SAG at Hawkesbury

I had a pleasant time at the Society of Australian Genealogists event in the Hawkesbury last Saturday.

Michelle Nichols

When I arrived early at Windsor Library Danielle Lautrec, Education Officer from SAG, was in attendance and ready with her clipboard to welcome attendees. When the Library opened at 9am we all trooped in to be welcomed by Michelle Nichols, Hawkesbury Local Studies Librarian and font of local knowledge. Our group of a dozen plus (I didn't count) settled into one of the library's comfortable meeting rooms.

Danielle introduced herself and asked us to share our Hawkesbury connections. I think only one attendee didn't have Hawkesbury connections. After this round table Michelle entertained us with her  talk on early history of the Hawkesbury which gave us lots of information to add colour to names and dates in our family trees. Although I had heard this talk before I still learnt lots as Michelle tailors her talks to each audience she addresses.

Following the history Michelle discussed the resources in the local studies collection at Windsor. It is a well-stocked collection with many genealogy resources for people researching in New South Wales and beyond. After this intro we adjourned to the local history area to do some personal research. The local history section at Windsor is in a bright and comfortable corner of the library and is a pleasant environment in which to work.

The Local Studies Area at Hawkesbury Library, Windsor

At 12:30pm some of the group adjourned to the historic Macquarie Arms Hotel for sustenance and a chat. After we had refuelled Danielle took us on a visit to the adjacent Hawkesbury Regional Museum. Both the Hawkesbury Library and Museum are housed in spacious, modern buildings. The Council is to be commended on its support of local heritage and history.

This was a fab format for a SAG event. Thanks to Danielle for looking after the group and Michelle for the presentations and guidance.

I hope SAG organises more regional visits in the future. I would love to do a similar visit to Camden where my Curry ancestors were early inhabitants.

Do the Right Thing

I am excited to be returning to The Hawkesbury Family History Group Meeting on October 14 to present a new talk "Do the right Thing : minding your manners in the geneasphere". The Group has advertised the talk "as a fun and informative look at the principles of doing the right thing in family history research" so I will try to take a lighthearted approach to the topic.

Although I am not an etiquette expert I look forward to exploring the topic with the folk in the Hawkesbury group. As someone who has been guilty of several breaches of etiquette as I have navigated the geneasphere I have a few personal examples that demonstrate what not to do.

The powerpoint slides all have their headings, I just need to flesh it out with a few appropriate images and a little text.

If you'd like to join me at Hawkesbury Library in Windsor at 10:00am on October 14 you would be most welcome. The library has an excellent Local and Family History collection where you can linger after the meeting.

I can't believe that the gig is three weeks away and that I am well advanced in my preparation - perhaps I am heeding my own message to "Do the right thing". 

Fishing Trip

There wasn't a drop of water in sight when I went on a very pleasant fishing trip today. 

After the meeting of the Hawkesbury Family History Group (and that's another fab story) I went down to the Hawkesbury Library carpark and was able to score one of the 4 hour parking spots so I moved the Bambino and went back to the library to do some fishing.

What this library has is a great collection of BOOKS, not just about the Hawkesbury Region but about genealogy in New South Wales. These books are in a light and airy section of the library and are organised according to Dewey (which makes this old librarian feel immediately comfortable). Michelle Nichols, The Local Studies Librarian at Hawkesbury is to be congratulated on the breadth and quality of the collection.

 As this was an unplanned visit I embarked on little fishing trip. I browsed the shelves book by book. I  even found a few books pertinent to my family research that are not in the collection of the National Library of Australia (Legal Deposit not working?).

Local Studies Area - Hawkesbury Library

Local Studies Area - Hawkesbury Library

This trip resulted in a very tasty haul as I found mentions of direct ancestors and distant family members in some of the books in the collection. I found two titles that I must own - so now the search is on for these books. I'll be returning to Hawkesbury for another fishing trip.

I'd love to own this book

 Whilst it is not good genealogical research practice to go on aimless fishing trips they can prove to be quite fruitful.

Head out to Hawkesbury

It isn't a bad drive outside of peak hour to Hawkesbury Library at Windsor although it's on the outer fringe of Sydney. Once one arrives at the library free parking can be found under the building.

I venture out there on the second Wednesday of the month to attend the meetings of the Hawkesbury Family History Group. This group is a support and information group for family historians co-ordinated by the Hawkesbury City Library Service. Anyone interested is invited to attend the meetings.

