GSV News

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

As the repository of Victorian Local and State Government records, the Public Record Office of Victoria (PROV) has accumulated over 100km worth of records. Naturally, accessing such a wealth of materials can feel intimidating.

May's session of Family History Tips & Tools will focus on PROV and accessing its resources. There will be short presentations giving an outline of PROV's holdings and systems and tips for navigating their website and catalogue. We will model locating and ordering specific records and leave plenty of time for questions and discussion.

If you have questions you would like answered in this session consider sending them to us in advance.  If you have an example you would like to share of how you have used PROV's resources, we would love to have you join in. Please let us know via fhtt@gsv.org.au.

To join us on Wednesday May 24th at 10:30am members should login to the GSV website and visit here to to register to receive the Zoom invitation.

Did you know that the following words have something in common? Bungalow, thug, yoga, bangle, shampoo. They are all words that came into common English usage from India. Over the four centuries of close association between England and India, many words of Indian origin were adopted into English.

Clare Claydon will give a presentation on English words from India to the GSV British India Discussion Circle and a participant discussion will follow on what these words reveal to us about England, India, imperialism and society during the Raj.

The close historic links between the British in India and Australia, and the current importance of India to Australia, suggest that this topic will also be of interest to many GSV members (especially the writers amongst us!), not just those with a genealogical interest in India.

To receive the Zoom invitation link please log into the GSV Members area of our website and then register to attend the event.

Clare Claydon

We have a real treat in store for the VicTas discussion circle on Thursday 27 April at 7.30pm.

Dr Michele Matthews, M.A., Dip. Ed., member of PHAV & Tas., will be speaking to us (on zoom). Michele is a passionate social historian with decades of experience.

Michele will focus on the delights of studying a city and its hinterland, such as Bendigo and district, as a microcosm of Victorian and Australian society, which should hopefully be of assistance to us as genealogists.

Michele will also assist us to better understand the unique primary sources available to us within the BRAC collection (and other records held in Bendigo). Some of the records covered in this talk include Local Government records, Court records, school records, occupational records and so much more. We’ll also learn about how people lived in the Sandhurst district in the 19th century.

This will be a talk with much wider appeal than just Bendigo and district. The techniques and records that Michele will introduce us to also relate to other municipalities and schools.

It’s a 7.30pm meeting, so kick back with a cuppa or a glass of wine and join in a most interesting evening. Don’t forget to register on the GSV website under Activities - Events.

Please note, you need to be a GSV member to join a discussion circle (what a great reason to join).

As ANZAC Day draws near your thoughts may turn to finding information about your ancestors who served in, or experienced, war as part of the British Commonwealth.  With this in mind, we have uploaded a number of new webcasts to our catalogue.

Those with ancestors who served in Europe during World War One may wish to watch the series of presentations to SWERD about service on the Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. Over a million British and Commonwealth troops were located and trained on Salisbury Plain as they moved to and from the Western Front. It also housed hospitals where injured servicemen were treated, including those who became ill during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Troops memorialised their presence by carving their unit badges into the chalk hill beside their camps. These carvings are known as the Fovant Badges. They remain there today. The webcast Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire and Australian Defence Personnel Part 1 contains the presentations of Martin Lock, Peter Collins and Gayle Nicholas and is peppered with fascinating detail about the role of Salisbury Plain in the war experience of the diggers in Europe.

The other presentations in the series are by Penny Mercer and Patsy Daly who focus on the war experiences of their grandfather and uncle, respectively, who spent time on Salisbury Plain during WW1. Penny points out that your ancestors' experiences were almost certainly very similar to those of her grandfather Arthur McMillan Mercer. Based on diaries and supplemented with further research and photos, Patsy and Penny bring to life this lesser known part of the WW1 digger experience.

The final new webcast, World War 1 Stories, is a collation of short presentations about the war experiences of the ancestors of five of our Victoria and Tasmania Discussion Circle members. It is a special tribute to their varied service which helps illuminate the roles that some of your ancestors may have played too.

There are a number of other ANZAC related webcasts available via the catalogue. Examples include Ross Latham's Australian defence service records which is very helpful for those beginning to investigate war service. Looking further afield to other war related experiences are the informative On the Home Front by Professor Kate Darian-Smith or Great War Soldier Settlements and its records by Dr Charles Fahey.

All GSV webcasts are now available for members to view from home. Find them on the website Webcast page via the topic 'World War' or through the catalogue.