GSV News

A coming talk at the RHSV dovetails neatly with my last post about 'Family Secrets' - the new research project looking at interactions between settlers and indigenous Australians (see note 1).

On March 17 at the Royal Historical Society Victoria, Prof Lynette Russell will talk about family secrets and her journey to discover her aboriginal history.

What the little bird didn't tell me

17 MARCH - 5:15 - 7:00 PM

The RHSV has opened their March talk to GSV members at the RHSV member’s price of $10. GSV members who wish to attend should book through the RHSV website, as if they are RHSV members.

Prof Russell:

Twenty years ago I wrote a book that documented a journey I had been on for over a decade. The book was A Little Bird Told Me: Family Secrets, Necessary Lives. This book represented a journey of discovery where I located my Aboriginal ancestors and answered a number of questions that had dogged my family for generations. Along the way, I discovered a story of secrets and lies, of madness, and refuge.  In this talk, I will reflect on this book nearly 20 years later with a focus on the importance of women as the keepers and tellers of family stories. In so doing I will consider the reasons why I wrote the book, what impact it had at the time and its ongoing influence. I hope that these reflections might have something to say to other family historians. I want to question whether there are there some family secrets and necessary lies that should never be told?

Professor Lynette Russell AM is an award-winning historian and indigenous studies scholar. In 2020 she is taking up an Australian Research Council’s Laureate Fellowship to examine Global Encounters and First Nations People: 1000 Years of Australian History.

This personal story will be interesting to those who would like to better understand the complex issues of aboriginal identification and the inter-relationship between genealogical records, biological descent, family stories, self-identification and community recognition. Though it has been about 40 years since a three-part 'working definition' of aboriginality evolved and has been adopted in Australia (see note 2), there are still popular commentators and some historians who can't get their heads around this.

***

References:

Note 1.Family Secrets Research Project. Contact Dr Ashley Barnwell

See the previous blog for details of how to participate in this research project:

https://staging.gsv.org.au/content/unsettling-family-history-new-research

Note 2. For a full history of this topic see Defining Aboriginality in Australia, Dr John Gardiner-Garden, Parliament of Australia Current Issue Brief no. 10 2002-03

https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/publications_archive/cib/cib0203/03cib10

***

ADVANCE NOTICE

On May 7 at GSV, Dr Richard Broome will talk on Frontier Encounters. 

Richard is a Professor of History and Associate at La Trobe University. One of Australia's most respected scholars of Aboriginal history, He has written many articles and books including  Aboriginal Australians and Sideshow Alley.

His last talk at GSV was sold out, so it would be worth getting in early to hear firsthand from a prominent historian, author and wonderful speaker.  

This talk will fill up quickly so go HERE to book early.

***

Genealogical study is a hot topic. Witness the lengths to which some 'historians' and genealogists are presently going to deny Bruce Pascoe's aboriginal antecedence, possibly to undermine his views about pre-Colonial aboriginal society. This particular instance of genealogical research should remind us of the traps that can result from a simple reading and over-reliance on early records; even for so-called historians, who should know better about the inherent limits of documents in tracing biological ancestry (note 1). Anyone researching their early Australian forebears will have to think about where they were and what they were doing during The Frontier Wars, a period from 1788 to 1928 (note 2). 

The intersection of written records with family memory and oral history can be unsettling and sometimes divisive. If your family stories take you into this period you may like to contribute to a current university research project.

Ashley Barnwell, a Lecturer in Sociology from the University of Melbourne (note 3), is currently undertaking a national study that investigates how inherited family secrets, stories, and memories inform Australian’s understandings of colonial history. Ashley is looking to interview family historians who have found interactions between settlers and Indigenous Australians in their ancestry and who are doing some research into that aspect of the family tree.

Ashley outlines the context of the project 'Family Secrets':

'There has been a lot of research about how museums and schools deal with colonial history but not much acknowledgment that family historians are doing a lot of interesting historical research in this area and often writing up the findings for their families too, Ashley says. In his famous 1968 Boyer lectures After the Dreaming, WH Stanner spoke about 'the great Australian silence' around the treatment of Aboriginal peoples and the impacts of colonisation. Family stories sometimes mirror this silence, but families can also be places where past interactions between settlers and Aboriginal peoples are recorded and discussed, at least by some generations if not others. 

