Electronic resources beginning with ‘W’

An annotated guide to a wide variety of electronic resources of interest to those who are involved in the study and practice of religion: syllabi, electronic texts, electronic journals, websites, bibliographies, listserv discussion groups, liturgies, reference resources, software and more.

Walch's Tasmanian Almanac contained detailed information about Tasmania for the year it was published, with information about all regions and towns of the state.

Not only does it list thousands of names of people together with their occupation, but more than that, you will find details on the towns and the services that each had, as well as the societies and clubs, railways, charities, telegraph and postal services available. There is registered medical practitioners, dentists and chemists, as well as those in law departments, coroners and ministers of religion, and the government and military forces. There are details of obituaries that were published during the previous year's newspapers .

Almanacs are a useful resource for being able to 'add flesh to the bones' in finding out more about your ancestors and the society in which they lived, their occupation, the town they lived in, the businesses in the district and the cost of items at that era.

Hosted by the National Library of Wales, the Crime and Punishment database comprises data about crimes, criminals and punishments included in the gaol files of the Court of Great Sessions in Wales from 1730 until its abolition in 1830.

An A-to-Z database of Australian places which lists events, attractions and accommodation for each locality and is also searchable by region. Includes information about how to get around and travelling tips.Site maintained by FairfaxDigital. See also their accomodation site, Stayz

The Wall Street Journal (1889-1992) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

Produced by the Naval Historical Society of Australia, the 2 CDROMs contain pictures collected from official and personal photographs, postcards and other sources. There are pictures of ships at a variety of ports, others at sea, together with some actual action shots.

Volume one, produced in 2002, has over 1,000 photos from the Graeme Andrews Collection and volume two, produced in 2003, has over 1,100 additional photos of past and present warships.

The Washington Post (1877-1993) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

NSW Government website includes water facts, frequently asked questions,publications, educational resources, government initiatives and water saving tips for business and households.

The Wayback Machine, a service from the Internet Archive and Alexa Internet, allows people to access and use archived versions of stored websites. Visitors to the Wayback Machine can type in an URL, select a date, and then begin surfing on an archived version of the web.

The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture from 12th to mid-19th centuries.The Web Gallery of Art is intended to be a free resource of art history primarily for students and teachers

This site provides a periodic table of elements and descriptions and some images of the elements.

Information about the national weed strategy and how to identify and manage weeds. The site contains a searchable weed database and lists of declared noxious and environmental weeds across Australia.

Thorpe's Weekly Book Newsletter of news and employment in the book and publishing industry.

With it's origins in the first Methodist Church established in Sydney in 1812, the 'Central Methodist Mission' became the 'Wesley Mission' in 1977 following the creation of the Uniting Church. The site contains a community services directory for the City of Sydney focusing on social justice in areas such as aged care, disability support, homelessness, employment services and training support for the disadvantaged.

Produced by the Western Australian Genealogical Society in 2004, this CDROM contains 349 digitised images of convict details found in the ticket-of-leave register from Toodyay accession 721/30 held in the State Records Office of Western Australia (see http://www.sro.wa.gov.au/collection/convict.asp).

Also included are two indexes both of the convicts and their employees which are linked to the appropriate page. The convicts are listed alphabetically by surname, also listing given name, convict number and page number. Employers are also listed alphabetically, together with convict numbers.

The Swan River Settlement of WA had been in existence for twenty years when it took the unusual step of electing to become a British penal settlement in 1849. Eager Home authorities accepted the offer and quickly dispatched the barque Scindian, which arrived on the 1st June 1850 with a cargo of 75 male convicts aboard. This was to be the first of 43 shipments of convicts to the colony over an 18 year period.

Although a total of 9,925 convicts were officially transported during this period, it is estimated that some 500 of these were local prisoners intermixed with the transported convicts.

The availability of cheap labour resulted in many convicts being granted their 'ticket-of-leave' before their sentences had expired, which allowed private settlers to employ them. To facilitate the distribution of working men throughout the settlement, hiring depots were established in key town and country areas.

