GSV News

GSV had a very successful Family History Month in August and events were well attended.

The winner of the AncestryDNA kit was won by Rod Van Cooten, and GSV thanks all those who participated.

There are plenty of special interest groups and discussion circles for GSV members to join and get help with their particular lines of research. And they are all part of your membership. Each quarter, notices from the groups are published in Ancestor journal in a regular feature 'Around the Groups' and now a new page for 'Around the Circles' has been added (September issue). More frequent news from the groups will be posted on this blog and on the website to keep you up to date. Check the GSV website for all Events in the months ahead and plan your Springtime!

British India Discussion Circle – changes to meetings

Beginning in 2019 the British India Discussion Circle will meet each quarter rather than on a monthly basis. We will have set topics for discussion, also members will be welcome to make short presentations (no more than 10 minutes) on their research. These help to stimulate the discussion as many of us are following one area of research – military, as an example.

In August this group discussed BMD’s and where to access information if official records are unavailable including newspapers.

Our 18 September meeting will feature military research: how to use the FIBIS guides and where to access records.

There will NOT be a meeting in October, as the convenor will be attending the FIBIS 20^thAnniversary conference in Oxford, England.

This group is also considering setting up an email group which would allow members who are unable to attend meetings to post questions and receive advice.  [Mary-Anne Gourley, Convenor].

Classes and Talks 

October 5 - 'Starting Irish Family History'. Speakers : Maureen Doyle and Beryl O'Gorman.This class will cover basic information, where to start your research, church, civil and land records, Internet sites and question time. Register via https://www.gsv.org.au/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=995

October 17,24,31 - Australian family history [course]

Presenter: John Bugg. Topics to be covered over three two-hour sessions on 17th, 24th and 31st October:

- Where do I start? How to gather and store information

- Getting here - immigration, convicts, naturalisation and wills

- State records - private lives and public records

- National records - finding families.

Register via https://www.gsv.org.au/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1000

NOTICE - 'Resources in Ballarat' - 27 September. This talk is fully booked, but GSV has received the sad news of the death of the intended speaker, Dr Joan Hunt.  Her full life of contribution to academia, to historical research and especially to communities was described in an earlier post about this talk and she will be well-remembered. We are at present contacting a potential new speaker.

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Want to be part of a study to find out?

In a  project entitled ‘Motives and profiles of family historians', social researchers Doreen Rosenthal (University of Melbourne) and Susan Moore (Swinburne University) are examining what drives amateur family historians. Their study will also explore the psychological processes of amateur genealogists as they chart their family trees. Is interest in this field associated with particular life experiences or family profiles?

A recent email from a GSV Member captures something of the collaborative satisfaction that comes from the family history quest.

Some months ago I read a member's query [in the GSV's journal Ancestor] and realised I could help.  A member wanted information on a family from Central Victoria, an area where I have a small property. So we began to search the local Historical Society records, with much help from their President and volunteers.  Soon information and photographs were found and with the GSV's assistance, we contacted the enquirer. Further searching took us to the local cemetery. On a sunny afternoon we photographed all the graves of interest and learned heaps more about this lovely country place and the forebears of the family whose property I now own. So this adventure had its own rich personal rewards too! All the information we gathered was passed on to the enquirer who was overjoyed and very grateful when we finally met face to face.

I want to thank the GSV staff and express our pleasure in helping someone find a "lost" family. This was just our way of returning help such as I had received when searching for my family in Ireland. I found a friend who came from the same town as my grandparents and who readily over several years found all my late father's family. It was a pleasure to think, "What goes around comes around".

What insights and experiences have you had as a family historian?

Australian adults (18 years and over) interested in genealogy, or who have researched their family history are invited to participate in this study. You can take part by completing an anonymous online surveythat will take about 30 minutes. Find out more (and start the survey if you wish) by clicking on this link: https://tinyurl.com/familyhistorystudy

The researchers explain the background and aims of their project:

'Family history has always been a popular pastime, whether it involves drawing up complicated family trees or recording stories from the past. In recent years, the availability of so many records online, and the possibility of finding DNA matches, has escalated this ‘hobby’ into a worldwide craze. One motivator for exploring family history, popularised by the ‘Who do you think you are?’ television programs, is the search for self-understanding – finding your identity through knowing more about where you come from. Genealogical studies can also assist in understanding your own family dynamics, and in a broader sense, the histories of ‘ordinary people’ (and thus nations) from times past. Some family historians see themselves as ‘kin keepers’- inspired by wanting to acknowledge their ancestors through passing on their stories to a new generation. Others are searching for a lost relative, or for clues about their medical history and biological risk factors. For some, the detective work of the research process becomes an end in itself, with genealogists often reporting elation and other strong emotions as they discover a new link or break down a ‘brick wall’.

