GSV News

The Ancestor Editorial team is pleased to inform you that the judging panel has selected Louise Millar-Hoffmann as the winner for the 2025 GSV Writing Prize competition. The results were officially announced by GSV president Brian Reid at the Society’s AGM on Saturday 4 October.

The fabulous cover of the December edition of the GSV’s journal, Ancestor, is a photo from Louise’s story. Have a look at it and then read her winning entry, ‘The hostile housekeeper’. It covers the growing conflict between Bella McQuillen, housekeeper to the parish priest, and Frank Floreani, the Italian immigrant artist decorating St Mary’s parish church in Bairnsdale.

Louise’s prize is a 12-month worldwide subscription to ancestry.com and an ancestry DNA test kit, courtesy of our sponsor, ancestry.com.

All entrants are to be congratulated for taking the time and making the effort to be part of this annual competition. The GSV Writing Prize is a valuable event on the GSV’s calendar, and we hope many more members will consider entering next year’s competition.

GSV and Ancestor thank Ancestry for their provision of the prize for winner.

Whether you are a novice or just have some gaps in your knowledge, a Windows or Mac user, this presentation is designed to help you harness the power of technology to research, record, and preserve your family history—safely and efficiently.

Why Attend?

This practical guide will show you how to use your home technology:

• Safer & Lasting: Digital copies and backups: protection from loss.
• Searchable & Organised: Easier to find files, names, dates, and places.
• Shareable: Enable you to easily share your tree.

What We'll Cover

• The IT Essentials: A basic checklist for your computer setup, including updates, security, and using an external drive for storage.
• Mastering Backups: We'll demystify the 3-2-1 rule and show you simple, reliable ways to automate and test your backup system.
• Organising Your Files: Learn a simple folder structure to organise your photos and documents, and the best settings for scanning.
• Software Showdown: Home computer software vs online databases.
• The Future is Now: A glimpse into the emerging use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): handwriting recognition, photo enhancement, and search assistance.

You'll leave with a simple monthly workflow to keep your research current and safe. We'll provide a handout with links to software, databases, and backup guides.

When: 1:30 to 3:00 pm on Thursday 20 November 

GSV members only. Please register for this free talk on the website under the Activities tab and the Zoom link will be sent to you.

Don't let your family's history fade away—secure its future with technology!

Many of our survey respondents requested more face to face talks or meetings. Here is a most interesting offer:

At 1pm on Saturday 8 November, the Irish Ancestry Discussion Circle is hosting a face to face meeting at the Kathleen Syme library in Faraday Street, Carlton.

The speaker is Damian Gleeson, author, genealogist and historian specialising in Irish-Australia research. He is a most entertaining presenter and will speak about Irish convicts transported to New South Wales with particular emphasis on marriage, bigamy and family estates.

Bigamy was a constant issue in the early days of the Australian colonies and the discussion following Damian’s talk will touch on many instances beyond the Irish and the convicts. We would love it if attendees would share their own family research discoveries of bigamous marriages.

This is a GSV members only event. It is free and will include afternoon tea with a great opportunity to socialise after the meeting.

Please register at https://www.gsv.org.au/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=2906

Damian’s book Irish Bigamy: New Insights into Colonial New South Wales will be available at a special pre-order price of $30. Damian will bring orders with him.

Please note, this special event is not on zoom and will not be recorded.

We are still looking at our survey and want to address some more of the requests/concerns raised in the ‘Any other suggestions or comments’ box.

One-on-one assistance / private session / individual mentoring / on-site hands on training
We don’t quite have the resources to offer this on a full time basis. But we do have Library Research Assistants who have regular days and you might be able to arrange to meet them in the library on their days. One difficulty in arranging one-on-one is identifying the right mentor with the skills that the participant requires.
Discussion circles are small enough to ask for help. I’ve had some great leads on brick walls by submitting my timeline and questions in advance. Submitting in advance means the group members can consider your questions and if you’re lucky actually have answers rather than just ideas for you!
We are planning more small group ‘Library days’ based around different themes. Perhaps one or more of these will suit you.

Full or half day seminars - with plenty of notice and timing to suit members travelling from the country
We are planning at least one seminar for 2026. These take a lot of work and this usually falls on our busy volunteers. We will try our best to offer these as hybrid meetings for those who live at a distance or can’t physically get in to the city.
Perhaps you have expertise in organising groups or meetings and would be prepared to help our Education team? If so, please contact education@gsv.org.au 

Beginner’s circle / research techniques / separate real from ‘rubbish’ / how to verify and check
Our Family History Tips and Tricks discussion circle goes back to basics in research techniques.
Our Good Oil discussion circle talks at different, usually higher, levels related to more technology related aspects. 
If you log in and subscribe to the relevant Noticeboards on our website, you’ll be sent the recording link after each meeting. Sometimes there are handouts from these meetings but each circle or group has an email address you can send questions to.
We have almost finished working on a new IT talk aimed at beginner level and will schedule that soon.

Time poor
Now that is something we can help with! 
Watch recordings of our discussion circles and webcasts of our talks at a time that suits you. 
Search our catalogue at any time. 
If you see something in our catalogue that you can’t get in to look at, send in a Quick Look Up request. If you live more than 100km away, you get two hours free research per year, and of course Quick Look ups to supplement that. 
We have access passwords to many of the paid subscription sites that you can use from home. 
Send in your brick wall to a Discussion circle and even if you can’t attend, they will discuss it and get back to you.
Please explore our Members area to learn what is available as part of your membership — https://www.gsv.org.au/members-area.

