Tasmanian Family History Society Inc. Hobart Branch

News - September 2021

Editor: Judith Crossin

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Tuesday 21 September - 7:30pm General Meeting

VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct, New Town

GUEST SPEAKER: Julian Amos

TOPIC: " The Amos Family …. 200 years in Tasmania - the early years"

The talk will centre on the early settlement at Cranbrook. The two brothers Adam and John Amos came out to Van Diemen's Land with George Meredith in 1821 and settled on the Swan River on the East Coast. They were the first settlers in the area. Their families grew and by 1850 the third generation numbered over 100. Then they nearly all left - to mainland states and New Zealand. Further information can be obtained on the amos200 website.

Julian Amos is a 6th generation Amos family member, and is the chair of the Amos Family Bicentennial Committee. He is now a management consultant, providing strategic advice to a range of clients. He was for a period Minister for Primary Industry, Energy and Forests in the State Government.

More for Your Diary

Thu 16 September - 10.00am Branch Committee Meeting

VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive

Thu 16 September - 1.30pm DNA Group Meeting

VENUE: Church Hall at St Marks Anglican Church, Bellerive

Thu 23 September - 2pm Library Committee

VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive

Tue 19 October -7:30pm General Meeting

VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct, New Town

SPEAKER: Jeff Schneider

TOPIC: "Jewish Ancestry / The Hobart Synagogue"

Library Accessions August 2021

Library Logo

The following items were accessioned during the month of August 2021.

Books

Dunn, Cathy; NORFOLK ISLAND BIRTHS AND BAPTISMS 1789 to 1791 [929.31099468 DUN]

* Dunbabin, Tom; A LIVERPOOL LASS - Ann Eccles in Van Diemen's Land [Q929.2 ECC]

Howatson, Donald; HOBART'S PUBS - Past and Present

* Risby, Warwick H.L.; RISBY ANCESTORS - From Convict Beginnings [Q929.2 RIS]

Snowden, Diane & Jane Harrington (Eds); CONVICT LIVES - Female Convicts at the New Norfolk Asylum [365.43099462 CON]

* Denotes complimentary or donated item

Oral History Australia's Biennial National Conference, Launceston 14-17 October 2021

Program information and registration details for Oral History Australia's biennial national conference, in Launceston on 14-17 October 2021, are now available on the OHA website.

The conference theme is 'Oral History in Troubling Times: Opportunities and Challenges' . The conference proper on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 October will include a keynote address by US oral historian Mark Cave ('Why did this happen? Making meaningful answers in the aftermath of crisis'), a plenary panel about 'palawa people of lutruwita Tasmania: challenges and opportunities', and some fifty presentations about diverse aspects of and approaches to oral history. Topics include family history, Indigenous oral histories, migration, creative writing, and performance, working lives, protest and activism, community history, queer history, and the AIDS epidemic.

On Thursday 14 October participants can join workshops about oral history interviewing, interpreting memories, podcasting oral history, and making mobile-based audio walks from oral histories. On Sunday Dr Aunty Patsy Cameron will lead an Aboriginal cultural walk, and there will be a tour to the historic Beaconsfield Mine and Heritage Centre.

Oral History Tasmania looks forward to welcoming delegates from every Australian state, and from across the Tasman in New Zealand. We are of course monitoring the Covid situation and are hopeful that by mid-October the chances of Covid outbreaks will be low and that the proposed face-to-face conference will proceed as planned. We intend to review circumstances at the close of early bird registration on 12 September with a view to making a final decision about the conference format by 1 October; we will shift to an online Plan B only if required. If a registered participant is prevented from attending by COVID restrictions, then their registration fee will be fully refunded.

Jill Cassidy Vice President, Oral History Australia
c/- Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery
PO Box 403, Launceston Tasmania Australia 7250

president@oralhistorytas.org.au, +61 418 178 098

Convict Women's Press - Young Female Convicts in VDL 

Convict Women's Press has decided that our next book will be Young Female Convicts in Van Diemen's Land. Many female convicts were under the age of sixteen. What was their experience of convict life? How did they cope, forcibly separated from their families and everything that was familiar? What was their post-sentence experience? You can write about one convict or a group (for example sisters, girls on the same ship, from the same place), or an aspect of this topic.

You are invited to submit a story for the book of up to 2000 words. I'll be looking for interesting stories or biographies, but no fiction - this is a factual book. Please include a list of sources.

Contact me directly by 30th September by email.

Happy writing,
Alison Alexander (editor) - Female Convict Research Centre Inc.

 

Seniors Week

More than 23,000 copies of the official Seniors Week Events Guide have commenced a staged distribution around the state.

The large-format, easy-reading 72-page guide will be gradually available over the next two weeks at the usual outlets including Service Tasmania, libraries, council offices, and all Australia Post outlets, large and small.