Popular texts based on family history, such as Kate Grenville’s The Secret Riverand Sally Morgan’s My Place, show that unpacking family stories and secrets can stimulate public discussion of Australia’s colonial history. Ashley is very interested in how family relationships add an important layer to how historical research is done. When we read and write about our own families there are often extra layers of emotion that can inform what we choose to write and publish. Family historians sometimes also have to navigate tricky conversations with other relatives who may not be happy with the revelation of family stories or who insist on a different version of events.' 

For this Australian Research Council-funded project, Ashley will do a study of self-published family history books, interviews with family historians, and some research into her own settler ancestors in mid-north coast NSW. 

If you are interested in participating,

please contact Ashley via:

phone: 03 83444559  

email: abarnwell@unimelb.edu.au; or 

mail: Dr Ashley Barnwell, School of Social and Political Sciences, John Medley Building, Level 4, University of Melbourne, VIC, 3010.

***

Notes

1. Dark Emu(2014), Bruce Pascoe. See Keith Windschuttle citing Jan Campbell [Holland?] in QuadrantDecember 2019.

2. The Forgotten War, Henry Reynolds (2013).

3. Ashley Bardwell see https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/708324-ashley-barnwell

We have received many awards for our quarterly print journal Ancestor; it is highly valued by our members and others. 

Of course, being print hardcopy it is mailed out in the time-honoured way and that, as you may have noticed, is becoming very expensive. Obviously we are always looking for ways to drive our membership funds further - and one way is to save on postage. 

Many organisations are moving to digital-only versions of their publications. I even get Christmas cards by email these days. However we know members value receiving our print journal and you can be assured that the GSV has no intention of changing this. 

Ancestor has been available as a PDF version for members on our website for some time now. Some may find this not so easy to read, so we have been exploring 'flip-books' as an alternative. 

Apart from saving on postage, some members may appreciate the option of being able to read Ancestor in a digital version to improve our environmental footprint. I am building up quite a collection of back copies of Ancestor. Recently I had to find a way to 'downsize' nearly 2 metres of my collected glossy, architecture magazines. It hurts, but so does losing trees! 

We have set up an example of what a digital flipbook version of our journal could look like - and we would like you to try it out and think about if you would be happy to read your Ancestor in this way. We would love to get your comments, so we can better assess this option.

GSV Members can read more about this in a recent post - 'A new way to read Ancestor' - on our Forum 'GSV Website'. Please add your comments on that forum thread, or as a comment to this blog post - or if you like, by email to socialmedia@gsv.org.au

Have a look at it HERE and let us know what you think.

Please note that we are using a trial version of the Flipbook software so you will see advertisements when you are viewing one of the books. However, if the GSV decides to adopt this new delivery method at some time in the future, we would be using a paid version of the software so the advertisements will not appear.

***

Do you have a thorny problem with your family history research?

Do you often feel someone else will have solved this or know a way to find that vital record?

You may just want to bounce an idea off others and get their suggestions.

This month the GSV is excited to be launching a new online forum for members to help each other or simply share tips and experiences.

It's easy and secure to use - just jump on the FORUM on our website and give it a go. It's free as part of your membership!

... is an online forum hosted on the GSV's website only for members of the GSV to help other members with their genealogy queries or simply to share their family history tips, tricks and

experiences.

If you have joined any of our Special Interest Groups or Discussion Circles you will know how others can help with your research journey. We hope this online forum will enable you to tap into the wide range of family history experience that our members have. Because it is for GSV members only, you can be amongst like-minded searchers on this Forum, complying with our policies regarding ethics, privacy and harassment. Forum Posts are monitored and unsuitable material will be removed.

The Forum gives regional Members and others who cannot easily get to our Melbourne Research Centre another way to communicate and share their knowledge.

This service is not a substitute for the research services available from the Society’s

experienced volunteers via the GSV Research Services. The Society does not accept any responsibility for the information posted, and like all sources of information you need to independently check and verify. But often a breakthrough comes from a good tip!

How do you get started?

Login to our website as a Member. Click on 'FORUM' in the top Menu bar. Then select membershelpmembers. You can post your own new query (Topic) or respond to an existing post. Check back to see any responses or, if you wish to get an email notification of any new posts, you can subscribe (or unsubscribe) from this service.

Remember not to share private information of a sensitive nature about persons who may be living (see our Ethics and Privacy policies) and to respect the feelings of others who may be hurt by insensitive disclosure or comments.

Read the guide notes about using forums and you can have a play in the Test section before you add any posts of your own.

Much of the enjoyment and wonder of family history is through discovery and sharing. Now this Forum membershelpmembers gives you a way to do that.

***

Our program of Zoom events continues to expand in October. We have extended the number of participants we can accommodate in our classes and discussions as we gain experience conducting these sessions.

