GSV News

This month's Family History Tips and Tools will be a chance to quiz a panel of GSV members about how they research. Partly a discussion of research strategies, partly a good stickybeak into what others are doing, the session will ask each panel member a series of questions about how they build their family trees and why they do it that way.

GSV members Penny Mercer, Jenny Redmond and Claire Johnson will be there to answer questions like:

• How do you decide what to research next?
• How do you decide who to include on your tree?
• What information or records might we typically find on a person in your family tree?
• How do you judge that a particular line of inquiry is 'done' (for now at least)?
• How thoroughly do you flesh out an individual's history before moving on to someone else?
• How do you determine the validity of a piece of evidence?  
• How do you use publicly available trees in your research?

If you have questions you would like answered, bring them along with you on Wednesday 27th September at 10:30am. Don't forget to log in before you register here:

https://www.gsv.org.au/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=2424

We are very pleased to announce that the Genealogical Society of Victoria is partnering with Family History Connections and the Ulster Historical Foundation to hold a seminar on Irish family history research in February 2024.

The seminar will be held over two days, Sunday 18th and Monday 19th February, with the option to register for either or both days.

Sessions will be presented by expert speakers from the Ulster Historical Foundation on a range of topics covering all of Ireland.

The seminar is open to anyone interested in researching Irish family history.

To ensure the content of the seminar aligns with the research interest of possible participants, we have created a survey to garner opinions. Please have your say on which topics should be covered over the two days. We appreciate your assistance.

The survey is completed online and accessed via the link below. The survey should take under 10 minutes to complete.

If you are keen don't forget to save the dates in your diary.

https://forms.gle/HX2qDULND6Fc8SNY8

You may have read on the inside front cover of the latest edition of Ancestor that the University of Tasmania is again offering a scholarship for a GSV Member to study their Diploma of Family History. The article outlines the details of the scholarship that commences in February 2024 and the application requirements.

Alan Rhodes, the inaugural recipient of the GSV/UTAS Diploma Scholarship, has commented that he believes ‘the course is well suited to GSV members who are familiar with the essentials of doing family history research and have made a good start on researching at least some branches of their family history.  The Diploma will stimulate your interest further, provide lots of ideas and resources, and develop your skills to continue your research and writing about family history.’

He writes that whilst the workload is not onerous, ‘it is important to keep up with the readings and activities in the weekly units so that you have a chance to make good use of the resources and to explore the topics fully. The units and resources are broad-ranging, interesting and useful and you also have access to the UTAS library resources and databases of journals and books that you can explore for in-depth research.  The lecturers and tutors are highly knowledgeable, friendly and very responsive to any questions.  You also have access to discussion groups with other students.’

Applications are now open for the 2024 Diploma Scholarship and can be made online through the University’s Scholarship Office: https://www.utas.edu.au/study/scholarships-fees-and-costs/domestic-scho…

This is an excellent opportunity to develop your family history research skills and to expand your knowledge in finding and interpreting information about families in the past and sharing family stories with others.

Is your local society a member of VAFHO? Does your society have some local newspapers hidden away that you’d love help to digitise?

The Victorian Association of Family History Organisations (VAFHO) is offering grants of up to $5000 to VAFHO member groups to assist in funding the digitisation of local newspapers to assist family historians in their research.

The purpose of this grant is to enable smaller family history societies with limited resources that may otherwise be unable to undertake a digitisation project.

The format and quality needs to meet Trove guidelines. Information on the digitisation process can be found at https://trove.nla.gov.au/partners/partner-services/digitise

The completed records must be made available to Trove for public access.

VAFHO will give preference to projects where there is a lack of similar resources already available on Trove.

The deadline for submissions is 30 Sep 2023

Apply to the Secretary of VAFHO
secretary@familyhistoryconnections.org.au

The Gisborne Genealogical Group is holding a one-day seminar on Convicts to mark Family History Month. The day will run from 9.30am to 4.00pm on Saturday 26th August, to be followed by question time and afternoon tea. The presentations will include:

Descendants of Convicts Group - Bronwyn Quint
Personal Stories – GGG members
Vandemonians - Professor Janet McCalman
$20 for GGG members, $25 for non-members

Venue: Uniting Church, Brantome Street, Gisborne.

Find more details at https://www.ggg.org.au/events-activities

Come and join the Victoria and Tasmania discussion circle for their National Family History Month event (our interest groups are usually only open to GSV members).