Ticket-of-leave men could not leave their assigned district without permission; had to carry their 'ticket' with them at all times and produce it to an official on demand, as well as lodge an official form with the local magistrate on 1 January and 1 July of every years which detailed residence, employer and rate of pay.

One of the hiring depots was at Toodyay, and two registers from this institution from 1862 to 1870 have been archived in the State Records Office of WA at Accession Number 721, volumes 30 and 31. This CDROM only covers Volume 30.

Transportation of convicts to WA ceased in 1868 as a result of a reassessment of British home policy, with the last convict ship to Australia, the Hougoumont, arriving in the Swan River Colony on 10 January 1868 with 229 convicts aboard. Convict labour continued to be used for sometime following the end of transportation, relying on local prisoners and those convicts yet to serve the reminder of their sentences. At the time of the Hougoumont's arrival some 3,158 convicts remained under government control in WA.

Mitchell Library holds a book on ranches of the Toodyay region of WA entitled Toodyay Homesteads : Past and Present by Rica Erickson and Robyn Taylor which is located at ML 631.21099/ 1. It includes maps.

This CD is a facsimile of the book 'History of West Australia: A Narrative of her Past Together with Biographies of her Leading Men' by W.B. Kimberley and published in 1897.

The larger, first section is a history of WA from 1788 to May 1897. It includes chapters on European discovery of Australia, the aborigines, the foundation of the colony, the foundation of Perth and Fremantle, exploration, social conditions, conditions of settlement, native conflict, pastoral pursuits, laws, the depression, the convict system, representative government, public works and the goldfields. Photos are included.

The second biographical section covers notable Western Australians and includes portraits.

You can search the National Archives passenger arrivals index which has 479,078 names from passenger arrivals by sea at Fremantle between 1926 and 1947. These records come from the National Archives series K269, Inward passenger manifests for ships and aircraft arriving at Fremantle, Perth Airport and outports, chronological series, 1898–1978.

The index is useful because the passenger lists lodged in Fremantle included all passengers disembarking in Fremantle, and usually passengers travelling on to other Australian ports (such as Melbourne or Sydney) or overseas ports (such as Auckland or Colombo). Most passenger vessels from Europe made Fremantle, Western Australia, their first port.

The current coverage of the index can be found at the top and bottom of the 'Index to passenger arrivals’ screen and, as of July 2005, the index included names from passenger lists for the period of January 1926 to 1947. Listing of the names from passenger lists was undertaken as a project under the Commonwealth Government's Work for the Dole program.

To access this database click on Search Now and then the Passenger index button at the top of the RecordSearch screen at: http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/recordsearch.aspx .

Includes links to Acts, Regulations, Bills and Parliamentary Dabates or Hansard.

A database of nearly 10,000 convicts transported to Western Australia from 1850 to 1868. Includes details such as birth date, crime, where tried, years served, ticket of leave and certificate of freedom dates, and occupation. Searchable by name and ship. Produced by the Fremantle Prison.

Covers WA miltary history from 1851 to 1901 and was produced by Jim Grant in 1998.

Contents include:

