Originally posted on 12th April, 2019
From the moment I stepped into the Prahran Mechanics’ Institute (PMI) in about April last year (2018) I have felt welcomed and encouraged in my family research. It is a lovely environment to carry out research, and this is how it unfolded …
I was determined to find out the story of my great-great-great grandmother, Catherine Ellis. I had some facts about her, but I wanted to know the big picture about her life in Prahran. I was not disappointed. What awaited me was more than I could have imagined.
Not only did I learn about the early history of Prahran, but I learnt that Catherine Ellis, a widow when she moved to Prahran with her young children in 1849, was a vital part of the early development of European settlement in Prahran. Her name is specifically mentioned in several of the early history books held at the PMI. I was amazed!
Catherine’s hut was the setting for many firsts in Prahran – first school house, the first public meeting and the first church services and Sunday school.
Through a manuscript that is kept on the PMI database, I found that Joseph Crook, another Prahran pioneer (a so-called ‘49er’), wrote in 1860 that ‘it was in her house [Catherine Ellis’s] that the first sound of Public Prayer and Praise was heard in Prahran’.
Interesting fact – the church which Catherine was involved in establishing was the Congregational Church, first built on the corner of Chapel St and Malvern Rd (no longer standing). This church gave Chapel Street its name!
To read more about the life of Catherine Ellis in Prahran, please feel free to read this article I produced for the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, largely from PMI resources, but also with help from Stonnington History Centre, scroll down to ‘Catherine Ellis: Pioneer of Prahran’ on page 10: https://www.historyvictoria.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/rhsv-history-news-issue-339-dec-2018.pdf
Malvern Historical Society, inspired by this article, have also produced a version, with my collaboration, in their recent newsletter, ‘Local History News’, March 2019: https://gallery.mailchimp.com/7b06217f90e98f4083e21bec7/files/3e92690e-b185-4a93-b7de-05bc96e44cd0/MHS_Newsletter_mar19_web.pdf
The resources of PMI are excellent. It is a top class collection, not only containing material on the history of Prahran, but other suburbs of Melbourne, and Australia-wide history.
I did the bulk of my research on my Prahran ancestors at PMI, and am continuing now on another branch of my family. I enjoy my time there. I have been given expert advice, and encouragement in the research. I enjoy the gentle hum of volunteer activity in the library, as well as other researchers quietly proceeding in their tasks. It’s a place where people feel they belong.
I’m sure that William Moss, one of the founders of the PMI, would have been pleased at the productive use to which PMI is now put.
He would also no doubt have been pleased at what I discovered about my family’s history in Prahran, as he began his ministry in Prahran in the Ellis household, and continued for many years as the pastor of the Congregational Church to which she belonged, among the many other charitable works which he undertook.
Vicki Salkin
29 March 2019
Images from page 15: Jill McDougall, Church, Community and Change: Religion in Prahran 1836-1984: Imprint: Prahran, Vic.: Prahran Historical and Arts Society and Prahran Mechanics’ Institute, 1985