GSV News

Are you struggling to write your family history? Are you surrounded by paper or digital files wondering where to go next?

Margaret Vines will be conducting her Writing Family History course over three weeks commencing on Monday 28 August 2023 for GSV Members only. The course will be conducted on Zoom on each Monday at 10.30 am for face-to-face contact with Margaret.

Participants will discuss information and techniques for writing future articles and books, particularly

• The Writing Process - getting started, especially drafting and editing
• Basic writing skills
• Historical skills, including documenting your writing

With encouragement and feedback, each student will produce a small piece of family history of about 1,500 to 2,000 words. Participants will be expected to be writing both in class and between classes.

You can enrol in the course by registering on the GSV Event Page listing for 28 August. The charge for the course is $90 for GSV Members.

Enrol now to ensure you do not miss out as there is a limit of 10 places.

A quick reminder that the 30 June financial year end is fast approaching and that donations to GSV are tax-deductible.

Donations can be made online through the Donate Now link on the GSV website homepage, or by a call to GSV with your credit card details, or a cheque in the mail.

All donations, large or small, will help ensure a healthy future for the GSV and are very much appreciated.

Thank you for your support.

Stephen Hawke
President

Next Wednesday at 10:30am Family History Tips and Tools will focus on FamilySearch. Recent changes to their website mean many of us are in need of an update. Our focus will be on effective search tips, but we will also touch on questions like:

How has the website changed? How can I make it easier for me to use?

What is FamilySearch? How does it compare to other online databases?

What records are there? How international is its collection?

What are its pitfalls and how can I avoid them?

How do I search FamilySearch efficiently?

Does it hold sources? How do I record them?

What can I access using it at the GSV versus using it at home?

What should I do when I find ‘closed’ records?

What is the wiki? How do I use it?

If you have questions about FamilySearch send them through to fhtt@gsv.org.au or ask them on the day.

Register for the event on the GSV website via the Activities tabs, and then click on Events. Don’t forget to log in first.

A rare treat for non-members: the opportunity to join a discussion circle.

The GSV special interest groups are normally only open to members. Come along and see why these meetings are among of the favourite events of many members.

Maree Ring from the Tasmanian Family History Society (TFHS) is the guest speaker for the 23 June meeting of the Victoria and Tasmania Discussion Circle.

Maree’s talk will include a background to the convict system in Tasmania, the records available, what they are and where to find them. She will focus on online records and include some records that are quite rare.

Maree is a regular contributor to the TFHS journal on a wide range of topics, so maybe we’ll be able to ask her questions related to other aspects of our Tasmanian research at the end of her talk.

Longer term GSV members might remember Maree from talks at GSV and Victorian conferences many years ago.

Please register on the Activities / Events page.

We look forward to seeing you on 23 June at 10.30am on zoom.

It’s $20 for non-members. Please contact the GSV office during business hours to register and pay. The fee will be credited against your joining fee if you decide to join the Society soon after attending. You need to phone the office to take advantage of this special offer.

If you have any questions, please email us at victas@gsv.org.au

GSV has emerged from the pandemic lockdown period and the Society, our staff and volunteers continue working for the benefit of you and all our members. Our services and help are available online for members at home, or face-to-face for all members who visit our Queen St research centre.

Interest in family history has grown, as has demand for our extensive range of services, especially online. What we offer to our members goes far beyond that of many other online subscription services. But as demand has increased, so have costs.

As the tax year-end approaches and thoughts turn to year-end donations, please consider donating to the GSV as one of the ways to help keep the Society in a sound position, so we can continue providing services and activities for all our members.

Donations to the GSV are tax-deductible. They can be made online through the Donate Now link on the GSV website homepage, or by a call to GSV with your credit card details, or by a cheque in the mail.

Whichever way you choose, all donations large or small will help ensure a healthy future for the GSV and all donations are very much appreciated.

Many thanks.

Stephen Hawke
President

The current GSV London Discussion Circle meets monthly to share information about research resources and learn about our ancestors’ lives in London. At the moment, this Circle covers London only, and not the surrounding counties. Depending on the interests of those attending, presentation and discussion topics might include: specific suburbs or areas, local occupations and businesses, living conditions, migration, maps and gazetteers, civil registration, church records, probate, archives and other repositories, family history societies, key and new digital sources and much more. Attendees are encouraged to share their experiences with journals, books, databases, websites, blogs and other resources available to Members in the GSV library and elsewhere.

Consideration is now being given to extending the geographic coverage to include the Home Counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Berkshire, Surrey, Kent, Hampshire and East and West Sussex. The Society does not currently have an Interest Group for this wider area and feed-back has suggested that there may be interest from Members who are researching ancestors who lived in these Counties.

At the next meeting of the London Discussion Circle on 22 June commencing at 10.30 am, a discussion will be held about the future of the Circle, its geographic coverage and the range of topics that Members would like to discuss. Please register and come prepared to discuss the future of this Circle.

GSV Education Team

Having trouble find information about the death of your ancestor in Australia? Have you consulted all possible sources of information?