Background -- Proposed Units -- Land Grants Scheme --Sudan, Offers of service -- Special Parades --Commonwealth Inauguration Contingent -- Medals awarded to volunteers -- Introduction to Uniforms section --Description of standard uniform items -- Introduction to Nominal Rolls -- The Permanent Force -- The Mounted Infantry in South Africa -- The Headquarters Staff --List of Commandants -- The Staff Corps -- The Veterinary Corps -- The 1st Infantry Volunteer Regiment --The Infantry Brigade -- The Headquarters Band --The Medical Staff -- The Medical Department --The 1897 Jubilee Contingent -- The Cadet Corps --The Western Australian Nurses -- The Honorary Chaplains --Annual Strength of the WADF --Commonwealth Defence General Order (1903) --The Permanent Artillery --The Permanent Engineers -- The Albany Rifle Volunteers --The Albany Defence Rifles -- The Plantagenet Rifle Volunteers -- The Albany Volunteer Garrison Artillery -- The Wellington Mounted Volunteers -- The Bunbury Rifle Volunteers -- The Sussex Volunteer Rifle Corps --The Fremantle Volunteers Rifle Corps --The Fremantle Rifle Volunteers -- The Fremantle Naval Volunteers --The Geraldton Rifle Volunteers --The Goldfields Battalion of Infantry --The Swan Volunteer Rifle Corps -- The Guildford Rifle Volunteers -- The Northampton Rifle Volunteers --The Metropolitan Volunteer Rifle Corps --The Union Troop of Western Australian Volunteers -- The Metropolitan Rifle Volunteers --The Perth Mounted Rifle Volunteers -- The Metropolitan Civil Service Volunteers -- The Pinjarrah Mounted Volunteers -- The Western Australian Mounted Volunteers -- The York Volunteers -- The York Infantry Volunteers/York Infantry -- The 1900/1903 interim uniform -- The 1903 Commonwealth uniform --Miscellaneous lists of signatories.

This site provides information on the history of the Western Australia flag and includes a link to information on Western Australia historical flags covering the period from 1870 to 1953.

Index of 51,400 Western Australian Marriages for the period 1915 to 1933, collated from the microfiche of the Registrar General's Office of Western Australia. Information includes Year of Marriage, Grooms Surname and Given Name, Brides Surname and Given Name, Registration Number and Registration District. It also shows if they used an alias.You can search by the Bride or Groom's surnames, Year of Marriage or Registration District.

Index to Fremantle, Karrakatta, Pinnaroo, Midland and Guildford cemeteries. Search by name to find cemetery grave location and grant number, whether the grant has expired, date of death, memorial location, funeral application number.

Compiled by the WA Genealogy Society in 2003, this CDROM is an index to passenger arrivals in Western Australia between 1839 and 1890. Approximately 27,500 immigrants, who arrived from the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and other ports of Australia, are indexed. The index also includes convicts and their guards.

Details provided include: Surname; Given Name/s; Title; Nationality (sometimes entered, but not always); Departed From; Arrived At; Ship Name; Day; Month; Year; Miscellaneous. You can also click on any particular person and find out all the other passengers that were on that same voyage out.

There is also a second 'bonus' CDROM which has the Ships Crew List 1829-1887, Overland Arrivals in Esperance 1893-95, and Passenger Arrivals in Esperance 1863-1896. This is listed on the menu.

Compiled by the WA Genealogy Society in 2001, this CDROM is an index to passenger arrivals in Western Australia between 1898 and 1925. It contains the names of some 434,899 passengers arriving from the UK, Europe, Asia and other ports of Australia. These records include up to 244,000 passengers going to or departing either Adelaide, Sydney or Melbourne.

Passenger details include: name of ship, port of departure, date of arrival, nationality and comments about the passengers. The CDROM is searchable by name of passenger or ship.

This index was created using the original passenger lists held by the National Archives of Australia (Series K269: Inward passenger manifests for ships and aircraft arriving at Fremantle, Perth Airport and outports, 1898–1978). The National Archives has since launched an index to this series in February 2003 and, at July 2005, it included names from passenger lists for the period of January 1926 to 1947. Further details at Fact sheet 220 – Index to passenger arrivals

The Western Australian Police Gazette was a weekly publication distributed to all the Police Stations in the Colony. The Gazette contained official information including Apprehensions, Warrants, Tickets-Of-Leave, Stolen Goods, Inquests, Missing Person, and Murders.

This CD-ROM is an index of approximately 3,500 Inquests that were held in various Western Australian Police Courts to investigate fatalities that occurred in WA during the period 1876 - 1903.

Ships Crew List 1828-1887

This database contains the names of 676 crewmen from ships that visited Western Australia during the period 1829 to 1887. The crew lists included on this CD include only the periods 1829-1831, 1850-1867, and 1880-1887.

