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| Thomas Moses with 2 adult women and 2 babies ca.1875 |
The late Fay Thomas, great-granddaughter of Moses Thomas, was the custodian of the Thomas Family collection and keeper and collector of much of the family lore. In 2015, after her death, Fay Thomas' Executors kindly loaned the collection to the City of Whittlesea prior to its transfer to State Library Victoria. During this time the collection was digitised.
Fay was the eldest daughter of Charles and Jean Thomas, and a descendant of Moses Thomas. Following in the footsteps of three great aunts who had been teachers, and a great uncle who has been a school inspector, she graduated from teachers college in 1961. In the 1980s Fay was one of the first locally appointed women principals in Victoria, an acknowledgement of her outstanding achievements and leadership skills. Throughout Fay's career as a teacher, principal, and education consultant she influenced the lives of thousands of Victorians.
Moses Thomas was a significant figure in the history of the area now known as the City of Whittlesea. Fay had a strong connection with her ancestry and she recognised that accumulating and maintaining a comprehensive collection of historical photographs, documents and objects relating to Moses and his family, his businesses, his involvement with the Church and School at Mernda, and the social milieu of early Whittlesea was an effort that had far-reaching implications.
The digital collection was passed on to Yarra Plenty Regional Library in March 2017. Images are progressively being made available via the Fay Thomas Collection album on Yarra Plenty Regional Library's Local History Flickr with selected local images via our website. Search the catalogue with keyword "Fay Thomas Collection".
This blog post also appears on Yarra Plenty Library Local History
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