Author Archives: reminiscor

It all adds up!

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Bowman family tree

The Local History area has a dedicated group of five volunteers who freely give up three days a week to assist patrons with family history help.
Family history volunteers have put in over 2,366 hours in the past year.  
That’s equivalent to over 1 year and 10 weeks of work, based on a 38 hour week.  They have helped over 650 people  from July 2009 to April 2010. 
We have completed our longest family history query, the Bowman family, resulting in 294 names and a printed family tree of 35, A4 pages, stretching over 11.2 metres!

Come and see us for help with your family history.

Bring out your dead!

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The Library has just purchased the SA Death Index of Registrations, 1916 to 1972 in book form .
While we already have this on a CD-ROM, it will be much easier to grab the book if you’re doing a small number of searches. 

Look out for the 11 violet and purple volumes on the Local History shelf.

Hungry for Genealogy?

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Next Wednesday we will hold our first session of Lunch Time Bites, aimed at the genealogist who would like to learn more and have time to discuss topics in an informal setting.

The first topic will be Genealogy and Web2.0 technology, looking at how genealogists can use these sites for family history.  We’ll look at Facebook, Flickr, blogs and wikis.

Bring your lunch and share a cup of coffee with us, next Wednesday 17 February,  from 1.00 – 2.00pm in the Community Learning Centre. 
No bookings required.

Any convicts in the family?

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The family history database  Ancestry, has made available online the Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons 1791-1846 , and the NSW Certificates of Freedom 1827-1867, which “completes” the journey from arrest to release of almost one third of all convicts transported to Australia.
It will allow family members to see whether a convict in their family tree was given an absolute pardon, giving them full citizen rights, or a conditional pardon, which entitled a convict to their freedom but not to return to the UK. Other information already on the website includes applications to marry and death registers.

Technology has also made it possible to view digital images of original documentation and to find out details of people’s occupation and religion and gather a physical description.

Ancestry estimates that more than four million Australians are descended from convicts who were shipped from Britain to Australia’s penal colonies, meaning there is a one in five chance the average Aussie will have an ancestor included in the records.
The Ancestry Library Edition database is available  free, via the Library website , on all the public PCs at the City of Tea Tree Gully Library.

Image courtesy of National Library of Australia – National Treasures

Strangers in a box

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Strangers in a box

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I’ve often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.
I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
There names and all their memories
Are lost among my socks.
I wonder what their lives were like,
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I’ll never know their ways.
If only someone had taken the time
To tell who, what, where or when,
These face of my heritage
Would come to life again.
Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to  be passed away?
Make time to save your stories,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.
Anonymous

You can find out who your strangers in the box might be,  by attending our four-week family history course for beginners.  The course runs on Saturday 13th, 20th, 27th February and Saturday 6th March,  from 2:30 – 4:00pm. 
The free sessions will be held in the local history area, so if you’re interested, book now at the Library or by phone  on 8397 7333.

They’re back!

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The Local History volunteers are back on board after a restful Christmas break. You can see them in the Local History area, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10:30 to 5:00pm.

They are keen to help you in your research and fulfill some of those family history New Year resolutions. 
No questions are too tricky for this wonderful team!

Family history volunteers take a break

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The family history volunteers are taking a well earned break over the festive season. From Thursday 17th December, they will be having a few weeks off, back on board on Tuesday 19th January, 2010.

You can make bookings now for the 2010,  One on One sessions which are on Thursdays, by contacting the Library 0n 83977333.

This year the volunteers have assisted over 850 people resarching their family history! Not a bad effort.

New Year resolutions

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As the year comes to a close, one often sets goals for the new year. For those who have an interest in family history, here are some you may wish to place on your 2010 list.

  1. Get organised. The Local History room can provide charts and forms for you to get started.
  2. Attend some, if not all the exciting family history courses, workshops and talks presented by the Library. Brochure out shortly.
  3. Share the information you have gathered with other members of your family (Web2.0 technology and genealogy will be a focus of the Library next year if you’re not sure how to start).
  4. Learn more about genealogy. The Library has one of the best family history book collections for loan, to suit the new and experienced genealogist.
  5. Be inspired. Borrow from the Library and watch sessions of Who Do You Think You Are. Guaranteed to inspire.
  6.  Meet like – minded individuals who share the genealogy bug. The Local History area on Tuesday to Thursday always has someone to have a yarn to or ask questions.

A goal not written down is only a wish.  Unknown

Haines Memorial Park turns 100!

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PH00081The triangular park located opposite the Tea Tree Gully Hotel is celebrating 100 years as a community park.

The Haines Memorial Park was opened by the Govenor,  Sir Day Hart Bosanquet in 1909. It was also decided that it was to be the first public Arbor Day in Tea Tree Gully. Palms were planted by the vice-regal party and English oaks and plane trees were planted by children along Perseverance Road.
William Haines junior, local land owner, left two pieces of land to the community, this one and Memorial Oval. He stipulated that the park had to be for community use and remain unfenced.

We are celebrating this milestone with a birthday bash on the park on Sunday, 27 September from 9:30 to 11:00am. There will be free children’s games, bbq breakfast and much more. Come along early, watch the Bay to Birdwood as it drives past this location and then come celebrate with us.

Old Photographs

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Do you have any old photographs tucked away in a shoe box at the back of the cupboard?
Would you like to get some tips on how to identify 19th century photos? The Library is running a workshop to help you learn how to identify the type of picture and date from its pictorial content.
Bring along one or two old photographs to identify.

More information and booking details are on our website.