A Quick Glimpse: An Amazing Find for the Family Resource Collection.

Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales

Please stay with me. I know, it sounds like a real page-turner, and it is if you happen to have a number of ancestors who were pivotal players in that history. But this Quick Glimpse is about the book itself.

*Figure 1: Courtesy of the Macvean Family Archives*

It was written by Rev. James Cameron M.A. D.D. That is a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Divinity.

*Rev. James Cameron M.A. D.D.*
*Figure 2: Courtesy of Patricia Downes* https://members.pcug.org.au/~pdownes/welcome.htm

There is an online version of the book on Wikimedia, which is fantastic.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Centenary_history_of_the_Presbyterian_Church_in_New_South_Wales_%28IA_centenaryhistory00came%29.pdf

But this beauty in Figure 1 is all mine. I found it on Abe Books, which was selling it for City Basement Books. If you are into books check out their website, they have an amazing array of stock.

*Figure 3: Courtesy of City Basement Books*
https://citybasementbooks.com.au/

The reason I purchased it? My 3x Great Grandfather, the Rev. David Hunter Ballantyne makes an appearance in it being the first Presbyterian minister in the Albury area back in 1851.

*Rev. David Hunter Ballantyne*
*Figure 3: Courtesy of the Macvean Family Archives*

*Figure 3: Courtesy of Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales, 1905, James Cameron*

*Figure 4: Courtesy of Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales, 1905, James Cameron*

The book was published in 1905, and the one I have in my possession now is a first edition. This makes it 118 years old. I can’t help but think about the hands that have held it like me now, over that time and can’t help but wonder at the history it has seen itself.

*Figure 5: Courtesy of Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales, 1905, James Cameron*

It is filled with a collection of photo plates of the various ministers, churches and manses in New South Wales up to 1905, where they preached and lived their lives. Each photo plate has a protective covering which are still intact after all these decades.

*Figure 6: Courtesy of Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales 1905, James Cameron*

I uploaded a post earlier this month on the anniversary of my 2x Great Grandmothers death (David’s daughter, Jessie). In it, I mentioned the only photo I was able to find of the manse where David and his wife Margaret lived and where my Great Grandfather was born. It was this book that it came from. Here is my scan of the photo of the manse and church from the book.

*Figure 7: Courtesy of Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales*, *1905, James Cameron*

You might be thinking that it must have cost a fortune but no, this little piece of my family history was just $60.00 plus postage and handling. What a gift and an amazing addition to the growing family resource collection I now have.

3 thoughts on “A Quick Glimpse: An Amazing Find for the Family Resource Collection.”

Hi John,

It would be interesting to know if Rev. James Cameron M.A. D.D.was related, as Alexander Mac Vean married Margret Cameron & one of their daughters, a sister of John Hugh, also emigrated to Au. and she married a Cameron, query cousinly love? It was rampant back then.

https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/macvean-john-hugh-19979/text31148 scroll down to see their biography’s.

Cheers Phil

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