I was just putting the dates for the remainder of the year's meetings in my calendar when, looking at the list of guest speakers, I realised what are worthy crop they are.  If you would like to hear Carol Liston on "Accessing Land Titles Records", Vicki Eldridge on "Teacher and School History Records" or Angela Phippen on "Wises Post Office Directories" consider joining me at the Hawkesbury meetings; details can be found here.

In addition to the regular meetings the library hosts Family History Classes with Michelle Nichols, Local Studies Librarian. Some of these are free and some are $10. Bookings for these are essential; details can be found here on the library site.

I'm heading for Windsor on Wednesday this week to hear Julie and John Sword speak about "Family: the first century" history of the Sword family. For me it's a pleasant 30 minute cross-country drive through Sydney's beautiful semi-rural areas.

Exciting news for People with ancestors in the Hawkesbury, NSW area

Congratulations to Michelle Nichols, Local Studies Librarian and the powers that be at Hawkesbury Library Service for sponsoring this project that will be so valuable to those of us with early connections in this area. Michelle posted the following on the AUS-NSW-HILLS-HAWKESBURY-HUNTER-VALLEY Rootsweb Mailing List.

"I just wanted to inform the HHHV list of the exciting project that Hawkesbury Library has been working on over the past year.

We have sponsored the digitisation of the Hawkesbury newspapers and these will become part of the Australian Historical Digitised Newspapers on Trove at http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper The titles that will be included are as follows:

Australian Windsor,Richmond & Hawkesbury Advertiser 1873 - 1896
Hawkesbury Advocate 1899 - 1900
Hawkesbury chronicle & farmers advocate 1881 - 1888    
Hawkesbury Courier 1844 - 1846    
Hawkesbury Herald 1902 - 1945
Windsor Express & Richmond Advertiser 1843 - 1844  
Windsor & Richmond Gazette 1888 - 1915?  

The content has been processed for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with the content starting to appear on Trove and you will see the articles now being indexed with this message "This article is part way through the digitisation process. It will be available when the page it is part of passes the final quality control check. This is likely to be within the next 1-28 days."

We hope to find the fund$ to digistise additional images of the Windsor & Richmond Gazette 1915 + in the not so distant future."
 

Family History Sessions at Hawkesbury Library

In a post to the  AUS-NSW-HILLS-HAWKESBURY-HUNTER-VALLEY Rootsweb List Michelle  Nichols has given details of  events planned at Hawkesbury Library.

"Hawkesbury Library is running some Family History sessions. If you know anyone interested in starting out the first one LETS START AT THE VERY BEGINNING would be ideal. Will be held Thursday 3 March 6.30pm-8.30pm. For more information or to book, phone 4560-4466 or email history@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au The next sesssion will be held Tuesday 5 April 6.30pm–8.30pm on NEWSPAPERS ONLINE."

Hawkesbury Family History Fair - The Speakers

When I arrived at the fair at 9:00 am I did not know whether I would stay for an hour or two or the  whole day. After perusing the program I decided on taking the day option as there were a number of engaging speakers in the lineup and some of the topics were of particular interest to me.

HFHF Program

After racing up the street to raid an ATM for spending money I parked myself in the front row of the Tebutt room to hear Lindsay Allen from State Records discuss Family history resources for the Macquarie period. In deference to the range of  interests and experience in the audience Lindsay prefaced his short Macquarie talk with an overview of the history, business and resources of State Records and gave pointers to genealogists who may wish to use those resources for research.

Lindsay Allen makes a point

Allen then showed some screenshots from and discussed The Lachlan Macquarie Digital Gallery that  "celebrates Macquarie by featuring iconic documents (together with transcriptions with some interpretation) from the wealth of Macquarie related material in our collection."

Allen then went on to talk about the history and value of The Colonial Secretary's Records and outlined Convict Records that are available to family historians. Allen was a knowledgeable, competent and engaging speaker. He regularly travels around the state giving presentations - details of upcoming talks can be found on the Activities pages of State Records.

Cathy McHardy

The delightful Cathy McHardy, a librarian from Hawkesbury City Library was stunned when the  audience for her talk in the Charles Harpur Room overflowed into the library. Cathy connected with her audience with  a well-structured and pertinent talk on "Searching Land Titles" in NSW. My understanding of this tricky topic was greatly enhanced. Cathy provided attendees with a wonderful handout that will be one of my treasured resources and so useful when I journey into the Lands Department to research family properties.

