Family History Meeting

The first Saturday of the month, the day on which our Family History Group meets,  is nearly upon us. Members and visitors are invited to attend our activities on Saturday September 1.

 The 11:00 am Forum is a “My Brick-walls” Q & A Session where attendess will offer suggestions to help others smash through their brick walls.  At 2:00 pm following the General Meeting the guest speaker, Geoff Hammond, a descendant of the North Shore's Hammond Butcher family, will present a history of family butchers in the area  "From North Shore Family Butchery to??"

Hornsby Library Talk

Members might be interested in this talk at Hornsby Library on Wednesday evening at 6:30pm. Local Family Historian, Peter Booth will be presenting "Tips and Tricks for the Family Historian".

Bookings are essential as these talks are very popular.

Venue:  Hornsby Central Library
Location: 28-44 George St (Entrance in Hunter Lane) Hornsby NSW 2077
Time: 6:30pm
Cost: $5
Contact:  Hornsby Central Library
Phone:  9847 6614

“Saturated With Filth and Corruption”: NSW History?

The Society has received news from The Royal Australian Historical Society of the 2012 State History Conference, “Saturated With Filth and Corruption”: NSW History? ,  taking place on 20-21 October 2012 at Rowers on Cooks River,  (1 Levey Street, Wolli Creek, Sydney).

Information and online registration details can be found  here on The Royal Australian Historical Society Website.

Annual General Meeting

Ann Barry presided at her last Society meeting today after serving four years as President. Also retiring was Doug Milne who had served as Treasurer for fifteen years and Jenny Joyce who had been a Committee member for five years. Yvette Reeve, Minute Secretary stepped down after two years service.

Presentations were made to retiring officers to thank them for their efforts on behalf of the Society. The commendations were supported wholeheartedly by the large group of members who were present at the meeting.

Ann stood down as President after the annual reports had been presented and ratified and Kevin Callinan, Returning Officer, took over to conduct the Annual Election of Executive Committee Members. Those elected for the 2012-2013 term were:

President : Jackie van Bergen
Vice-Presidents : Jo Harris, Graham Lewis
Treasurer : Peter Stehn
Minute Secretary : Trish Thomson

Committee : Jill Ball, Helen Davies, Jennifer Harvey, Lorna Watt

Guest speaker, Carol Baxter, told us about the research she carried out for her book "Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady" . Carol, who has visited the Society on two prior occasions, once again enthralled the audience with her lively and informative presentation.

Researching NZ Family History

Graham Lewis - Ready to present

Thank you to Graham Lewis, our Society webmaster and Fellow of the Society of Australian Genealogists for delivering a very informative presentation " Researching New Zealand Family History" in our rooms this afternoon.  

Graham who has been researching his family history since the seventies was born and brought up in NZ and has "lots of NZ ancestors". He has gathered many New Zealand family history resources over that time.

Among the things we learnt was a nifty way to narrow down a search to an exact date of birth when using the online New Zealand Birth Index at www.bdm.govt.nz . Graham also demonstrated the value of membership of The New Zealand Society of Genealogists, www.genealogy.org.nz, for those with NZ ancestry.

All members of the small group that attended this event went away with enhanced knowledge to apply to their New Zealand research.

Outline for Graham's talk

Where and what is Ku-ring-gai?

Suburbs in Ku-ring-gai (Source Wikipedia)

An overseas visitor to this blog asked a question about the origins of Ku-ring-gai. Rather then reinvent the wheel we direct our curious visitors to the articles on our Society website that explain the history of the area in general and those about individual suburbs.

Introduction  

Gordon 

Killara 

Ku-ring-gai 

Lindfield 

 

Pymble 

Roseville 

St Ives 

Turramurra 

Wahroonga 

 

Warrawee 

Further information can be found on the About Ku-ring-gai page on the Council website.

Kiwi Connections?

Did your ancestors come to Australia via New Zealand? Did some of your convicts move to New Zealand to start a new life? Would you like to hear about resources for locating your cousins in New Zealand?

Graham Lewis, will be leading a Society Workshop “Researching NZ family history” in the Society rooms next Thursday 16 August 1.30 – 3.00 pm  Cost $5

Bookings are essential: by email to khs@khs.org.au, by phoning the rooms, or dropping in to fill out the  booking sheet with your name and contact telephone number.

Steamer shooting rapids, Wanganui River, New Zealand.
(Source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/5015575433/in/photostream)

Annual General Meeting

Carol Baxter

Our General Meeting and Annual General Meeting will be held  at 2:00 pm on Saturday 18th August, 2012 and will include the election of Officebearers.