'The Good Oil' - Oct 20

We are introducing a new series of events commencing this month. ‘The Good Oil’ will be sessions designed to enable members to share their tips and tricks about a wide range of subjects. The topics will be initially discussed by a panel of GSV Research Assistants and other volunteers before being open to questions and answers and general discussion. The topic for the first session on 20 October will be: useful, mainly free, tools to assist with digital image manipulation, and ideas, systems and techniques for filing your digital images and documents. The tips and tricks discussed will be pertinent to both the Windows and Mac OS operating systems. 

Suggested topics for future sessions have included the pros and cons of some family history software programs, methods of citing sources and tips and tricks for using Trove.We would be interested in receiving suggested topics from you. You could email those to education@gsv.org.au

***

There are spaces available in our Discussion Circles and our classes including Linley Hooper’s class about GSV’s new library catalogue and our databases. 

Oct 8 - Catch up with our Catalogue and Databases - Linley Hooper

With our new look catalogue and databases now is a good time to catch up with their attributes. These small-group classes are designed to enable you to get the most out of the computer-based resources available in the GSV library and at home. This class will be held online via Zoom. 11 am - 12 noon. Maximum of 15 participants.

Free for GSV members -  $20 non-members. Please Register HERE.

Oct 13 - DNA Ancestry's ThruLines - Alan Rhodes

 

ThruLines is a feature on Ancestrythat provides you with another way to view your matches and potentially identify new ancestors.  The presentation demonstrates how to use ThruLines, verify the suggestions and extend your family tree. This talk will be presented online via Zoom. 

Please Register HERE.

There is something of interest for everyone. If you did not have an opportunity to attend an event at the Centre now is your opportunity to join online.

Make sure you book! Log in to the GSV website as a member to book your place, and the session details with a clickable link will be emailed back as part of your booking confirmation. Information about using Zoom may be found on our website and in the September issue of Ancestor.

We are still here to help you on your family history journey. JOIN US

***

Photo credit: 'Is this your family?'  A typical suburban family spied on a Covid walk - within 5 k of course! Courtesy of one of our members, Louise Wilson (author 'Sentenced to Debt: Robert Forrester, First Fleeter', 2020).

Our GSV Events come to you in September

Yes, all our genealogical resources are still at the GSV's research centre in the city (shown above in case you have forgotten what it looks like). It is just that we can't be there with them!

It is amazing, but the situation has produced some good things. You may have had difficulty getting to our Centre for classes or talks in pre-Covid times, but now we have developed ways to bring a lot of our events to you.

During the lockdown the Genealogical Society Victoria has developed a suite of events that are being delivered through our Zoom licence.

Our many September events are advertised on our website. They include:

• classes conducted by our librarians and other volunteers
• Discussion Circles where you can chat about researching specific topics or geographical areas
• DNA talks which will be presented by Alan Rhodes
• sessions to assist you with your Scottish research 

There is something of interest for everyone. In pre-Covid times you may have found it difficult to attend an event at the Centre, but now we can bring the events to you with the opportunity to join online.

Make sure you book! Log in to the GSV website as a member to book your place, and the session details with a clickable link will be emailed back as part of your booking confirmation. Information about using Zoommay be found on our website and in the September issue of Ancestor.

Participate and enjoy our events.

You have just under two weeks - a week from Friday to enter the GSV Writing Prize 2020.

Last year's winner Louise Wilson painted a vivid picture of the development of the Royal Mail coaches in England unravelling the story of her coachmaster Boulton and Willson families in her article 'Masters of the Road' (Ancestor 34:8 December 2019).

In 2018 Helen Pearce won this prize for 'Daniel Elphingstone: his son's secret exposed' (Ancestor43:4 Dec 2018). Both these winning entries can be read by GSV Members on the website. Go to 'Ancestor Journal / View Ancestor as a PDF' where past issues from 2012 on are available.

But this year it's your turn. I suggest you lock yourself in (oh! done that) and polish up that family history story you have been promising to finish.

Members of the GSV as well as members of GSV Member Societies are eligible to enter. You can read the Judges' Report on 2019 winners on the website and 'Tips for Writing an Article' in the last issue of Ancestor 35:2 June 2020 is a very useful guide on how to 'make it easy for the judge's to say yes' 

Full details of the competition are on the website staging.gsv.org.au/gsv-writing-prize

Entries close at

4 pm on 28 August 2020.

Now lock yourself away!