As the descendant of a couple of Hawkesbury convicts I was  pleased to stay put in the Charles Harpur Room for a talk by Hawkesbury Local Studies Librarian, Michelle Nichols on Researching Hawkesbury Families. By the time she gave this talk poor Michelle, who had been running from room to room all day fielding questions and solving problems, appeared a little flummoxed. Michelle rose to the occasion and gave an interesting talk illustrated by slides with pertinent illustrations of the area. I was encouraged to visit the Local Studies area of the library where I found files on my ancestors in the library's collection. As I had my digital camera on hand I was quickly able to copy relevant documents before taking off to the next talk.

Heather Garnsey

 In a tweet from the next talk I attended I said "Heather Garnsey talking at a rate of knots with loads of fab info at the Hawkesbury Family History Fair". Heather, Executive Officer from The Society of Australian Genealogists spoke on "10 websites you can't live without as a genealogist." Pint-sized Heather who could barely see over the lectern, delivered her talk with enthusiasm. It was obvious from the whispered comments of some audience members around me that what they were hearing from Heather was quite new to them. I loved Heather's talk and delivery style but would probably replace one of her choices!

Heather's Top Ten Sites

Bruce Fairhall

I have been a user of TMG (The Master Genealogist) software for over ten years but am still a novice user. As Bruce Fairhall said in his presentation "Introduction to The Master Genealogist (TMG)" this is a package that can be used "straight from the box" but it is also a very powerful piece of software that is eminently customisable. I was glad that I stayed around for Bruce's presentation that confirmed that I am a novice user. Bruce, who is passionate and enthusiastic about the product gave a live demonstration (much more effective than using screenshots) of a TMG database. I was most impressed by the modifications Bruce has made to the program. Bruce spoke of the TMG Sydney user group that has its regular meetings at SAG. Although I subscribe to the TMG Sydney blog their Yahoo Group and am a fan on Facebook I have not yet attended a face to face meeting. Bruce, you have inspired me to come along.

I had a great day at the fair and would be interested to hear reports of others' fair experiences. I hope to see some reports in the blogosphere or on mailing lists soon.
 

Hawkesbury Family History Fair - The Exhibitors

I arrived at The Hawkesbury Family History Fair with only a little cash in my wallet and found, in the exhibition rooms an overabundance of genealogy resources for sale. As well as Gould Genealogy, professional genealogists and other vendors there was a number of historical societies selling their publications and giving advice. As some of the vendors did not have EFTPOS facilities I had to make a dash up the road to an ATM.

There was only one software user group represented at the fair. As a TMG user I was thrilled, when I walked into the room, to see members of the TMG Sydney User Group on deck to promote this great package.  Sitting on the TMG table was Sydney genealogist, Carole Riley, who has been a virtual friend of mine for quite  a while. Meeting Carole was a highlight of the day.

Carole Riley and friend demonstrating TMG

 The members of the Hawkesbury Family History Group who worked like Trojans throughout the day warmly welcomed all visitors to the fair. I have convict ancestors from the Hawkesbury area  and have been thinking of joining this society;  I was so impressed by the friendliness of the ladies pictured below that I will make an effort to go to their meetings..

Friendly welcome from Hawkesbury Ladies

 The Society of Australian Genealogists was represented by Executive Officer, Heather Garnsey, and  members. Their stall was very busy as they sold resources and dispensed guidance to attendees. I am a member who does not visit the society often but feel a responsibility to maintain membership of this society that does so much work to promote family history in our state and preserve resources for future generations.

Heather Garnsey from SAG

Lindsay Allen from State Records was kept busy doling out advice and Archives in Brief information leaflets.

Lindsay Allen

I just had to go up and simply say "Thankyou" to the volunteers who index newspapers for the Ryerson Index, one of my favourite genealogy resources.

As well as carrying out their regular duties the staff of the Hawkesbury City Library fielded enquiries from visitors and graciously proferred help. I was able to get a copy of an ancestor's will from the files in the Local History Section. As a former public librarian I was proud of the professional and courteous approach of the library staff..


There was a good balance of  not for profit and commercial bodies represented at the fair. This gave visitors  an opportunity to see a broad range of resources and speak with representatives from different organisations.. Thank you to all of the people who put time and effort into organising this superb event.

Family History Classes for Beginners

From the Hills-Hawkesbury-Hunter Valley Rootsweb List:

"A series of family history classes for beginners are planned at Hawkesbury Library. First class is on "Using certificates & church records" on Thursday 29 April 6pm. Email history@hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au for more information."