In our recent survey, a number of questions / issues were raised in the ‘suggestion’ box.
With such a large response to the survey, and so many different issues, we can’t contact you all individually. We’ll try to address a few of the more common issues raised.
I don’t have many ancestors in Victoria so don’t tap into your resources much.
We are not just a Victorian research society. We are based in Victoria and have a number of unique Victorian resources, but we are skilled researchers in many areas. All of us have researched ancestors who came from and lived in other states and countries.
We have many discussion circles (all free with your membership) focused on other parts of the world. You can find the links to these under the Activities tab on our website.
A quick look up request can be for international queries too. This is also free for members and can be found under the Research tab on our website.
I live interstate. I can’t get into the city. I work during the day.
Did you know most of our talks are on zoom, and recorded? In most cases, the recording is emailed to those subscribing to the relevant noticeboard.
We are trying to make most talks available as a webcast but need more volunteers to help us get ahead of the backlog. Perhaps you can help? We will train you.
Many of our resources, or at least indexes are available online through our catalogue. You can search these from home and send a quick look up request (also free with your membership) to check the relevance to your research. In many cases we are able to send you an image of the result.
And don’t forget our free monthly ‘Introduction to the GSV and its Resources’ sessions. A great introduction and ‘how to’ for our online resources. Check our Events under the Activities tab on our website.
I’d like to learn more about DNA.
We are almost finished our ‘learning about’ course for this year. It will run again next year. If you have been working with your DNA for some time, you might be comfortable joining our DNA study group which meets on the first Tuesday of each month. You can email them on dna@gsv.org.au
We also have a couple of library research assistants who can help with DNA research requests.
You can find more information under the Activities tab on our website.
How to progress from brick walls / dead ends
Have you tried our discussion circles? We have many of these and they are all free with your membership. I recently took a brick wall to the Midlands group and received a couple of brilliant leads which have taken me to the next generation. If you can’t attend the actual zoom session, you can still submit your brick wall to the convenor. It can then be used as a case study and discussed in the meeting with the results fed back to you.
You can find the contact details for the discussion circles under the Activities tab on our website.
Jackie van Bergen