Overland Arrivals in Esperance 1898-1895

This database contains the names of 44 men who travelled from South Australia to Esperance, most carrying out the journey on foot.

Passenger Arrivals in Esperance 1863-1896

This database contains the names of 2,699 passengers who arrived by ship at Esperance between 1863-1896. All these passengers travelled from South Australia except for four men and a boy who travelled from Sydney on board to ship 'MacGregor'.

This CD is readable using Adobe Acrobat, unlike the main CD which uses its own reading/searching system. It is not searchable, but is bookmarked for the various sections for searching through the 900+ pages included in this section. Each entry contains the following information: Surname; Given Name/s; Title; Departed; Arrival; Ship; Day; Month; Year; Remarks.

Compiled by the WA Genealogy Society in 2003, this is a 'bonus' CDROM that comes with the Passenger Arrivals in WA 1839-1890 CDROM (see menu). It contains the following 3 databases:

(1) Ships Crew List 1828-1887 - this database contains the names of 676 crewmen from ships that visited Western Australia during the periods 1829-1831, 1850-1867 and 1880-1887.

(2) Overland Arrivals in Esperance 1898-1895 - this database contains the names of 44 men who travelled from South Australia to Esperance, most carrying out the journey on foot.

(3) Passenger Arrivals in Esperance 1863-1896 - this database contains the names of 2,699 passengers who arrived by ship at Esperance between 1863 and 1896. All these passengers travelled from South Australia, except for four men and a boy who travelled from Sydney on board to ship 'MacGregor'.

This CDROM is not searchable, but is bookmarked for the various sections for searching through the 900+ pages included. Each entry contains the following information: Surname; Given Name/s; Title; Departed; Arrival; Ship; Day; Month; Year; Remarks.

Produced by the Western Australian Genealogical Society in June 2002, this CDROM contains the details of baptisms recorded in the Registers that have passed throught the Uniting Church of Australia Synod of Western Australia Archives from September, 1840, to May, 1999.

There are approximately 72,000 entries showing the following data - Surname, Given Name (of person being baptised), Father/Mothers Name, Family Residence, Father/Mothers Occupation, Birth/Baptism Dates, Denomination, Place of Baptism, Parish/Circuit, Minister, Register Index #1/2, Remarks.

The Uniting Church of Australia was established in 1977 and comprises the previous Congregational, Methodist and many Presbyterian churches. The Uniting Church WA Synod records are largely complete for all of WA except the Kimberley.

However, some of the old Presbyterian registers were destroyed by fire in 1977 and there are anomalies with some Presbyterian records between churches that joined the Uniting Church and those that remained separate. Researchers may need to search other Presbyterian Registers for their baptismal information.

Uniting Church (UC) Registers were photocopied in duplicate. The Uniting Church Archives (UCA) retained one copy and WAGS utilised the other to transcibe these records.The original Registers are lodged in the Battye Library of West Australian History, State Library of WA, in Perth. This CDROM contains approximately 99% of data from the original Registers and researchers will have no need to sight the original documents. All records bearing an accession number could however be viewed at the Battye Library.

The Western Australian Genealogical Society can be contacted at 6/48 May Street, Bayswater, Western Australia, 6053. Phone: 08 9271 4311 - Fax: 08 9370 1572 - Email: genealogy@wags.org.au

A comprehensive index of the Western Australian Genealogical Society's journal the 'Western Ancestor', from Volume 1, No 1, March 1979, to Volume 8, 12 December, 2002.

The index contains the following:

Surnames - Categories of index are: Articles (by Title) - Authors of Articles/Books - Books Mentioned - Cemeteries Convicts - Enrolled Pensioner Guards - Hotels - Military (by Regiment or Topic) - Newspapers Mentioned - Ships Mentioned - WAGS Matters - General/Other (these are scattered throughout the Index - from articles and Pass It On, in alphabetical order) But NOT Members’ Interests or Can You Help.

The journal itself contains information relating to new members and their interests, Society news, special articles generally relating to family history research, and information about branches and the various committee members. Many of the branches of the Western Australian Genealogical Society also publish newsletters.