 

In this research study we are interested in examining the motives that drive amateur family historians and in exploring whether strong commitment to this field (expressed, for example, in hours per week spent researching and number of years interest) is associated with particular personality, demographic and family profiles. We are also interested in the psychological processes of amateur genealogists as they chart their family trees. The survey concerns level of involvement, motivations for and outcomes of their genealogical research.What kinds of insights and experiences have they had?'

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The survey is being conducted by social researchers Emeritus Professor Susan Moore smoore@swin.edu.au from Swinburne University and Emeritus Professor Doreen Rosenthal d.rosenthal@unimelb.edu.au from the University of Melbourne. You can contact them by email if you would like further information.

For anyone with links to 19th C Victoria, Ballarat and other goldfields will be an important part of your story, if not directly, then in providing background to the growth of the new Colony. In the coming month the GSV hosts a talk by Dr Joan Hunt on the wealth of research sources that are available in Ballarat.

'Resources in Ballarat'

Thursday 27 September 12.00 pm - 1.00 pm at the GSV. See  HERE for details and to make a booking.

City Hall, Ballarat c.1907. (Courtesy SLV Pictures H96.200/1381)

 

Ballarat is rich in both history and historical research sources. Dr Hunt will share with us the many resources that can help with local and family history research, revealing both on-line and personal contact responses from the Ballarat and District Genealogical Society, the Ballarat Historical Society and other societies such as those at Sebastopol, Smythesdale, Linton, Creswick, Clunes and other surrounding areas, the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute, the Australiana Room of Ballarat Library, the Ballarat Archives Centre of the Public Record Office Victoria, the Gold Museum, and other sites.

Dr Joan Hunt

 

This is a great opportunity to be guided by an historian with a deep knowledge of these local research materials. Dr Joan Hunt recently retired from her position as an Access Services Officer at Ballarat Archives Centre, Public Record Office Victoria. Dr Joan Hunt is a past president of Ballarat Historical Society, a founder and past president of the Woady Yaloak Historical Society, has served two terms chairing the Ballarat & District Genealogical Society, and is an active member of other local historical societies.  She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, where she served several terms on Council, partly as Vice-President, and partly as Convenor of the RHSV History Victoria Support Group.  Her work in community history spans thirty-seven years, from Dandenong Historical Society committee membership in 1974 to involvement in the Ballarat region since 1980.  She is a co-founder and inaugural secretary of the Central Highlands Historical Association.  In 1988 Joan was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study how local and family history societies in the UK organise and administer themselves.  Joan has published a history of Ross Creek, a centenary history of Scarsdale Old Boys Reunion, a history of Smythesdale Cemetery, and many articles and papers. She is currently working on a history of the Springdallah goldfields.  

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August is  National Family History Month and we celebrate the finding and telling of our family histories.

Barbara Beaumont (left) accepting Nick Vine Hall Award 2018.

 

The GSV is particularly pleased to be awarded this year's Nick Vine Hall Award for Ancestor, our quarterly journal. This award and our previous wins in 2012 and 2015 show our continuing commitment to helping people tell their family stories. Our journal is produced wholly by a volunteer Editorial Team and special congratulations are due to our layout designer, Jay Wickham, and to our two articles sub-editors, Martin Playne and Barbara Beaumont, as well as all our contributing writers. Barbara accepted the Award on GSV's behalf at the launch of National Family History Month this week and her report of this successful event is this week's post. You can find out more about National Family History Month on AFFHO's website HERE.

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The Australian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) launched National Family History Month on Wednesday 1 August in Hobart. Vicki Montgomery, wearing her AFFHO hat, (she is Vice President of AFFHO as well as GSV Secretary), conducted the meeting. The building at 91 Murray St, Hobart is home to The National Archives of Australia and the State Library Archives Service. Short addresses by Celia Blake, Victorian and Tasmanian Director of the National Archives of Australia, and Caroline Homer, Manager of the State Library (Tasmania) Archives Service, emphasised the value of the co-location of these two organisations. Celia introduced us to some of the treasures available in the National Archives, then Caroline spoke about how Family History dovetails with the library’s aims and outlined some of the Archive Service’s current projects.

The winning issue of Ancestor, 33:7 September 2017

 

The Nick Vine Hall awards for the best family history journal/newsletter in Australia and New Zealand were then made. The GSV (yes us!) won the first prize in Category B, societies with a membership over five hundred. I was delighted to be able to go as a representative of our editorial team to accept the award. Look out for the beautiful plaque we were given when you next visit the Society.

The keynote address, ‘Why is Family History Important?’ was given by Dr. Dianne Snowden. Dianne’s entertaining talk drew on her own experiences of family history research and touched on several themes. Some that particularly appealed to me:

• In her childhood her grandmother’s exercise book of recipes and names and the big family bible sparked her interest in family history, and this led on to formal study of history and a passion for conserving heritage.
• Academic historians, once condescending about family history, were lately coming to see its value (when it is done correctly).
• Researching one’s family enables us to make connections with family both past and present, and helps to develop one’s own sense of identity.