Following the formalities we will be entertained by local author and genealogist, Carol Baxter, who will share the fascinating story behind her book of "Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady", the true story of New England bushranger Frederick Ward and Mary Ann Bugg.

Carol Baxter is an adjunct lecturer at the University of New England, Fellow of the Society of Australian Genealogists, and author of An Irresistible Temptation and Breaking the Bank. Her website is www.carolbaxter.com

The Society warmly welcomes visitors to its meetings and events.

Elections for Officers and Committee - Nominations due tomorrow

The Society’s Annual General Meeting will be held after the General Meeting on Saturday 18 August, before the guest speaker.

All positions of Officers and Committee Members are open, and Society Members are invited to nominate.

Nominations must be with the Returning Officer by Saturday 11 August.  Completed nomination forms can be left in the Returning Officer’s folder on the table in the Research Centre.

Treasures from Trove - 10 August 1933

The Sydney Morning Herald from 1942 to 1954 is digitised on the Trove site from the National Library of Australia. The KHS blog will, from time to time, post articles from  Trove , relating to the history of the Ku-ring-gai  area.

The articles on Trove are a valuable resource for local history and genealogy research.

Preserve or Perish

Gail Davis, Senior Archivist at State Records NSW, stepped in at the last minute to present the seminar  Managing Local Collections  to our members and guests yesterday.

Gail Davis at Ku-ring-gai

We thank State Records and Gail for her fact-filled presentation and the takeaway of detailed handouts . Although she had never given this presentation before and had not had an opportunity to view the slides before facing our group Gail, a long-time employee of State Records,  did an amazing job in sharing their contents with us. Gail made what had the potential to be a dry subject most interesting by illustrating her talk with stories and examples from her time at State Records.

The topics Gail covered in two and a half hours were:

Archival collection management systems
Arranging and describing your collection
Collection policies, donor forms and accessioning
Conservation and preservation strategies
Developing an access policy
So you want to digitise your collection
Storage: avoiding the pitfalls

This content has provided much food for thought for society representatives at the seminar. As well as members from our Society your blogger chatted with members of societies from Manly-Warringah, Willoughby and Wyong and with staff members from the neighbouring Ku-ring-gai Library.

Ku-ring-gai Library staff

Happy attendees

Mystery Man

The guest speaker at tomorrow's Family History Group meeting at 2:00 pm is billed as a "Mystery Man" who will entertain us. Who is he? What is his story?

Members and visitors will need to attend  the meeting tomorrow in our rooms to seek an answer to this question.

At 11:00 am members and visitors are invited to a workshop which will focus on "Exploring intranet resources".  The Society has a large number of genealogy resources that are available in the rooms via the Society intranet.

The general format for activities on the first Saturday of the month (except January) is for there to be a workshop between 11:00 am and 1:00pm, a break for lunch when people can stay in the rooms for a chat, a cuppa and some lunch or wander down the street at Gordon to find some sustenance. At 2:00 pm there is a general meeting chaired by Family History Group leader, Jo Harris, followed by a guest speaker. Afternoon tea and drawing of the monthly raffle conclude the proceedings.

Panel of guest speakers at a recent Family History meeting

Free Workshop at KHS - Open to All

State Records, in partnership with the Royal Australian Historical Society, will be holding a series of free workshops on Managing Local Collections in regional NSW between July and December 2012. 
The session will include the following topics:
• Compiling and managing databases
• Digitising records and photographs
• Paper collection indexing, housing, storage, and temperature control
• Providing access to records
• Arranging and describing collections
• Accessioning procedures
• Do’s and Don’ts of storage

On Wednesday August, 8th The Ku-ring-gai Historical Society will be hosting one of these workshops with Janette Pelosi at its rooms 799 Pacific Highway, Gordon from 10:30 am until 1:30 pm. All interested parties are invited to attend this event. Please contact the Society via email, khs@khs.org.au,  or telephone, (02) 9499 4568, to indicate your attendance.

KHS - A Social Society

Irish Day Feast at KHS

The Ku-ring-gai Historical Society is a very social place where members enjoy meeting together in person for research and education.

As the Society recognises the value of Social Media in today's world it has taken the decision to embrace these new forms of  communication. The Society is pleased to announce that, from today, it will be using this blog and a new Facebook page to provide details about Society events and as information and education resources for Society members and the community.

We look forward to reaching out to both Society members and new contacts through this blog. We hope that  you will say hello by leaving comments on our blog posts and by liking our Facebook page.

If you you find yourself in Gordon, please call into our Society rooms and say hello in person.