Thanks to a donation from the family of the late Dr Ben Champion to the Vera Deacon Regional History Fund, the complete Hunter Valley Registers spanning 1843 to 1905 have now been digitised and available on the Living Histories @ UON digital platform.
The complete set are available here for free access: https://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/99575
The digitisation was undertaken from September to November 2019, by one of our emerging professionals Jessica Waugh, in the GLAMx Lab.
We received a donation, to the Vera Deacon Regional History Fund, back in May 2019 to digitise a collection of books from Dr Ben Champion (1897 – 1978), a Newcastle dentist, World War 1 veteran and avid local historian.
Dr Champion compiled these ‘Red Books’ titled, “Family Entries, Births, Deaths, Marriages with some Personalities, Institutions and Oddments in the Hunter Valley District” (also known as the Hunter Valley Registers) into 23 volumes by meticulously researching and photographing notices from early district newspapers.
The details recorded in the registers cover the years between 1843 and 1905, and has now been completely digitised with the records freely accessible online through the UON’s living histories website.
Alternatively download the individual volume sets:
Gionni Di Gravio
University Archivist & Chair, Hunter Living Histories
Dr Champion ha his Dental Surgery in Hunter St up the stairs next to what was once Winns. Frank Browne succeeded him (I think) and I was sent there by my Dad, (Charles Bastian) because he said that Dr Champion was the best dentist in town and that he would have to have chosen someone good as his successor. He was right!!! I loved sitting in the chair made more pleasant because it had a great view of the Harbour.
I have a full set of these Registers. Free to good home collect Coffs Harbour, NSW Region.