Newsletter #219, November 2016

 

(Note: This is a text excerpt only. Refer to the newsletter PDF for the complete newsletter including images)

At this stage of the year we plan to have our usual display at the Angling Club. It is normally held on the first Sunday in January which next year happens to be January 1st, New Years Day. We will need some helpers to look after the display, and to talk to people who have an interest in the items shown.

At this stage of the year we plan to have our usual display at the Angling Club. It is normally held on the first Sunday in January which next year happens to be January 1st, New Years Day. We will need some helpers to look after the display, and to talk to people who have an interest in the items shown.

Inverloch Book

The Book entitled – Inverloch- A Place of Great Beauty- Today and Yesterday has been written by John Hutchinson. Preparations are now being made for it to be printed.

It was written and designed to have relevance and sales for several years. Fund Raising for the printing of the book is already underway. We will need much support from our members for a successful outcome.

Guest Speaker

Noelene Lyons was the Guest Speaker for October and she was assisted by Joan Ginn. The talk proved to be of exceptional interest. Noelene and Joan are Trustees of the Inverloch Cemetery, and have been since 2005.

If one thought that a talk about a cemetery would be dull and somewhat gloomy, then you would be quite wrong, for Noelene and Joan told stories and facts which clearly demonstrated what little we knew about a burial at a cemetery of a body or of the ashes. Clear rules and checks must be followed, including the simple legal proof between the undertaker and a Trustee, who must be present at the cemetery, that the deceased presented for interment, is in fact the person listed on the document. This seems like the possible scenario of a movie or novel, where we find the wrong person is interred!

Noelene and Joan have done sterling work over many years, to ensure that every grave site and burials at Inverloch are recorded. This is especially so in the case of the Pioneer section of the cemetery, where many questions arose as to who was buried there, or indeed, where they were buried in the old Pioneer section. Noelene and Joan described how they went around the Pioneer section scraping the ground and conducting other checks to see if a burial took place in that area. They have become quite expert at their utterly fascinating work, and this brought many smiles to the faces of many members present.

Other stories were told which brought, at times, even laughter! It was proved beyond doubt, that the two original burials at Inverloch were mother and son of the Cuttriss family- 33 year old Ellen in May 1891, and her son William, aged five years, who was buried two weeks later. Len Cuttriss had been searching for years for burial records, but he found nothing. The Cuttriss family have now placed plaques at their graves.

The Inverloch Historical Society was presented by Noelene and Joan, of a complete and finished plan of the Pioneer cemetery, including the names of all the people interred there. This represents many years of work, of checking researching and chasing up many documents. As Noelene said, although the old book records of the Pioneer cemetery are missing, other documentation can be found, such as checking old Shire records and files.

Members present were delighted, and dare we say, entertained by the chat by the two ladies. All now have a somewhat refreshingly new view of “goings on” at the cemetery, and the important role the Trustees play in the required accuracy of keeping full records for the future.

Thank you to our President, John Hutchinson for writing the above article.

Editor: Ian McBurnie