A long drive to Chester Hill

I was thrilled to be invited to the launch of National Family History Month at Chester Hill in Sydney yesterday afternoon. The eloquent Martyn Killion who was MC opened the event.

Bryan Scales, Sydney Office, National Archives of Australia gave a short presentation on 20th Century Immigration to Australia: records held by the National Archives of Australia. Bryan went over some familiar series of documents but also told us of a new series that had been digitised. It is :

Series number	A1197
Title	Incoming passenger cards
Accumulation dates	01 Jan 1965 - 31 Dec 1972

Bryan asked if anyone in the audience had been overseas and returned to Australia between 1965 and 1972, my hand shot up. Bryan suggested I take a look at the records (which are organised in six month sets with cards within each set arranged alphabetically by surname) to see if I could find my record....and I did. Because they aren't indexed by name it takes a bit of effort to find the records but it's really quite easy.

When I returned from my honeymoon 1970

This snip only shows the top half of the card, the bottom section also contains my intended address. This is pure Geneagold. Imagine how many Australian Currys I will be able to find for my surname study there. 

The Keynote address by Dr Perry McIntyre was "Family History 30 years after Australian’s Bicentennial: who is looking now? In this thought provoking presentation Perry discussed the changes in the Australian population over the past thirty years and during her talk threw out challenges to family historians, archives and repositories and genealogy groups. She encouraged all to make their information and records accessible and appropriate to Australia's changing population.

Dr Perry McIntyre and Martyn Killion

Martyn Killion  also presented this year's Nick Vine Hall Awards for the best genealogy/family history society journals or newsletters in 2016 (not sure if I can name the winners yet). 

Our gracious hosts were the staff members of The National Archives of Australia who served us a delicious afternoon tea.

While chatting with those in attendance I met two genies from The Lacemakers of Calais Group who live on my road and who had also made the trek to Chester Hill. It's a small world! I also said g'day to people from The Society of Australian Genealogists and the Bankstown, Botany Bay, Ku-ring-gai and Nepean family history groups.

Thanks to my genimate and National Family History Month Coordinator, Shauna Hicks, for my invitation to the event. I'm pleased I made that long drive.