Hi Ainslie The Australian National Library in Canberra has a listing for James Jesse STROUD; there are five online publications for him (click onto the name of the publication that is highlighted in blue, and on the next screen you will see the words halfway down the page "Online Versions"; click onto that and it takes you to the publication) - http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=james+jesse+stroud&type=all&limits=&submit=Find There is a listing for The Australian Publishing Service, GPO Box 84, Canberra, ACT, 2601 - but no idea if this is the same publishing house that was operating during the early part of 1900, as this one is a government-body. I couldn't find anything for the APS at Paterson after the mid-1930s; it doesn't appear in current telephone directories. You could try Ask A Librarian at Music Australia - http://www.musicaustralia.org/apps/MA?function=authoredContent&name=contact&forceNewTrail=true Cheers Trish Nowra NSW > > My late grandfather James Jesse Stroud, born 1879, lived in NZ until his > late teens and then went off to England to try and find his birth family > details. > I'm researching his story and trying to fill gaps in the family stories. > I am now trying to find this Australian Publishing Service as I am > hoping to find copies of his writings and composing to add to the > collection of info I currently have on hand. > Any information would be much appreciated. > Ainslie Pyne (nee Brown)

Hi Trish, Thanks for that - I only found listings for 'Australian GOVERNMENT Publishing Service, every time I followed a link or APS. A couple of years ago a NZ woman answered a message I left on a genealogy site in NZ - I thought she might have been a Stroud family connection but she turned out to be a member of a singing group (she didn't call it a choir) which the chaplain for the police cadet academy near Wellington held for amateur music enthusiasts He was also a member of a historical society which was collecting and saving early NZ composers and songwriters sheet music. He had been offered a cardboard box from someone in Australia and another from someone in CHristchurch who had papers and letters regarding my grandfather. I wrote to him but most of these were business letters between JJ and the many people he had on "the books" who wrote poems that they were hoping he'd have put to music for them. He sent me scans of some of these - I was at that time, hoping to find personal letters he may have written to friends with snippets of information about his early life or family issues - but the Trentham fellow didn't respond about that. My grandfather was going blind at the time my grandmother died in the late 1940s in NZ and he moved over to live with Mum (his only daughter) Mum's brother's weren't in a position to care for him. I spent a lot of time in his company and we had a wonderful grandfather/granddaughter relationship. He saw my early artistic and musical talents and did everything possible to encourage this - I owe him a lot! Cheers Ainslie.