News - September 2024
Tuesday 17 Sept - 7:30 pm General Meeting
VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct
GUEST SPEAKER: Hamish Maxwell-Stewart
TOPIC: Using Digital Technologies to Explore Tasmania's Past
Over the last two decades huge swathes of Tasmania's UNESCO World Heritage Listed Archive have been digitised. This talk will introduce some of the resultant datasets and explore the many ways they can be used to reconstruct convict life. It will end by introducing Tasmania's brand-new Convict Memorial and will look at some of the ways in which this might be expanded in the near future.
Hamish Maxwell-Stewart is a professor of Heritage and Digital Humanities at the University of New England and CEO of Digital History Tasmania. As well as authoring over a hundred books and articles he has played a key role in developing a series of imaginative exhibitions and site interpretations designed to showcase Tasmania's past.
More for Your Diary
Thu 19 Sep - 10.00am Branch Committee Meeting
VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive
Thu 19 Sep - 1.30pm DNA Group Meeting
VENUE: St Marks Church Hall, Scott Street, Bellerive
Thu 26 Sep - 2pm Library Committee
VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive
Tue 15 Oct - 7:30pm General Meeting
VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct
SPEAKER: Helene Chung
TOPIC: Two Unconventional Tasmanian Chinese
From Your Branch President
Branch Library and Research Centre
For reasons we can't understand, very few of our members visit and make use of the multitude of resources available at the Branch Library to further their research. But perhaps calling it a 'library' suggests that it is merely a collection of books, when it is so much more. It is also a Research Centre with a wide range of resources in many formats, including older microfiche, films, CDs, books, family files, and computer resources. And there are always skilled volunteers available to give assistance.
Many of our resources are unique, such as our ever-growing collection of books about families ‑ many self-published and not available anywhere else ‑ as well as donated family files, charts and family histories. They are indexed in the catalogue to make it easier to find your own ancestors in other people's family research. This is Tasmania, so you have a good chance of finding a connection with a common ancestor.
And if your family was not Tasmanian, there are still lots of resources for you ‑ interstate and overseas. I found a little booklet with the wording of the inscriptions that were on the wooden grave-markers of my great-great grandparents, buried in 1851 and 1862 in the Old Melbourne Cemetery, now underneath the Queen Victoria Markets. That was something I never expected to see, until a kind library assistant found their names in an index that took us to that resource.
Perhaps you have long finished building your family tree, have all the births, marriages and deaths recorded, and now you want to know more about the places your ancestors lived and what life was like for them. We have a large number of resources to help you add the context to your family history and bring it alive.
Did your Tasmanian family member die after 1930 when the Tasmanian Federation Index to Deaths ceases, or their death was not published in the newspaper, or they died after 1954, the cut-off for Tasmanian newspapers on TROVE?. That's where our Hobart Undertaker or Funeral Records can often help you. In co-operation with the local undertakers, records up to the year 2000 have been photographed, indexed and stored digitally on our computers. They are only accessible to the public by visiting our Library; where our assistants will help you find and then print out the appropriate record for you. While the information varies with undertakers and year, they all generally contain age, place of birth, place of death, cemetery where buried, and next of kin. They often contain more, and some have little nuggets of information. One I looked up recently had a marriage that the extended family were unaware of, explaining the daughter who turned up at his funeral.
Come and visit us on a Tuesday 12.30 - 3.30 pm, Wednesday 9.30 am - 12.30 pm or Saturday 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm. I am very sure we can help you find something that you didn't know about your family.
The Hobart Branch Library and Research Centre needs you!
I'll ask one more time - please think about becoming an assistant in our Branch Library. One three-hour session per month on your choice of Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning or Saturday afternoon. Training provided so you learn how to use the library's physical and online resources to help visitors with their research. Support always available from fellow assistants on duty. When it is quiet, do your own research. You are not only helping us keep this valuable resource open for members and for the public, but you will become part of a friendly, supportive team of volunteers.
Ros Escott president@hobart.tasfhs.org
In Memory of Maurice Appleyard
The Hobart Branch wishes to acknowledge Maurice's recent passing after a short illness. Maurice was a long-time member and volunteer of the Society and held the position of Resource Manager for many years. Maurice's presence in the Library was always felt; he was a fountain of knowledge and was often called upon to find an elusive book, answer many and varied questions and despite Maurice's bowerbird habits could put his finger on anything required. He also created a valuable rapport with the maintenance department at the Clarence City Council, our landlord, and was acquainted with all the eccentricities of the outdated infrastructure in our heritage building premises.
Thank you, Maurice, for your friendship and your dedication to the branch over many years. Our thoughts are extended to your family.
Vale Maurice Appleyard 06 September 1941 - 02 September 2024
Office Manager Vacancy
The branch has advertised on Volunteering Tasmania's website a vacancy for a volunteer Office Manager to be responsible for the overall smooth running of the library and research centre. The role is up to 15 hours per week and meets Centrelink's mutual obligations requirement. This may make it attractive to people approaching retirement age. A role statement may be found on our web site here.
Enquiries may be directed to our President, Ros Escott, 0478 620 420 or president@hobart.tasfhs.org
Interested persons are encouraged to apply though Volunteering Tasmania's website. If you know someone that might be interested, then please pass on this information.
Maree's Mutterings
Historical Arms & Military Society of Tasmania have their Military History Fair 9.00 am to 3.00 pm both Saturday October 12th and Sunday October 13th at 322 Main Road Glenorchy. There is a small entry charge for adults, children free.
Glenorchy City is holding an event Sunday 20th October - more information next month.
Libraries Tasmania held National Family History month in August. Keep an eye out for the events that also held webinar sessions being released to YouTube.
TAMIOT Plus!
Did you know that the online version of TAMIOT now offers members extra information for some southern Tasmanian entries.
The information for TAMIOT was initially transcribed onto paper forms. These were later used to enter the information into a database but sometimes there was additional information on the forms that did not make it into the database. Further, many headstones and memorials were photographed around the same time. With the passage of time, some headstones are no longer legible.
Members using the online TAMIOT may request one of our volunteers to check whether additional information or images are held for a given entry.
FCRC Seminar: Sunday 4 May 2025
Presented in partnership with the School of Humanities, University of Tasmania.
Topic: Female Convict Places: A Lasting Legacy
CALL FOR PAPERS
This seminar will explore female convict places, where our female convicts spent time, how they came to be in those places and the legacy left for future generations.
Possible topics include:
- The Female Factory system
- Regional locations
- Musters
- Incarceration
- Assignment and probation systems
- Employment
If you would like to present a 20-minute paper at the seminar, please forward an abstract for consideration to seminar@femaleconvicts.org.au by 20 October 2024. The abstract should outline your intended topic, the points you will highlight and the sources you will be using to inform your paper.
Dr Dianne Snowden AM (President) Female Convicts Research Centre
Amanda Johnson (Seminar Organising Committee)