Australians born in 1895 were an unlucky generation. They survived the horrors of World War I and the Spanish flu epidemic, only to be faced with the Great Depression. Our ancestors faced long dole queues, shanty towns, and destitute men (and sometimes families) roaming the country in search of work. Australia was one of the hardest hit countries in the world with over a third of the workforce unemployed in 1932.

Joan Beaumont AM explores the resilience of this generation in her 2022 book Australia’s Great Depression. They ‘made do’, helped each other, and survived.

Joan is an internationally recognised historian of Australia in the two world wars, Australian defence and foreign policy, the history of prisoners of war and the memory and heritage of war.

Perhaps you have a resilient ancestor from this generation. There should be time for questions and sharing after Joan’s talk.

Hope to see you there (on Zoom) on Thursday 24 August at 7.30pm.

Please register on the Activities/Events page of the GSV website. If you are not a member of GSV, you may need to phone the office to register: +61 3 9662 4455.

Over 160,000 convicts were transported to the Australian colonies over 80 years. That works out to around 20% of modern Australians having convict ancestry. If you’re one of the 20%, curious or wanting to broaden your genealogical skills, join us at August’s Family History Tips and Tools (FHTT).

On August 23rd at 10:30am Bronwyn Quint of the Descendants of Convicts Group will join FHTT to model how to uncover your convict ancestor’s history. There will be a brief overview of transportation to Australia to help you identify the information central to investigating a convict’s life. Then, using case studies from New South Wales and Tasmania, Bronwyn will show which sources to access to trace a convict’s life story. Resources on Western Australian convicts will be noted too.

Questions will be encouraged throughout the presentation. Bring along your convict related research puzzles or conundrums. During the discussion we also are keen to hear of any sources that you have found particularly helpful when researching your own convict forebears.

Members can register to attend here. Don’t forget to log in first.

Rebecca Landy
fhtt@gsv.org.au

References:

Did your ancestors live in the south-east of England? Are you experiencing difficulties researching them? Did you know that the GSV now has a Discussion Circle that covers the counties in this area?

The geographic coverage of the Circle will now include the counties of Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Berkshire, London, Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Hampshire, and East and West Sussex.

The first meeting of the Circle will be held by Zoom on Thursday 24 August 2023 commencing at 10.30 am. Two of our Members will talk about their ancestors – one who lived in Hampshire and the other who emigrated to Australia from Bermondsey, Surrey. We will also talk about some resources available to help you with your research and have a general discussion about your research interests.

The Circle is open to all GSV Members so if you would like to join please register through the GSV Event page.

Come along and join with others who are researching in these counties to discuss your interests, breakthroughs and brick walls.

GSV Education Team

Libraries, family history societies, authors and archives across Australia and New Zealand are banding together for another month of lectures, book launches, site visits and prizes, to celebrate this amazing pastime we all share. Most of the events are free.

The opening talk via zoom will be a highlight: At 5pm on Tuesday 1 August, University of New England’s Professor of Heritage and Digital Humanities, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart together with family historian and technology enthusiast, Andrew Redfern will discuss the pros and cons of using Artificial Intelligence in family history research.

Another highlight will be the concluding event, held in person at the Metcalfe Auditorium at the State Library of NSW at 12 noon, Thursday 31 August. Anita Jacoby AM, an awarded Australian TV producer will share the experience of researching her own family history for her book Secrets Beyond the Screen. Anita will address how to deal with sensitive material in family history research and writing. This talk will not be via zoom but hopefully will be recorded to view later.

Keep checking the events calendar as more events keep being added
https://familyhistorymonth.org.au/index.php/nfhm-events-calendar

Following the Facebook page is another great way to keep up with all that is happening:
https://www.facebook.com/FamilyHistoryMonthAU

A series of prizes are on offer, for both participants and contributing organisations.

Prizes include memberships, annual subscriptions, books, vouchers and DNA kits.

Go to the website in August to enter the competitions
https://familyhistorymonth.org.au/index.php/competition-page

Happy National Family History Month - we wish you rewarding research.

It’s great weather for staying inside and writing. Get your entries ready, only one month to go.

Send us an interesting, well-written, thoroughly researched and appropriately referenced article.

The article should have a family history / genealogy theme and be between 1200 and 2400 words.

The competition is open to GSV members and all members of GSV Member Societies.

For more info, guidelines and the terms and conditions of entry please go to: https://www.gsv.org.au/gsv-writing-prize-2023

Get your entries in by 4pm on 25 August 2023.