Unlocking family stories - e-books

Increasingly books that are in the public domain are being digitised and made available online. Two sites for free e-books are:

  Project Gutenberg

  Google Books

Public library websites often provide access to e-book collections for borrowing as well as links to sites providing free e-books for download to add to your collection. 

Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation website provides access to e-books via the e-resources link.

Typing the title of a book AND e-book in a search engine (especially if the title was published prior to 1955) is one way of discovering the availability of titles.

In 1839 George Mackillop submitted two articles to the Scottish publication, Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, describing his views about the possibilities of the new settlement of Port Phillip. I was unable to locate a copy of the article until I found a copy of the volume containing the article digitised as a Google book.

Often when searching for information about an individual, especially someone who lived during the eighteenth century, references will be found in digitised documents online. 

Quarterly Journal of Agriculture articles

Two articles by George Mackillop were published in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture volume 10 June 1839 – March1840 published in Edinburgh.

I have previously found excerpts of these articles but have now found digitised copiesof the complete articles in Google Books so it is now possible to read about his views of the colony. 

On Australia – George Mackillop of Hobart Town – p354 – p362 (November 1839)

On Port Phillip in Australia – George Mackillop of Hobart Town – p208 – p232 (September 1839)

Digitised copies of the above two articles in Google Books.

Another article is in volume 7.

Quarterly Journal of Agriculture volume 7 June 1836
Australian Colonies - George Mackillop of Hobart Town - p156 - p169  

Digitised in Google Books