GSV News

We have a real treat in store for the VicTas discussion circle on Thursday 27 April at 7.30pm.

Dr Michele Matthews, M.A., Dip. Ed., member of PHAV & Tas., will be speaking to us (on zoom). Michele is a passionate social historian with decades of experience.

Michele will focus on the delights of studying a city and its hinterland, such as Bendigo and district, as a microcosm of Victorian and Australian society, which should hopefully be of assistance to us as genealogists.

Michele will also assist us to better understand the unique primary sources available to us within the BRAC collection (and other records held in Bendigo). Some of the records covered in this talk include Local Government records, Court records, school records, occupational records and so much more. We’ll also learn about how people lived in the Sandhurst district in the 19th century.

This will be a talk with much wider appeal than just Bendigo and district. The techniques and records that Michele will introduce us to also relate to other municipalities and schools.

It’s a 7.30pm meeting, so kick back with a cuppa or a glass of wine and join in a most interesting evening. Don’t forget to register on the GSV website under Activities - Events.

Please note, you need to be a GSV member to join a discussion circle (what a great reason to join).

As ANZAC Day draws near your thoughts may turn to finding information about your ancestors who served in, or experienced, war as part of the British Commonwealth.  With this in mind, we have uploaded a number of new webcasts to our catalogue.

Those with ancestors who served in Europe during World War One may wish to watch the series of presentations to SWERD about service on the Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. Over a million British and Commonwealth troops were located and trained on Salisbury Plain as they moved to and from the Western Front. It also housed hospitals where injured servicemen were treated, including those who became ill during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Troops memorialised their presence by carving their unit badges into the chalk hill beside their camps. These carvings are known as the Fovant Badges. They remain there today. The webcast Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire and Australian Defence Personnel Part 1 contains the presentations of Martin Lock, Peter Collins and Gayle Nicholas and is peppered with fascinating detail about the role of Salisbury Plain in the war experience of the diggers in Europe.

The other presentations in the series are by Penny Mercer and Patsy Daly who focus on the war experiences of their grandfather and uncle, respectively, who spent time on Salisbury Plain during WW1. Penny points out that your ancestors' experiences were almost certainly very similar to those of her grandfather Arthur McMillan Mercer. Based on diaries and supplemented with further research and photos, Patsy and Penny bring to life this lesser known part of the WW1 digger experience.

The final new webcast, World War 1 Stories, is a collation of short presentations about the war experiences of the ancestors of five of our Victoria and Tasmania Discussion Circle members. It is a special tribute to their varied service which helps illuminate the roles that some of your ancestors may have played too.

There are a number of other ANZAC related webcasts available via the catalogue. Examples include Ross Latham's Australian defence service records which is very helpful for those beginning to investigate war service. Looking further afield to other war related experiences are the informative On the Home Front by Professor Kate Darian-Smith or Great War Soldier Settlements and its records by Dr Charles Fahey.

All GSV webcasts are now available for members to view from home. Find them on the website Webcast page via the topic 'World War' or through the catalogue.

Please join us for the inaugural meeting of the Family History Tools & Tips Discussion Circle.

Somewhat a blend of The Good Oil and GSV classes, FHT&T aims to provide a dynamic vehicle for building members' understanding of the what and how of family history research.

In each monthly session we will examine some genealogical resources available to GSV members and model using the tools that access them.  Guest members will explain how they use the resources and tools and provide tips to help us navigate them ourselves. Members experienced with those, or similar tools and resources, will be present to answer your questions.

We begin on April 26^th with an exploration of hospital records and other allied health sources. Cheryl Griffin will demonstrate how she has used Victorian hospital records to flesh out biographical information. David Down will then show how to access those documents on the PROV online database.

Meg Bate will present some of the Library's collection of health related records.

David will demonstrate how to navigate to GSV webcasts on health related matters.