The 'Western Ancestor' is located in the Mitchell Library at Q929.105/6 for the period Vol. 1, no. 1 (March, 1979) to the present.

The Western Australian Genealogical Society can be contacted at 6/48 May Street, Bayswater, Western Australia, 6053. Phone: 08 9271 4311 - Fax: 08 9370 1572 - Email: genealogy@wags.org.au

Produced by the Western Australian Genealogical Society in 2003, this CDROM is an index of approximately 3,500 Inquests held in various WA Police Courts to investigate fatalities that occurred in Western Australia during the period 1876-1903. These were published in the West Australian Police Gazettes, a weekly publication that was distributed to all the Police Stations in the Colony. The Gazette contained official information including Apprehensions, Warrants, Ticket-of-Leave, Stolen Goods, Inquests, Missing Persons and Murders.

Information supplied in most entries consists of: Surname; Given Name/s; Status (this is sometimes nationality, female or child, or a number indicating a criminal record); Age; Police District; Date of Inquest; Page; Year; Cause; Comments.

A sample entry: 'On the 4th inst., at the Serpentine, before J.G. Murray, R.M. and Coroner, on the body of Charles Pearson, who was killed on the Jarrahdale and Rockingham Railway line on the 2nd inst. Verdict - 'Accident death by falling in front of the wheels on the engine and cars while trying to jump on the engine as guard'.

This is an index of births, deaths and marriages registered with the Registrar General's Office, Western Australia between 1841 and 1905. Searching can be done by surname, given name, registration place and parents' names.

Free online searching of Western Australian birth, death and marriage indexes is available for the following ranges of years:

Birth indexes - 1841 to 1932

Death indexes - 1841 to 1960

Marriage indexes - 1841 to 1932.

The complete set of Western Australia post office directories for the period 1893 to 1949, published by H. Pierssené and then by H. Wise & Co., is available on the WA State Library website. This online project was funded by the Friends of Battye Library Maude Sholl Bequest and the Bizzaca Family.

The annual tables of contents of the post office directories provide links to each page. While it is not possible to do a text search on the directories, it is possible to find listings by localities, surnames, etc., using the contents pages.

The post office directories can provide information by locality, individual surname, government service, and by trade or profession. The different sections enable the enquirer to see the householders or businesses in any one town; the address of any householder or business in the State; and the businesses or individuals throughout Western Australia engaged in any trade or profession.

The website of the Wet Tropics Management Authority. This site has resources for students and teachers about the Queensland wet tropics heritage area, including wildlife, Aboriginal heritage and scientific information.

A directory of passenger records. Links to USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and European countries.

A monthly guide to the stars and planets of the southern hemisphere. Includes time charts, significant events and astronomy links. produced by the Melbourne Planetarium.

Similar to How stuff works, hosted by American Chemical Society, this site gives brief information on things such as baseball, sunscreen, margarine, etc related to chemistry

This site provides street maps around Australia.

Welcome to whichbook.net - a completely new way of choosing what to read

Find persons, businesses, emails and look up US telephone numbers by the number.

Provides biographical detail as well as web links for contemporary celebrities. Includes individuals both living and deceased, and includes thematic lists.

A browsable and searchable database of biographies of prominent Australians. It includes various categories like Nobel Prize Winners, Diplomats in Australia and more.

This site provides an Internet bookstore which allows you to find and order books from overseas and includes reviews of new books. All prices are in British pounds.

Worldwide listing of public access points for wireless Internet.

Maps and information on where to go, what to see, and where to stay in cities and towns in Australia.

This site provides a map of Sydney City centre, Sydney suburbs and the Sydney area, as well as maps of other cities and country areas in Australia.

This site provides a search engine which searches recent news stories including business, culture, technology and politics.

Wollongong City Library's local history collection provides information on the history and development of the Illawarra from 1799 to the present. The collection includes an extensive range of books, over 17,000 images, more than 500 maps, local newspapers from 1856 onswards and more than 1,000 manuscripts.

