Records of the Royal Societies - AJCP

There are ten organisations or societies with the word Royal in their name listed in the M Series of records. If you are interested in  meteorological observations, early Antarctic and other geographical expeditions, the Royal Society has a good collection of documents. The records of the Royal Botanic Gardens contain the papers of the early collectors of Australian and New Zealand plant species. The Royal Institute of Great Britain fostered scientific pursuits.

Royal Commonwealth Society

School tours

The Royal Commonwealth Society sponsored tours to South Africa, Canada and Newfoundland, India, West Indies and British Guiana, Australia, New Zealand for boys from the public schools between 1927 and 1939. The records contain not just the lists of names of those who participated, but also the ships on which they travelled and full itineraries of the visits. Public Schools Empire Tours Records

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2564835362/view
Names of participants on 1931 tour to Australia

Monumental Inscriptions

An interesting find in the Royal Commonwealth Society's records are these Monumental Inscriptions in Australia. While some may appear on local council sites and on Find a Grave or Billion Graves, when I checked through some of the entries for Narrandera there are some transcribed here that may have been lost since these lists were compiled between 1913 and 1922. These inscriptions were copied for the Society of Genealogists in London by George P Townend.

The volumes give the full inscriptions on gravestones and also church tablets and windows and a few inscriptions on public buildings. There is a name index for each section.

Vol. I: N.S.W

• Ashfield (70p.) 
• Enfield (142p.)

Vol. II: N.S.W

• Newtown (15p.)
• Vaucluse (75p.) 
• Narrandera (54p.)
• Toganmaine (4p.)

Vol. III: N.S.W

• Randwick (135p.) 
• La Perouse (1p.)

Vol. IV: Victoria 

• West Melbourne (111p.) 
• Burwood (22p.) 
• Heidelberg (R.C.) (18p.) 
• Heidelberg (44p.)
• Warrigal (4p.)
• Oakleigh (51p.)

A few of the many interesting collections in the Royal Commonwealth Society fonds are some early manuscript maps of South Australia, seven New Zealand paintings 1881 -1887, an album of 39 photographs taken when Commodore Erskine proclaimed British Protectorate in eastern New Guinea, November 1884 as well as many family collections that can be located with a surname search.

Browse the "Royals" from the M series page.

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Previous posts in this series

A - About the AJCP | B -Browsing the Board of Trade | C - County Record Offices | D - Downloading Documents |  E - Emigration everywhere | F - Finding Aids | G - Genealogical Gems | H - Hulks and the Home Office | I - Irish Records | J - Journals and Jottings | K - Kent Archives | L - Love those Libraries | M - Mining the Records of the Missions | N - Near Neighbour New Zealand | O - Opportunities out there | P - Photographs | Q - Queensland 

This post first appeared on https://carmelgalvin.info