Come along to our Zoom talk ‘How to Research and Use Australian Death Records’ on Tuesday 13 June at 10.30 and learn about possible sources you can access. The talk will examine some of the ways that you can find out when someone died in Australia, the cause of their death and where and when they were buried.

During the talk we will discuss:

• the GSV data-bases
• sources of Australian State BDMs
• the Ryerson Index and other databases that list obituary notices in Australian newspapers
• access to wills, probate and inquests records
• methods of researching death notices through TROVE
• cemetery records that are online and/or available through Family Search. We will also look at sites such as BillionGraves and Find a Grave
• the Australian Archives are also a useful resource particular in relation to World War records

There will be time for discussion and questions. Those who are not GSV Members may join this event for a fee of $20 which will be credited again your joining fee if you become a GSV Member prior to the end of June.

To join in the event Members should register through the GSV Event system and Non-Members should contact the GSV Office on +61 3 9662 4455 during business hours.

Rod Armstrong and David Down

This week is National Volunteer Week and I take this opportunity to thank our wonderful GSV volunteers for all they do for our Society and members.
We have over 140 generous volunteers who give their time and effort to support the services we provide to members.  The many tasks undertaken by our volunteers include:

•   research work for members and others;
•   one on one assistance for members visiting GSV’s library and research centre;
•   scanning and indexing resources for GSV’s catalogue and databases;
•   the production and editing of Ancestor;
•   organising and running our education programs;
•   developing and maintaining our IT infrastructure and website;
•   producing the content and messaging to members and others through our blogs and Facebook page;
•   assisting our librarians;
•   working as GSV Councillors; and
•   much more.

GSV could not continue without the support of our volunteers and we appreciate and celebrate them all.
If you would like to join our team of volunteers – and you have the time and skills or enthusiasm to make a contribution – please give GSV a call or email us on gsv@gsv.org.au and we’ll put you in touch with our Volunteers Coordinator.  Volunteering is a great opportunity to help others, learn a lot and make new friends.
Thank you again to all our volunteers and I look forward to welcoming others to our teams.
Stephen Hawke
President

Do you have entries on your family tree that, to quote Genealogist Stewart Blandon Traiman, "raise a rainbow flag"? Do you suspect that a spinster aunt might not have been simply unlucky in love? Are you curious about why that second son disappeared without trace from the family story?

Today is IDAHOBIT day: the International Day Against LGBTQIA+ Discrimination. It marks the day only 33 years ago, on which the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the Classification of Diseases. IDAHOBIT day celebrates this milestone in the work to achieve LGBTQIA+ equality and to raise awareness of the discrimination that LGBTQIA+ people continue to face today.

What better day to acknowledge what prejudiced and potential persecution may have kept hidden in your family's past? There is beauty in the idea of seeing an ancestor as they might wish to have been seen, to acknowledge a love kept secret, to empathise with someone publicly ‘shamed’, or remember someone deliberately forgotten by others.

While we should be careful not to automatically assume that an unmarried ancestor remained single because they were unable to find a spouse, one must also be careful not to slide into 'Present-ism", the temptation to apply today's cultural norms to people and societies in the past. However, by adopting a 'rainbow prism' when viewing our family tree, we might identify clues that could otherwise be overlooked because so much of LGBTQIA+ experience has been silenced or suppressed.

The links below can help you develop a ‘rainbow prism’. Some are guides that provide principles and sources that can be applied when investigating people in many locations. Stewart Blandon Traiman's blog also gives tips on how to respectfully note relationships, gender and identity in your genealogical record keeping.

LGBT genealogy blog series by Stewart Blandon Traiman (USA)
https://sixgen.org/lgbtq-genealogy/

How to trace LGBT ancestors (UK)
https://www.findmypast.com.au/blog/help/lgbt-ancestors

Resources for researchers investigating Australian LGBTIQ+ history:
https://queerarchives.org.au/guides-and-resources/

Australian federal and state events relevant to LGBT history
https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/pride/agenda/article/2016/08/12/definitiv…

Reference List
R Collins (2022) How to trace LGBT ancestors, Who Do You Think You Are Magazine, https://www.whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com/feature/how-to-trace-lgbt-a…, accessed 10 May 2023

IDAHOBIT, The History of IDAHOBIT – May 17, https://www.idahobit.org.au/news/the-history-of-IDAHOBIT-may-17, accessed 10 May 2023

GSV has emerged from the pandemic lockdown period and the Society, our staff and volunteers continue working for the benefit of you and all our members. Our services and help are available online for members at home, or face-to-face for all members who visit our Queen St research centre.

Interest in family history has grown, as has demand for our extensive range of services, especially online. What we offer to our members goes far beyond that of many other online subscription services. But as demand has increased, so have costs.

As the tax year-end approaches and thoughts turn to year-end donations, please consider donating to the GSV as one of the ways to help keep the Society in a sound position, so we can continue providing services and activities for all our members.

Donations to the GSV are tax-deductible. They can be made online through the Donate Now link on the GSV website homepage, or by a call to GSV with your credit card details, or by a cheque in the mail.

Whichever way you choose, all donations large or small will help ensure a healthy future for the GSV and all donations are very much appreciated.

Many thanks.

Stephen Hawke
President