Along the way April's FHT&Ts' discussion will touch on:

• Hospital records
• Other allied health records
• GSVs Genealogical Index of Names (GIN)    
• Public Record Office Victoria (PROV)
• Findmypast
• TROVE
• Webcasts
• Inquest Records
• Ancestry
• More (Please come and share your experience with any relevant resource.)

We will conclude with a discussion of the topics that you would like to be considered for future FHT&T sessions.

As with other GSV Discussion Circles, attendance for GSV members is free. Don’t forget to register here (log in to access) to receive the Zoom invitation.

See you at 11am on Wednesday April 26th.

Rebecca Landy

Library and Resources Manager

libraryadmin@gsv.org.au

The Ancestor editorial team has been trialling the use of shortened URLs for webpage addresses in the regular ‘Blogging with Meg’ feature for the Sep 2022, Dec 2022 and Mar 2023 issues.

As many of you are aware, webpage addresses – known as URLs or Uniform Resource Locators – are hyperlinked in the Ancestor pdf and flipbook versions to provide direct electronic access to references cited. However, often the web addresses can be very lengthy, particularly if the reference is to specific information buried deep in a website. This can cause problems, not only in digital editions but also for print edition readers who want to go to that page, but need to carefully type in long strings of letters, numbers and characters to their browsers.

Shortened URLs, on the other hand, make that access easier by creating a shortened redirected link via the GSV’s domain name, dev.gsv.org.au/[pathway]. So, for instance, in the September 2022 issue, https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/record-linkage-across-19th-century-poverty-and-pauperism/ was shortened to https://dev.gsv.org.au/tnapoverty.

We would be very interested in reader feedback about this trial.

For instance:

1. Are the shortened URLs sufficiently short to make a difference?
2. Does it matter if you can’t see full details of the blog/website you are headed to in the shortened URL link?
3. Would you like to see shortened URLs continue to be used in this feature and/or used more extensively throughout Ancestor?
4. If yes to the above, would it be helpful for the website name to be included after a shortened URL link? e.g https://dev.gsv.org.au/tnapoverty (The National Archives UK)

Your views would be greatly appreciated. Please email us: ancestor@gsv.org.au

An Anzac Day ceremony will take place on 25 April 2023 at the War Cemetery in Belgrade where twenty-seven Australians servicemen from World War Two are buried. Three Australians are planning to travel there to attend the ceremony: Kathy Hancock and Richard Cooke, whose great aunt and grandmother respectively served as a medical officer and Nursing Sister with the Serbs, and myself, Bojan Pajic.  The Australian Embassy is having my book Australians with Serbs in World War One translated into Serbian to distribute in Serbia and we will be in Belgrade for the launch of that Serbian-language edition.

Before our departure, we would like to contact any surviving family of these buried Australians to inform them that we will be visiting the graves of their forebears and to ask whether they would like us to do anything whilst at the cemetery, such as placing sprigs of rosemary or poppies on the graves and taking photos. We hope to take some video film in Serbia to possibly make a documentary about the theme and our visit; in which case we could also provide current families with links to such videos.

We would appreciate help to find the families of these Australians and would ask them to get in touch with us on this email address: bjpiris@gmail.com

The service and sacrifice of Australians who served with the Serbs in World War One will also be commemorated at the Anzac Day ceremony. See this link for information: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AjB3nikUeHiakLN353FDJyh_6Xv8fg

Hoping you can help.

Bojan Pajic

GSV online talks on using DNA in your family history are starting on Monday 20 March.

The first session starts with the basics of using DNA and requires no previous knowledge. There are ten sessions in total over the coming months dealing with various aspects of using DNA in your family history.

You can attend all the sessions, or you can choose which ones you think are most relevant to you. However you must register for each session.

See the GSV Calendar of Events for details of the sessions.

You will receive a handout summary of the session beforehand and there is email help if you have any questions or are having difficulties with your research.

If you have any questions about the sessions, email dna@gsv.org.au

The topic for the GSV Writers Circle meeting next week is Oral History.

It seems to be a hot topic at the moment, cropping up in many other discussion circles.