***

An update on accessing the GSV Collection

Unfortunately our catalogue and databases are not available currently. Due to CoVID level 4 restrictions we may not be able to fix this, as it requires a permit to visit the GSV where the server is hosted. Please use our new catalogue and databases, though links to files in the databases are not available at this point. Our September issue of Ancestor will have a full description of our coming new system. If you do wish to obtain a file please use Quick Lookup request.

GSV Members can access this from the Members area and the link to
New Look Databases & Catalogue (Beta version)

... and GOOD NEWS about access to our webcasts

GSV Webcasts – Researching Irish Ancestors
The Society holds an extensive collection of webcasts on a wide range of topics. A webcast is a video of a talk that is available to stream from our website.
To promote our collection, we have selected six webcasts that relate to researching Irish ancestors. The talks range from examining the social conditions in Ireland in past centuries to emigration, especially to Australia, and to the lives built by Irish workers in Victoria. In all cases the presenters refer to resources you can find that will assist with your own research.
To find these webcasts you should go to the GSV Website, login as a Member, select the 'Members Area' and then look for 'Researching Irish Ancestors' under the Webcasts heading. Here you will find a link to the page that displays six selected webcasts. Click on an icon and the webcast will stream to your computer or portable device. Each file has controls that will enable you to adjust the volume and to pause and restart the webcast.
Over the next few months we will be highlighting other webcasts that fall into particular themes. In the interim you can find all our webcasts by searching our catalogue using the term ‘webcast’ in the format field and combining that with a subject in the topic field.
We hope that you enjoy listening to these talks and that they inspire you to further your research.
***

As it's cold in August, we have arranged for you to stay home! 

OK it's the not the only reason, but always look on the bright side...! It is National Family History Month and at the GSV we also have plenty of regular talks and sessions that you can access at home.

We have developed a suite of events that are being delivered through our Zoom license.

Our GSV August events are advertised on our website. They include:

• classes conducted by our librarians Linley Hooper and Meg Bate 
• Discussion Circles where you can chat about researching specific topics or geographical areas
• meetings of the Irish Ancestry Group and the International Settlers Group
• DNA talks which will be presented by Alan Rhodes
• sessions to assist you with your Scottish research. 

There is something of interest for everyone. If you did not have an opportunity to attend an event at the Centre now is your opportunity to join online.

Make sure you book! Log in to the GSV website as a member to book your place, and the session details with a clickable link will be emailed back as part of your booking confirmation.

Participate and enjoy our events.

***

National Family History Month is August throughout Australasia!

Family History events are being held during August 2020 by family history groups, libraries, museums, archives, companies and individuals, all celebrating family history related topics.

Events are posted on the National Family History Month website. Check out some of the events already listed at NFHM EVENTS. There are prizes up for grabs for participating in National Family History month events including subscriptions to Ancestryand MyHeritage.See the website for more details: NFHM COMPETITIONS.

Many events are free.

Get involved in National Family History Month this August!

***

Greetings all GSV Members

We really value your continued involvement with GSV and we are working hard to bring you lots of ways of getting your genealogical fix.

As you are aware, the GSV premises are closed until further notice due to the COVID-19 situation, with all staff and volunteers working from home.  This means that we are operating under restricted conditions, including in relation to processing of payments.

Because the office is unattended, any incoming phone calls are redirected to a message advising that our office is closed and to contact the GSV via email at gsv@gsv.org.au, so we are currently unable to process credit card payments over the phone.  

The preferred payment methods at the moment are either online via PayPal or credit card, or via direct deposit to our bank account (details below).  GSV membership renewals can be paid online through ‘Renew Membership’ on our website when logged in.  Payments to our service groups – Scottish Ancestry, Irish Ancestry or International Settlers – can be made by selecting ‘Activities’, ‘Special Interest Groups’, then the applicable group, and clicking on the ‘Renew Online’ button. 

GSV’s Westpac bank account for direct payments is:

Account: Genealogical Society of Victoria

BSB: 033-009

Account No: 38-7919

Please include your membership number/surname as a reference.  If your payment relates to a service group, please also include the service group initials, e.g. SAG 12345.  This ensures that the payment is allocated correctly.

It is still possible to post a cheque to the GSV office, but processing may be delayed.  Mail is only being collected about once a week by one of our volunteers, then the cheques need to be banked and the information emailed to our office administrator for processing into our system.

Thank you for your understanding during these difficult and challenging times.

Best wishes from Linda and the GSV Team

Go to 'About Us' on our website to read about our wonderful staff. They get a big THANKS for carrying on! [ed.]