went as high as 70 lb. a man, and with a round covering 15 miles it required the strongest constitution to carry on the work. Fortunately, Mr. Chapman always enjoyed the best of health, and only recently underwent a suc- cessful operation without taking ether. He remembers the building of the guard house at Government House, which was partly demolished a little while ago. The struc- ture was put together by the 40th Regi- ment, which afterwards went to New Zea- land and served in the Maori war. Mr. Chapman has always been a keen lover of music, and performed well on the violin, a gift inherited from his father, who formed Chapman's Band, the first organisation in this State to perform 'The Messiah.' This band frequently played at Government House, and at White's Rooms, now the Majestic Theatre. Through out his service of 45 years with the Pos- tal Department, Mr. Chapman's sick leave did not total one mouth, and in the evening of life he still enjoys health that would be envied by many thousands who are a score of years younger. He   had seven children, six of whom are living — Messrs. H. M. and P. E. Chapman (both of North Kensington), Mrs. T. J. Maloney (Mitcham), Mrs. W. B. Simons (Keswick), Miss E. B. Chapman (North Kensington), and Miss C. Z. Chapman (North Kensington.) There are also four grandchildren.   Brisbane.— UnaWe to extricate herself from beneath a motor truck which over turned and caught fire, near Talleyrand Station, in the Lon#reach district, Mrs. McNamee (2C), who was employed as ai housonioid at j&c station, was burned to- death* ^__i'-'~'--'-^J'~ . ^

Source: Trove

I have just recently found pay records at the State Records office (South Australia) as well as photos of William Thomas and his father William which I need to go into the office to view.

Postal worker wages ledger

Oh how attitudes to smoking have changed, and I’m so glad they have. Here is a real blast from the past.

The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA) 1954-07-24 9

Dead Men's Banes Make Good Pines

Dead Men's Bones Make Good Pipes

By BRIAN FORREST

SMOKING today is a pleasure almost as world-wide as music and dancing, yet only

400 years ago it was quite unknown to most of the world's inhabitants. Perhaps the only thing as remarkable as the rapid growth of the new habit is the smoking equipment used through the years. Pipes have figured pro- minently in smoking's his- tory, and pipe sales today indicate that this piece of smoking equipment will last as long as the tobacco habit. But judging by pipes of bygone days the present day briar could undergo a revo- lutionary change in shape and design with the passing of another hundred years. Since smoking began — and it's a hard job to put a finger on the exact date — there has been an endless array of pipes — medium, long, light, heavy, straight and bent.   Adelaide has Australia's only pipe museum — run by tobacconist brothers Phil and Ralph Buring— and if you care to investigate smoking habits of bygone days then a visit to the museum will prove well worth while.     The museum has about 400 pipes from 35 different countries, and it's an eye- opener even to a non- smoker. The museum boasts one of the four best pipe col- lections in the world. Six years ago the brothers took over the tobacco busi- ness begun by their grand- father 99 years ago. They unearthed about 40 pipes of previous decades and found that, cleaned up and displayed, the pipes at- tracted considerable inter- est. So the pipe museum began. Clients gave family heir- looms to the collection, and Australian and overseas tobacco factories and

agents, invited to contri- bute, presented many specimens. All the pipes in the col- lection have their own his- tories, and it's only when you get talking to someone like Phil Buring that you realise that these pieces of wood seen jammed in the faces of countless men really have something. Pipes are classified in types — meerschaum, nargil, calabash, kanasta — nothing to do with the other — and chibouque. And each shape has a name. Phil Buring says pipes have become a fetish with him since the unusual hobby began — remarkable, considering he's a con- firmed cigarette smoker— and he wishes he could de- vote more time to the museum. Mr. Buring is often called on to give lectures, radio and luncheon talks, and he has often been referred to as 'a walking pipe encyclo- pedia.'     Perhaps the rarest piece in the collection is a 53 years old Tibetan pipe made from a human shin bone. The pipe belonged to a camel driver trading between Tibet and Inner Mongolia. Mr Buring says that Tibetans put their dead out on a hill until vultures pick their bones clean. When the sun bleaches the bones and the wind covers them with sand, Tibetans un- earth the bones for use as pipes! Although many of the pipes are between 50 and 100 years old, the collection has specimens dating back more than 300 years — one of these is a clay pipe dug from the ruins of London following the great fire of 1666. The museum also in-

cludes a group of five beau- tifully carved meerschaums made in Austria between 1850 and 1900. The group is unexcelled in any collec- tion in the world. Another piece is a West Indian tobacco tube called Tobaco, which was in use aefore 1492. Mr. Buring says that tobacco was named after the tube, and the one which is in the museum is probably the only one now in existence. ***     After visiting Australia's nost unusual museum I think there may be some thing in these lines so well known to pipe smokers: 'Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read, And his home is bright with calm delight, Though the room be poor indeed.'

Source: Trove