This meeting will be an active participation session, with members sharing their experiences.

Some will share resources and techniques they have used, and how they have used the oral history in their family research.

The questions we’ve asked circle members in advance are:

1. Have you done any oral history?
2. Did it work? If so, please share what you did.
3. If not, why do you think it didn’t?
4. Are there pitfalls others of us can avoid.
5. Did you write / type / record it? How do you think that went?

Our discussion circles are GSV member-only events. You are welcome to attend even if you are not a current member of the Writers Circle. Please come prepared to share on the day. Don’t forget to register on the Events page.

Are you aware that the funding for TROVE is seriously under threat? Where would our research in Australia be without TROVE?

GSV will be sending a response to the relevant ministers but we would urge anyone who uses Trove to sign the parliamentary petition found here:

https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN4745

and click the sign this petition box. It will take you less than thirty seconds to complete and you will receive an email from parliament house to confirm your signature.

There are two other petitions for the same purpose on the site and if you are so inclined — sign them as well.

We need TROVE and we can't allow that funding for it ceases.

Image credit: The 'Monster' Women’s Suffrage Petition - https://victoriancollections.net.au/items/62ea00bd8b3ae1f33f110d9d

GSV’s very popular Zoom sessions ‘DNA and Family History’ are starting again in March 2023.

The sessions will help you use DNA with your family history. Whether you are looking to break down a brick wall, extend your family tree, confirm your research, or find new cousins, DNA can help with your family history.

The sessions start with the basics and progress through to more intermediate topics. They are relevant to which ever testing company you have used but the sessions use examples mainly from Ancestry and My Heritage.

The early sessions assume people are just starting to use DNA for family history. You can either follow the whole series of sessions or join for topics of interest. Look at the GSV Events Calendar for the details of each session.

The online sessions are presented by Alan Rhodes and involve a presentation on Zoom, followed by time for questions and discussion. Detailed handouts are provided for each session which explain the main ideas and provide suggestions for further reading and follow up activities. GSV also offers a DNA email where you can ask questions about the session or get advice on using your DNA test.

If you have not yet done a DNA test and wondering whether you should, why not look at the GSV’s three webcasts, listed in the GSV catalogue. They cover the basics of:

• Should I do a DNA test?
• DNA Ethnicity results
• DNA and family history

It is recommended that you do a DNA test and preferably have your results to get best value from the sessions. The sessions start in late March so there is still time to organise a test and have the results for the early sessions. There is a $5 registration fee for each session.

If you have any questions about the sessions or how they might help you, email us at dna@gsv.org.au

A big welcome to GSV’s newly appointed Library and Resources Manager, Rebecca Landy. Rebecca started with us on 7 February and she is sharing the management role at GSV’s Library and Research Centre (Level 1, 10 Queen St, Melbourne) with our Library and Digital Resources Manager, Meg Bate.

Rebecca comes to us very well qualified for this position. Her formal qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts (with Majors in History and Jewish Studies) and a Master of Education and she has over 20 years of experience at a Secondary College as a librarian and teacher of History, Geography, English and Literature. Rebecca’s depth of experience in engaging and enthusing students through remote learning during the Covid pandemic will bring new approaches, and be a great aid, to our online education and discussion circle activities. Rebecca also has a depth of experience with preparing and using websites, blogs and vlogs, wikis, apps, social media and knowledge management, all of which will help GSV creatively promote our resources and facilitate their use by our members and the family history community.

Rebecca has been actively engaged in family history research for 15 years and tells us she still clearly remembers the thrill of her first big discovery bent over a microfiche machine in the GSV’s basement library in Collins St. She finds genealogical research an enchanting puzzle, while exploring family, history and place through an array of information sources. Her curiosity about her family’s history has taken her to numerous places around Victoria and to the UK. Rebecca has enjoyed working with students to help them learn how to critically examine sources to make informed decisions about their ancestors and she now looks forward to helping our members discover their own world of family history.

Please do join us in welcoming Rebecca next time you are visiting GSV.