We’ve ‘travelled’ to South Australia, New South Wales, New Zealand and Queensland in our State to State series so far. If you weren’t able to attend SA and NSW presentations, you can find them as webcasts in the Members area of our website. They are well worth a visit. The NZ and Qld webcasts will be available soon.

Tuesday 28 October at 1.30pm sees us ‘travel’ to the ACT. Michele Rainger, President of Family History ACT will highlight the unique resources in Family History ACT society’s collection and answer questions about researching ancestors who lived and worked in the Territory.

This event is open and free to all members via Zoom. Please register via the Activities tab of the GSV website to obtain the Zoom link - https://www.gsv.org.au/current-and-upcoming-events.

Forward notice:
On Wednesday 26 November at 10.30am we travel across the strait to Tassie:
President of the Tasmanian Family History Society, Robyn Gibson will give us a summary of the TFHS branches and the resources they hold. She will also give some general comments on Tasmanian family history resources.

Did you know you can access MyHeritage for free as a GSV member?
There are two ways: 
1: through the Members Area - Access from Home section of our website: you can contact us during office hours to get the password.
2: through the Research - Research Services section of our website: you can search at home and send in a quick look up request with a screenshot or all the details.

Of course, if you are like me and want the answer NOW - you can get a subscription to MyHeritage. Make sure you look out for specials or times when they offer extra.

Don’t forget to join us for one (or two) of our MyHeritage talks on Zoom.
We are lucky to have Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage talk us through many of the features. 

Tue 14 Oct at 7.00pm: Planting a Family Tree Online on MyHeritage
Get a general overview of the MyHeritage platform and features so you can use these technologies to quickly and efficiently grow your tree. You’ll learn the basics of building or importing a tree, adding new people, and filling in their details.

Fri 17 Oct at 7.00pm: Maximizing MyHeritage Technologies for Family History Research
Learn more about the key technologies that make finding family members on MyHeritage quick and simple. Take an in-depth look at MyHeritage’s AI tools, matching technologies, DNA features, and billions of historical records, and receive helpful tips to leverage them for your genealogy research.

It’s time to think about who to give a DNA kit for Christmas and purchase before the end of the October.
Ancestry have kits from $69
MyHeritage have kits from $58

Following the success of our January 2025 talk: “I got a DNA kit for Christmas, now what do I do?” we will be running another early in 2026.

This talk will lead in to a repeat of the “Using your DNA for Family History” course to start a month or two later and run for about seven sessions. This course is designed in separate modules and you can book for the entire course, or just modules where you feel your knowledge needs a refresher.

And don’t forget our DNA Study group aimed at the more intermediate or advanced level.

You can find more information about DNA and the GSV here:
https://www.gsv.org.au/dna-and-family-history-gsv

In the recent education team survey that so many of our members responded to, the top of the list of ‘want to learn more’ was Online Databases.

We took notice and have organised a couple of talks to start addressing this need.

These talks will be aimed at different levels as you also indicated your level of expertise in certain areas.

First cab off the rank is Daniel Horowitz from My Heritage in October.
This will be followed by Jenny Harkness of FamilySearch in November.

Tue 14 Oct, 7pm: Planting a family tree online on MyHeritage: a general overview of the MyHeritage platform and features

Fri 17 Oct, 7pm: Maximising MyHeritage technologies: take an in depth look at the specialist tools and technologies available with a MyHeritage subscription.

Thu 19 Nov, 10.30am: New features of FamilySearch, focusing on those found through the FamilySearch Labs link, and the new full text search.

Stay tuned for more. We are working on getting people from other online databases to talk to us.
Thank you for your feedback to help us shape our education offerings.

Trena Ronnfeldt joins the Genealogy Society of Victoria staff today as as our new Library and Resources Manager, bringing with her a rich and varied background that includes three years at the National Library of Australia, where she worked with Trove and served as a Reference Librarian.

Before transitioning into the library sector, Trena built a successful career in administration and retail support, honing her organisational and customer service skills - strengths that continue to shape her professional approach. Her lifelong passion for family history inspired her to pursue a career in libraries, and in 2021 she graduated with High Distinctions from the Diploma of Library and Information Services at Swinburne University, completing work placements at both the National Archives and the National Library of Australia in Canberra.

A dedicated family historian since childhood, Trena deepened her expertise by completing the Diploma of Family History at the University of Tasmania in 2025, earning a place on the Roll of Excellence. She is particularly interested in harnessing DNA analysis and innovative technologies to deepen and expand genealogical research.

With a broad range of experience in family history methods, Trena is enthusiastic about sharing ideas, learning from others, and contributing her skills and energy to the vibrant GSV community.

Do you have Welsh ancestors and wonder why they came to Australia? Or perhaps like me, wondered why they moved from England to Wales? What political, religious and socio-economic factors were influencing our ancestors?

Historian and educator, Nigel Hughes will join our Welsh discussion circle on 2 Oct at 7.30pm. Please note the evening time slot as Nigel lives in Aberystwyth, Wales.

Nigel will share insights into the social forces that shaped our ancestors' lives and decisions to migrate. He will discuss the discontent in Welsh society from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century, with focus on cause and effect of emigration and inward immigration.

This is a special opportunity for conversation with someone on the ground in Wales. Nigel is keen to interact and assist you so please come along with your questions.

Photo courtesy of Jackie van Bergen: William Francis, born in Bridgend Glamorganshire in 1835, emigrated in 1862, her 2x Great grandfather.