GSV News

8 weeks to go! Enough time to finish off that family history story for the 2019 GSV Writing Priize.

The closing date for entries is 4 pm on 30 AUGUST 2019. So you still have time to START writing!

Last year Helen Pearce won with her entry exposing the story of a murder in Adam Elphinstone's family history. GSV Members can read past winning entries in back copies of Ancestor in the members area of our website.

But you don't need murder to make for an interesting story. It is a writing prize. So use this year's GSV Writing Prize as a prompt for you to capture the story you have been researching, but never quite written up.

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This year we have extended the eligibility criteria, enabling more people to enter, and made some changes to the judging panel. Full entry details and conditions can be read on the GSV website at https://dev.gsv.org.au/gsv-writing-prize

Purpose of the Prize

• to encourage the writing of family history
• to provide an opportunity for recognition and publication
• to publish the winner as an example of quality family history writing

The article should:

• have a family history / genealogy theme
• be the author’s own original work
• not have been previously published in any format, or be under consideration or accepted for publication by any other publication
• be between 1200 and 2400 words (not including title, image captions, endnotes and sources).
• contain citations of sources

The Prize   

We are very pleased to announce that Ancestry™ is again generously sponsoring the competition with an enhanced first prize of a 12-month subscription to their Worldwide Membership and an Ancestry DNA test kit.

Eligibility

The competition is open to GSV Members and all members of GSV Member Societies.

Members of the Ancestor Editorial Team, the judges, GSV staff and the winner of the previous year’s prize are not eligible to enter.

The winner will be announced at the GSV’s Annual General Meeting in October and the winning article will be published in the December 2019 issue of Ancestor journal.

Not only will your family read your story but it will be published and hence discoverable in our wonderful State and National libraries by future unknown descendants in years to come.

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IMAGE CREDIT

Photo of Adam and Elizabeth Elphinstone from 'Elphinstones: Pioneer Farmers in Northern Tasmania', Elphinstones Committee, Launceston Tas, 1988? courtesy of Helen Pearce.

If you have Scottish ancestors (I have a Campbell) - and even if you haven't - you may have been watching The Rise of the Clans on SBS presented by that long-haired archaeologist and history-warrior, Neil Oliver, who is often seen from a helicopter standing on the edge of a cliff. 

On 13 July the GSV gives you a wonderful opportunity to catch up with what the Scots were doing a few hundred years later. This day-seminar will explore an exciting period of intellectual and scientific accomplishments in Scotland from the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries.

SCOTTISH ANCESTRY GROUP

of The Genealogical Society of Victoria, Inc.

Scotland: 1730-1830 - during the Enlightenment

13 July 2019 – 10am to 4.30pm

At the RACV City Club, level 2, 501 Bourke St Melbourne

PROGRAM

Alex Tyrrell

Small country, big ideas: The Scottish Enlightenment shows the way

Bruce McLennan

The Highlands during the Enlightenment

Malcolm Horsburgh

The Communications Revolution: from pack tracks to modern roads- Malcolm Horsburgh

Ben Wilkie

Scotland, the Enlightenment, and Australia: Legacies from Macquarie to Menzies

You will hear from great speakers.

Alex Tyrrell was born in Scotland, educated at Edinburgh and McMasters Universities. Prior to retirement he was an Associate Professor of History at Latrobe University. His research interests include aspects of national identity in Victorian Scotland.

Bruce McLennan is the coordinator of the Clan MacLennan worldwide project, focussing on Scottish records as well as New Zealand, Canada, Australia and the USA. He is an author and presenter at international events.

Malcolm Horsburgh has been researching his family history and genealogy for 35 years in both Edinburgh and Australia. He is a long-term member of the Scottish Ancestry Group and a current member of the committee.

Ben Wilkie has an honours degree and PhD from Monash University on the history of Scots in Australia. His interests include stories of the Scottish diaspora. He is an author and past lecturer at Deakin University.

Be quick to book your place.

Cost: $60 GSV members, $90 all other non-members. Scottish Ancestry Group subscribers who are not members of the GSV should apply to the GSV for a reduction to $60.