The afternoon concluded with a lavish afternoon tea.

Barbara Beaumont

Military Genealogy at the Royal United Services Institute of Victoria

On Thursday August 2 at 12.00 pm - 1.00 pm at the GSV, Major General (Ret’d) Michael  O’Brien will give an insight into the extensive collection of military genealogy that is held at the library at Victoria Barracks- a real treasure trove of information to be explored.

The RUSI library at Victoria Barracks

 

Mike is a committed community activist and a believer in a fair go. He is an experienced manager and company director, has run an iconic Melbourne antiquarian bookstore for 17 years and is an advocate for small business as the main engine that drives our economy. He had an extensive military career but balanced it with directorships of a listed company and a non-bank financial institution. He has tertiary qualifications in Science and Management. He has lectured around the world on cruise ships for 10 years gaining an enviable number of days at sea, an excellent remedy for a former Infantryman. He writes local history and believes our built heritage should be highly valued.

This is a great opportunity to find out about this lesser-known archive of material, that could hold just the link you need for your own research.

Bookings are essential - you can book HERE

Cost $5 GSV members, $20 non-members, $15 CAV, RHSV, FHC members.

For many of us, our ancestors arrived ,one way or another, in Melbourne. This was a big city by 1890. 

How had it grown by then to be the second largest city in the British Empire?

I found a newspaper reference in 1889 to 'Ordinary' passengers - a married woman (my great grandmother) and family of six - boarding the train at Albury at 2.10 pm on New Year's Eve bringing her family from country NSW to 'Marvellous Melbourne', to make a new start. I followed them in the records as they moved around rented accommodation in Cremorne, Richmond and Little Brighton. They had arrived in the less 'marvellous' aftermath of the rampant property speculation and in time for the crash of the banks and the opening of soup kitchens. We know so much more about our ancestors when we understand the times and places in which they lived.

This coming seminar could help you put your family in context.

An overview of the growth of

some early Melbourne suburbs

1835-1880

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria and the Genealogical Society of Victoria are delighted to co-present this full-day seminar, which will give participants a deep understanding of the forces and influences that have shaped Melbourne’s early growth.

This full-day seminar will be held at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 239 A'Beckett Street, Melbourne, on Saturday 1 February - 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
 

The speakers will be:
- Footscray - Carmel Taig
- Prahran - Steven Haby & Judith Buckrich
- Heidelberg - Graham Thorley
- Brunswick and Coburg - Cheryl Griffin.

With an introduction by Gary Presland on how Melbourne's geography shaped its development.

This seminar is designed for those who are researching their family or community history and want to understand the why, who, when, what and how of Melbourne’s growth. Were the influencing factors economic, geographic, climatic, demographic, religious, commercial, opportunistic, geological, corrupt, or dictated by government? What drew our ancestors to settle where they did?

It will also be of interest to those who merely want to deepen their understanding of Melbourne’s development without having a history project to hand.

This event is open to members and non-members. Cost $60, GSV and RHSV members $45. Light lunch and refreshments provided.

Bookings are required and can be made online, by email, in person or by telephone +61 3 9662 4455 Mon-Fri 9.00am-4.00pm). Joint members please book in separately if both attending. RHSV members should book directly through the RHSV.

BOOK HERE.

There will be a waiting list if the event is fully booked.

This is a good chance to kick-start your research in 2020!

An exciting event has been added to the GSV’s calendar. On 15 November Dr Richard Broome, the President of the Royal Historical Society, will talk about his recent book Entwined Lives, (David Donnan with Richard Broome) a family history story.

This presentation will discuss the post research challenge: how do we write to be read? What strategies do we adopt, what voice do we assume, what book do we imagine we might write?

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Richard talk about translating family history research into a book that will be treasured by your descendants. Be quick to book!

Check the GSV website for details. Bookings are required and will need to be made in person at GSV, L6 / 85 Queen St Melbourne or by telephone (+61 3 9662 4455 (Mon-Fri 9.00am-4.00pm). Joint members please book in separately if both attending. Maximum 35 attendees.

Nov 15 - 12.30 - 1.30 pm

At: GSV - L6 / 85 Queen St Melbourne

Our presenter

Richard Broome, Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Emeritus Professor in History at La Trobe University, is President of the RHSV, Chair of its Publications Committee, and Patron of the History Teacher’s Association of Victoria. He has authored fourteen books; two of them prize winners. He was the lead editor of the RHSV’s successful Remembering Melbourne 1850-1960(2016, 2017) and is leading another book project by the RHSV to be launched in November 2019 called Melbourne’s Twenty Decades. Richard’s last book published in Australia and India, Naga Odyssey: Visier’s Long Way Home (2017) was co-written with Visier Meyasetsu Sanyü. He has also just published Mallee Country: Land, People, History (2019) with co-authors Charles Fahey, Andrea Gaynor and Katie Holmes, and his fifth edition of Aboriginal Australians: A History Since 1788, is due in November 2019.

