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)