Bookings essential, and can be made online, dev.gsv.org.au, by email gsv@gsv.org.auor by telephone +61 3 9662 4455 (Mon-Fri 9.00 am-4.00 pm)

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GSV is privileged to have Elizabeth Rushen presenting 'Bounty and government emigrants 1836-1840 including Mr Marshall's migrants'.

Liz Rushen has written a number of books in this area and you can see more about them at her website HERE.

Her talk is on this coming Thursday 18 October 12.00pm - 1.00 pm. Bookings are essential but you can still get a place if you are quick.  Bookings can be made in person at GSV, via the website HERE.  Or you can book by email to gsv@gsv.org.au or by phone +61 3 9662 4455.

GSV Members $5.00, RHSV/CAV/FHC $15.00 and Non-members $20.00.

There were many emigration schemes and agents operating in the early to mid-nineteenth century and this talk by historian and author Elizabeth Rushen will give a broad overview of emigration in the 1820s and 1830s. Various emigration schemes were available until the formation of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission in 1840 and John Marshall was the most active entrepreneur under the bounty scheme of assisted migration to Australia.

This is an area of our history with which many of us have links and this is a great opportunity to get a knowledgeable overview.

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Now that we are emerging from our winter retreats, it is a great time to pick up those challenges we set ourselves this year for our family histories. Even for those who have started, it is always good to have a refresher about what we can find and how to proceed. The GSV has scheduled a short course of three sessions in October which will give you all you need to really get going.

'Australian Family History'  - Wednesday 17, 24 and 31 October, 10.00am - 12.00pm.

This will be presented by John Bugg.

The topics to be covered include:

• Where do I start? How to gather and store information.
• Getting here - immigration, convicts, naturalisation and wills.
• State records - Private lives and public records.
• National Records - Finding families.

For BOOKING and details about this course go to the GSV website HERE. You can also book  in person at GSV, by email to gsv@gsv.org.au or by phone +61 3 9662 4455.

The presenter:  John Bugg has a background in Education and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Education. He has been chasing  eight family lines who arrived before 1870 and has published a small family Bugg history, before attending the family reunion in the UK. John enjoys the chase and detective work of family history and finding links to its wider historical context.

John tells us more about these planned sessions:

'Most of us have explored the commercial data sources and probably checked the odd family tree and been subjected to the afternoon tea-party about the family. What this course aims to do is to go beyond that and build up an originaldatabase of our family and to set it in the social context of the time. How do we find Will Smith; especially if this name is Wilfred Smyth, to say nothing of the transcription error of the clerks in a foreign port who may have little knowledge of German or Spanish?

Emphasis will be placed on original documents and where to find them from little used databases that will lead often to further searching and the unlocking of additional and sometimes surprising information. What is the value of the GSV database and how we may best use it. In the last course we discovered, among other matters, why a great-grandmother had a sister six months later from her same father and mother. Often our search is limited by the commercial databases. I am following eight Australian families and only one is on the official documents of immigration in the nineteenth century and that was further complicated by their arrival in Melbourne but their registration in Freemantle. We will aim to find some other sources of data through the sharing of ideas.

Finally the sessions are designed to be fun. By allowing a broad canvas of inputs, and by adding additional information from the group, you will develop a much better understanding of your family and an accurate family tree for all to share.'

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We are hosting two free talks at the GSV Research & Education Centre as part of Rare Book Week. This is a good opportunity to visit the GSV Centre and hear two interesting presentations - but you do need to book.

The first on Tuesday 3 July, 12.00 pm - 1.00 pm is: 

Preservation of books, photographs and paper-based items.

Conservator, Debra Parry will provide information on how materials deteriorate and how to handle, store and display such items to preserve them for the future.