At the GSV Writers Circle we often talk about the need to provide more description of the places our family members lived and worked. Many of us feel the need to travel to far-flung parts of the globe to tread 'in their shoes' through their villages and fields. 

The online world has helped bring a lot of this to our 'armchairs' and certainly Google Earth provides a lot of interesting opportunities for our research.

This month's VIDEO 'How to use Google Earth for Genealogy' will give you lots of tips for your research.

It will be shown this coming THURSDAY 29 AUGUST from 12 noon to  - 1.00 pm at the GSV Centre. You can book - if you are quick - on our website under Events or phone +61 3 9662 4455. Only $5 for members ($20 non-members).

It is produced by Lisa Louise Cooke. She writes that she found her passion for family history at her grandmother’s knee at the age of 8 and is now the owner of Genealogy Gems, a genealogy and family history multi-media company founded in 2007. Lisa produces videos and podcasts featuring genealogy news, research strategies, expert interviews and inspiration for genealogists in 75 countries around the world, and she recently celebrated 2.5 million downloads!

Our September video is 'Ten Tech Tools you can't live Without.'

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The GSV jumps into National Family History Month - with a talk about ebooks on Thursday 1 August. Be quick to book - or 'ebook' - this event!

eBooks in Family History

Presented by Glen Wall

Thursday 1 August 12.00pm - 1.00pm. 

The talk will show how you can identify interesting family history and experiences, and prepare them for sharing in eBook form with family, friends and other interested parties.

The presentation will include examples of working with people to help them capture living history stories and prepare them for eBook publication.

At the end of the talk attendees with have a better awareness of how to use the internet and technology to package the results of their own genealogy work in a form that can be handed on for others to benefit.

Free for National Family History Month.

Our presenter, Glen Wall is a Vice President of U3A Network Vic Inc and President of Whittlesea U3A. He has been working with people to help them capture living history stories and prepare them for publication as an eBook.Over the last three years he has been delivering a U3A class on ePUBLISHING for authors wishing to self-publish novels, short stories and family history experiences for access on online platforms such as Amazon.

Bookings are required and can be made online HERE., by email, in person or by telephone +61 3 9662 4455 (Mon-Fri 9.00am-4.00pm). Joint members please book in separately if both attending.

And there's more!

Go TO THE GSV WEBSITE to find other events that are on at the GSV during NFHM - some are free to all for that month. But as you can see from the calendar, every month is family history month at GSV for members.

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8 weeks to go! Enough time to finish off that family history story for the 2019 GSV Writing Priize.

The closing date for entries is 4 pm on 30 AUGUST 2019. So you still have time to START writing!

Last year Helen Pearce won with her entry exposing the story of a murder in Adam Elphinstone's family history. GSV Members can read past winning entries in back copies of Ancestor in the members area of our website.

But you don't need murder to make for an interesting story. It is a writing prize. So use this year's GSV Writing Prize as a prompt for you to capture the story you have been researching, but never quite written up.

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This year we have extended the eligibility criteria, enabling more people to enter, and made some changes to the judging panel. Full entry details and conditions can be read on the GSV website at https://www.gsv.org.au/gsv-writing-prize

Purpose of the Prize

• to encourage the writing of family history
• to provide an opportunity for recognition and publication
• to publish the winner as an example of quality family history writing

The article should:

• have a family history / genealogy theme
• be the author’s own original work
• not have been previously published in any format, or be under consideration or accepted for publication by any other publication
• be between 1200 and 2400 words (not including title, image captions, endnotes and sources).
• contain citations of sources

The Prize   

We are very pleased to announce that Ancestry™ is again generously sponsoring the competition with an enhanced first prize of a 12-month subscription to their Worldwide Membership and an Ancestry DNA test kit.

Eligibility

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

Members of the Ancestor Editorial Team, the judges, GSV staff and the winner of the previous year’s prize are not eligible to enter.

The winner will be announced at the GSV’s Annual General Meeting in October and the winning article will be published in the December 2019 issue of Ancestor journal.

Not only will your family read your story but it will be published and hence discoverable in our wonderful State and National libraries by future unknown descendants in years to come.

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IMAGE CREDIT

Photo of Adam and Elizabeth Elphinstone from 'Elphinstones: Pioneer Farmers in Northern Tasmania', Elphinstones Committee, Launceston Tas, 1988? courtesy of Helen Pearce.