The guide again features the popular Daily Planner section, allowing readers to more easily identify the events that appeal and make their Seniors Week activity-planning a breeze.

More than 350 separate events are on offer around the state. All are face-to-face - there are no online events this year.

The guide is also entirely replicated online, accessed through the COTA Tasmania website.

About AFFHO

The Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations Inc. (AFFHO) is the umbrella organisation for family history societies in the region.

AFFHO was established in 1978 to coordinate and assist the work of Australian and New Zealand groups with interests in family history, genealogy, heraldry, and related subjects.

AFFHO is managed by an elected Council comprising of a voting member from each state or territory and New Zealand. Councillors are elected annually by the member societies within their region. The Council also comprises non-voting delegates from those states that have a state association. Currently these are NSW/ACT, QLD, and VIC.

The role of AFFHO is to:

This is put into effect by:

The September AFFHO newsletter, Newsflash, may be downloaded here.

Diploma of Family History (R2H)

Family history is for everybody. We all have stories in our family tree waiting to be told. The Diploma of Family History will give you essential knowledge and tools to bring the past to life through tracing your family experiences and understanding the historical forces that shaped them.

Taught by leading scholars in family history, and specialists in Australian, European and Asian histories, this practical course will assist you in exploring your family's past and enable you to become more proficient and comfortable in a digital environment.

The Diploma teaches core skills in contemporary family history to research your ancestors and others, including planning and conducting online research, locating and managing historical data, and writing compelling family histories.

You'll learn how to use oral history, family heirlooms and photographs, as well as physical and digital archives to illuminate your family's past. The Diploma of Family History focuses on understanding individual lives in their wider historical contexts, through investigating the impacts of events such as war, convict transportation, and migration.

More information is available here.

Runnymede National Trust House & Gardens

Runnymede (c. 1836) is a beautifully preserved colonial homestead in New Town. Whaling Captain Charles Bailey bought the house in 1864 and his family called it home for more than a century. Runnymede was named after the Captain's favourite ship, and in a beautiful twist of fate is now dedicated to marine conservation. The property holds historic artworks and possessions, including a large collection of whaling and maritime items.

Guided tours are available ( book here ), and visitors are encouraged to speak to the friendly volunteers and take a leisurely stroll around the meticulously maintained 120 year old garden. The site hosts a variety of special events, including an annual High Tea, and can be booked for private functions.

Tours of Parliament

Public Tours of Parliament House are conducted at 9.30 am and 2.30 pm Monday to Friday. Due to social distancing requirements tours are capped at 6 persons per tour. All visitors to the building must check-in using the 'Check in Teas' app to comply with COVID-19 contact tracing requirements.

If you do not have the 'Check in Tas' app you will be required to complete a form. The information collected in this form will be managed in accordance with the Parliament's Privacy and Personal Information Policy. It will be kept in a secure location and destroyed after 21 days.

If a school tour is being undertaken there will be no public tour during that time. Please contact the House of Assembly on (03) 6212 2200 to check availability of tours for any given day.

Public Record Office Victoria - Website Upgrade

Our new website has now been in place for close to six months. We have asked users for feedback and are continually working to make improvements and address user concerns. We thought we'd take an opportunity firstly to thank everyone for their feedback and patience. Secondly to give you all an update on the work that's been going on to continually improve the site.

Addressing your feedback

A work in progress

We will continue to further refine the search interface and develop new content to make searching our collection easier. We are also planning a second phase of the website development which will provide a whole range of improvements and functionality. Some of the highlights will include new options for searching and browsing, and a new image/record display.

Thank you for your feedback

If you discover further bugs or issues with our new website please do not hesitate to email us.

Library Volunteers Required 

With the "retirement" of long serving Library Assistants Anne Hay, Inga Shelverton and Maureen O'Toole, the Librarian Jude Mudaliar is seeking members to manage the front desk and / or assist researchers visiting our Library. On-the-job training will be provided. The commitment can be as little as a single 3-hour visit per month. To put your name forward please phone the Library (6245 9351) or email the Secretary.

Contributors to Tasmanian Ancestry

Are you disappointed that there are no articles in Tasmanian Ancestry that relate to your family and your family research? There is a simple solution to this. Write something yourself!

The stock of articles for future editions of Tasmanian Ancestry is quite small so members are urged to make that contribution that you have been planning to write. A single page of Tasmanian Ancestry consists of no more than 500 words, or less with a photograph.

It is known that several of our members have undertaken UTAS units in the Diploma of Family History course so there must be some assignments waiting to be converted to articles for our Journal.

It was interesting to hear a comment made by Malcolm Ward in the March meeting that he believed a multi-generational brick wall was knocked down when he published a small booklet on an ancestor. The publication attracted a response from a relative who was able to provide the missing piece of the jigsaw!

Please contribute!