They were intended for school use and accompanied by notes and sound recordings.

Oral historian Janis mentions that Mrs Ida Joseph and Mrs Dorothy Correy... gave her many hours, memories and photographs.

The early Lebanese migrants known then as Syrians were here as early as the 1890s, as hawkers, haberdashers, barbers and running small businesses.

"Brought to Australia through chain migration which had family members sponsoring each other and which had village networks providing support to fellow villagers, these early Lebanese were known as 'Syrians' and on arrival in Sydney and were provided with accommodation, training and employment opportunities in Redfern.

Here from the late 19th century, a number of Lebanese migrants had established shops and warehouses which supplied and trained newly arrived country men and women to pack small drapery items into baskets and onto carts and take to the roads.

Ida Joseph passed on the stories shared by her parents Sarquis and Dora Solomon who arrived in Australia in 1897, about their early years hawking round the Lismore district before moving to Glen Innes.

"They had a basket - you know the cane baskets, not the hamper kind, it had a hard handle over the top [and] they covered it with a cloth or canvas. This is what my mother used to tell us.

"And they had haberdashery in it, bits of boot laces and things like that... they'd walk and go to farmers and try to sell these things - these cottons or whatever they had.

"That went on for a while and then I was coming along and Dad saved a bit of money.

"He bought some sort of cart with one horse... and they'd go out together then. They got more goods, ... and they went out to farmers and they'd sell. I went with them. We used to sleep - I tell you it was a sort of caravan - those closed in caravans and they had the shop on top."

These oral histories are so valuable. Use a phone, to record, maybe with two members of a family to bounce memories off each other- just don't leave it too late!