Then on Thursday 5 July at 12.00 pm - 1.00 pm, Douglas Heywood will present: 

WO1 William Scott Heywood, 1941. (Photo courtesy of Doug Heywood)

 

The GSV's Journal 'Ancestor' is now out for this quarter (March 2018, Vol.34:1). If you are a Member you have already got this Issue and you will be well into the interesting articles. Here is a brief look at what is in this new Ancestor. I would love to receive your comments to this blog, about this journal and its features  (see 'Comments' button at end).  You may even want to send me a follow-up article for possible future publication on this Blog.*** Bill Barlow, GSV Blog Editor. e: blog@gsv.org.au

'Use of Autosomal DNA to find Relatives of Charles William Sharman'. DNA testing helped Robyn Sharman Hawking to solve the long-standing problem of who were the parents of her great grandfather Charles William Sharman. It set her on a course that she would never have been able to follow without the test results.

If you would like to know more about DNA and its usefulness in genealogy, the GSV has introduced a new series of 'modules' - you might like to attend one or more of the modules that are being planned for this year. These will help you personally interpret the data that DNA testing companies send you after a swab test.

'Dr John Fishbourne: A Victorian Medical Pioneer'. Kaye Cole has researched her nineteenth century relative Dr John Fishbourne, a medical pioneer in improving the treatment and education of people with a range of conditions including intellectual disability and epilepsy.

'How I found my Namesake'. While searching for her namesake of three generations back, Elizabeth Kelly traced the McCallion family to Sydney and uncovered their mostly sad story.

'Who's Been Living in My House'. Louise Wilson takes us on a rather different journey, that of the history of her house in South Melbourne. This article provides an insight into the large amount of material available on residences.

Martin Playne’s 'A Guide to Researching Northern Territory Records' will give you some good ideas on where to look if you have Northern Territory ancestors. Few people realise that the Northern Territory came under so many jurisdictions at different periods.

In 'Research Corner', Michael Sturmfels has generously shared the results of his research into pastoral workers in the Western District Victoria between 1860 and 1880, for which he checked through a great variety of records. He shares some of the interesting stories, and has made his results available online at the GSV.

But there is more! Family history researchers are assisted each month with the writing of their story in 'Getting it Write'; about oral history in this issue. There are sections about blogging (with Meg Bate), book reviews, notes on additions to the GSV Library, as well as regular pages from the Public Record Office, and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

Remember that this is your journal, the place where you can share your family history. As well as our usual longer articles, we would like to invite you to submit a short article (around 250 words) and an image or two, focussing on a particular place of significance in your family history for our new back page space. In this issue in 'Tower Bridge' Barbara Beaumont recalls a family link to this famous London landmark.

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There is a growing interest in joining others who share and discuss common areas of genealogical research. It's informative and more fun!

This year the GSV is launching new Discussion Circles to cater for those researching ancestors who lived in and around London and another for those who lived in British India. A third new Discussion Circle formed recently is focussed on the North of England (Durham, Northumberland, Yorkshire & Cumberland).

These common-interest groups are open to GSV Members for no additional cost (as part of GSV membership). They meet regularly and provide great value for your research by the free exchange of their participants' knowledge and experience. They also may invite specialist experts to their meetings. 

For example the South West England discussion circle (SWERD) this coming Wednesday, 14 March at 12:30 to 2:00 pm is looking pretty special with a very interesting guest speaker who will generate plenty of discussion.  Dr Joe Flood is the Administrator of the DNA projects for Cornish ancestry on the myFamilyTreeDNA website and he administers these global DNA projects from Melbourne.  Dr Flood will discuss the projects and the findings to date. The projects have a Cornish focus, but there should be something in the presentation for everyone who is interested in the use of DNA in family history research.   SWERD has been expanded - GSV members with research interests in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and now Dorset are very welcome at the meetings.

The newest GSV Discussion Circles will meet as follows:

The North of England : Tuesday 13 March - 12.30 - 1.30 pm.

London Research - Thursday 22 March - 12.00- 1.00 pm. With a view to starting a Discussion Circle. Bookings essential - ring +61 3 9662 4455 or the website http://dev.gsv.org.au

British India - Tuesday 17 April - 12.00 - 1.00 pm.

Join the GSV quick (or on the day) to benefit from these groups if this is your area of special interest. You can also read more about these groups in the latest issue of Ancestor journal 34:1 (March 2018)

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