News - July 2024
Tuesday 16 July - 7:30 pm General Meeting
VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct
GUEST SPEAKER: Susan Gardner
TOPIC: The Story of William Proctor and the history of his property, The Lea
This is the story of William Proctor, Colonel Ferdinand Fitzroy and the current owners, the Walch family. The story also includes The Lea known to many as the Scout property as well as some scouting history.
Susan is a retired teacher with a love of Tasmanian history. She is also the secretary of the Lindisfarne Historical Society and runs the Tasmanian Scout Heritage Centre. Her main love is bushwalking.
More for Your Diary
Thu 18 Jul - 10.00 am Branch Committee Meeting
VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive
Thu 18 Jul - 1.30 pm DNA Group Meeting
VENUE: St Marks Church Hall, Scott Street, Bellerive
Thu 25 Jul - 2 pm Library Committee
VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive
Tue 20 Aug - 7:30 pm General Meeting
VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct
SPEAKER: Imogen Wingman
TOPIC: Interpreting the thousand words: what maps can tell family historians
From Your Branch President
Society AGM Report
Those of you who missed the Society AGM and Conference in Launceston last month, missed a very enjoyable day. Big thanks to Launceston Branch for hosting it. There were three excellent speakers. Graeme Williams' Touring Around Tasmania by Car with Sparling circa 1919 used images of old postcards for a fictitious trip around Tasmania starring members of the audience and a lot of creative storytelling. The images of Tasmania circa 1919 were fascinating and he had us in stitches of laughter - it was a performance as much as a talk.
Dr Jai Patterson and John Dent's Launceston Court Records - just hope your ancestors were caught took us through some fascinating lower court records from the 1800s - more than some of us might want to know if our ancestors were up before the law. A lot of lower court records are now online through Family Search's catalogue, handwritten and not indexed, and Launceston Branch have been indexing their local records. The Female Convicts Research Centre also has volunteers trawling through these records from all over the state, finding many former female convicts who couldn't stay out of trouble, then adding a transcript of the information that convict's record in their database.
Sophie Appleby's presentation on Harlequin Bob - the 'chequered and eventful' life of convict Robert Cowburn was equally as fascinating. Sentenced to transportation for life, he was a constant absconder until eventually he was somehow promoted to a road gang overseer and then a constable. Thrice married and with a long history of brutality, he was a consummate teller of tall tales - including falsely claiming to have been in the Army of Paris after Waterloo, and with cannibal Alexander Pearce on an escape from Macquarie Harbour.
At the AGM, Robyn Gibson (President), Greg Clota (Treasurer) and Louise Rainbow (Vice-President) were re-elected unopposed, but no nominations were received for the position of Secretary. Eddy Steenbergen has completed six years and is not eligible to stand again. If anyone is potentially interested in this position - the role is not onerous and has been pared back to the standard duties of a committee secretary - please contact Eddy at secretary@tasfhs.org for more information.
Position Vacant: Oral History Coordinator
We have some amazing members and volunteers who are doing or have done things in their lives that you would never begin to guess. And some of them are not getting any younger. Time is running out to start recording interviews with people of whose lives are too interesting to be forgotten, or people who have memories of a specific event or period relevant to the history of Society.
Did you do the Oral History Unit as part of the UTAS Diploma of Family History? Or do you have an interest in Oral History? We are interested in setting up an Oral History Group but first we need someone to volunteer to coordinate it. Contact me if you are interested to know more.
Ros Escott president@hobart.tasfhs.org
Library Volunteers
We are again running short of volunteers to staff the library. If you can spare a few hours a week to assist, please contact Judith Mudaliar at jude1710@ bigpond.com. Training will be provided, and you will always be rostered with experienced members.
Library Notes
Due to the closure of the Society's Huon Branch, the Hobart Library gained a number of books, mainly about the Huon area and Southern Tasmania. If you have not visited recently, come and check these out. You may knock down a brick wall.
Maree's Muttering
Digital History Tasmania
Behind the above link is Digital History Tasmania and this excerpt from Launceston Historical Society Facebook page is an understanding into what is happening...
At the Launceston Historical Society meeting on Sunday 16 June 2024, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart presented a fascinating insight into the Digital History Tasmania project that links together 2,500,000 digitized records from various historical sources. Anyone can join, it's free, and as more information is added the database changes.
It started with convict records, as these are comprehensive and available online. Police Gazettes, absconder lists, court records, death records, and numerous others are included. In many instances, a person's whole lifespan can be traced.
The project has found about 14,000 places where Tasmanian convicts worked, demonstrating the huge impact they had on our landscape. Their free labour built the country and led to the trade union movement here. One example given was the Chartist William Cuffay who was transported to Van Diemen's Land where he could freely agitate for the rights of working people.
So far, the project has been concentrating on Hobart linking information about the owners and occupiers of each building, property, street, block, and geographical features to understand the history. Hamish wants to do Launceston as well.
The potential for interpretation of the collected records is extraordinary. Artificial intelligence is being used to create images of the convicts, with Linus W Miller even 'reading' parts of his own narrative, "Notes of an Exile to Van Diemen's Land."
The collected information is on display at "Unshackled: The True Convict Story" at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery until 28 July 2024. https://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/whats_on/exhibitions/current_upcoming/info/unshackled_the_true_convict_story
You can find information on any Tasmanian convict at "Unshackled: Hobart Penitentiary" at 6 Brisbane Street, Hobart, open from Wednesday to Sunday. https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/places/penitentiary
If you wish to join, email Hamish Maxwell-Stewart on hmaxwell@une.edu.au . Those who wish to volunteer for Digital History Tasmania, again they should email Professor Maxwell-Stewart on: hmaxwell@une.edu.au
He will put you in touch with Jodie, the Volunteer Coordinator, who will talk to you about the current tasks underway and provide training. Hamish will also set up database logins and let you know how you can join as individuals.
DHT meet 3 or 4 times a year. As far as I know it is in Hobart. For those who can't attend, you can watch the meetings by zoom, or if not convenient, the meeting and presentations are recorded, and a link is later sent by email for you to look at your leisure. To aid navigation, time codes are available for each presentation.
National History Month at Libraries Tasmania
August, National History Month at Libraries Tasmania. Bookings from 16 July - for August. Link to events and bookings (free but suggested) https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/state-library-tasmanian-archives-allport-museum-21342208964