Information and resources about women's experiences in world history.

The WordReference Dictionaries are free online translation dictionaries. Type in a word in the forms to the left for a quick translation or definition. There are three multilingual translation dictionaries and one English dictionary: Spanish English Dictionary, French English Dictionary, Italian English Dictionary, Monolingual English Dictionary.

(WorkCover NSW, Australia)

WorkCover NSW manages the state's workplace safety, injury management, and workers compensation systems. This site has occupational health and safety codes of practice and regulations as well as guidelines for specific industries.

An online reference source that contains every article from the 22-volume print set of the World Book, etc. It also contains multimedia, maps, editor-reviewed Web sites.

This site contains historical weather averages, showing what the weather was typically like each month, averaged over a range of years.

This database from the World Bank provides access to the annual cultural, demographic, economic, environmental, and health data of over 200 countries. Subjects covered include land use, urbanization, education and health, taxes and trade, exchange rates, and levels of aid.

This site contains a database of selected statistics from the biennial World Economic Outlook surveys. There are also full-text reports of the International Monetary Fund's staff analysis of economic developments globally.

This site contains basic information on individual countries, including formal name, capital city, area, population, currency, languages, and religions. The flags include the national and state flags, ensigns, and sub-national flags. Where countries have changed their flags in the last few years the old flag is also shown.

(World Health Organization, International)

Information on individual countries and global issues. WHO is a specialist agency of the United Nations.

Heritage sites listed by the UNESCO World Heritage Commission.

Links to easy-to-use history websites.

The World Resources Institute is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect the environment and its capacity to provide for people's needs. The Institute's staff includes scientists, economists, policy experts, business analysts, statistical analysts, mapmakers, and communicators. World Resources Reports are free for download.

This site provides information on the development of national and international standards as well as links to standards organizations around the world.

Current local times of countries and major cities around the world.

This site is an archive of primary documents relating to World War I including images and personal reminiscences.

This global web site presents OFFICIAL weather observations, weather forecasts and climatological information for selected cities supplied by National Meteorological & Hydrological Services (NMHSs) worldwide.The NMHSs make official weather observations in their respective countries.Links to their official weather service web sites and tourism board/organization are also provided whenever available. Weather icons are shown alongside worded forecasts in this version to facilitate visual inspection

World wide wattle aims to deliver authoritative information relating to Australian species of Acacia. The site features how to identify wattles, their distribution, uses and cultural information such as Wattle Day.

WorldCat is provided by OCLC Online Computer Library Center on behalf of its member libraries and searches the collections of over 10,000 libraries and some 1.2 billion items from around the world.

You can search for books, foreign language material, music CDs, videos, digital content (such as downloadable audiobooks), article citations (with links to their full text), authoritative research materials (such as documents and photos of local or historic significance) and digital versions of rare items that aren't available to the public.

WorldCat allows you find an item of interest and then locate library/s that own it. Usually you will link directly to the item record on that particular library's website.

Also, on the WorldCat page for a particular item, you can enter a rating and review under the 'Reviews' tab and contribute factual notes or a book's table of contents under the 'Details' tab. Note that only you can modify or delete your own review, but other users can edit information that has been contributed under Details (similar to Wikipedia).

Although the basic item identifying information on the website can fulfill most needs, WorldCat at your library includes extra features such as: Advanced search; 'Find similar items'; and Links to published reviews and excerpts.

This site provides links to international genealogical sites.

This site provides links to international telephone, facsimile and email directories.

The Worldwatch Institute is an independent research organization that works for an environmentally sustainable and socially just society. Includes articles and links on a range of environmental topics.Includes news stories and live chat.

This site is useful for scholars and researchers who may need to obtain permission to publish works still protected by copyright. You can search the WATCH file to find contact information for the copyright holders of authors and artists whose works can be found in libraries and archives across North America and the United Kingdom. WATCH is jointly produced by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Reading Library, Reading, England

History page of the Virtual Library series of evaluated websites.