It was great to see so many Club members at the meeting on 5 August. The topic was Australian Electoral Rolls. I’ve listed a few helpful websites below. After coffee break was time for members to raise family history issues and also to recommend a book that might set your ancestors in context: ‘Convicts, Capitalists and Corruption’; Nubrygyn and the Colony’s settlement west of the Great Divide by Kate Gadsby. Check it out on https://www.kategadsby.com/
As August is Family History month there are several of our previous meeting posters on display in the Hall. The group has been running since 2013 and we’ve covered a huge range of topics.
The next meeting will be on 2 September and I will post the subject here once its been finalised. New members are most welcome. Note that the Activity fee has increased to $5 from July with savings if you use a voucher.
Still in August – we have a small group who use, or plan to use, Family Tree Maker to record their research results. The next meeting is on Thursday 12 August at 10.00 in the Hall. Bring along your lap top if you can and any questions about using Family Tree Maker. We have several members who are very familiar with the software and can help at the meeting, or if you would like assistance and cannot attend, could possibly help outside the group. Let me know. If there are any changes to this meeting I will post an update. At the July meeting we covered adding media to a person, bowtie charts, creating a calendar and using ‘places’ in the tool bar. One topic for August will be how to word sources of facts – what is the protocol.
The DNA Group has now met several times and new members are always welcome – the next meeting is on Thursday 26 August at 10.00 in the Hall. Bring along any queries and, if you wish, your lap top with your DNA results.
If you have any queries about the Family History Group please give me a call.
Australian Electoral Rolls
A good place to start is the research guide on the National Library website www.nla.gov.au- search by ‘Electoral rolls’. Open the page for the State you are interested in. To search for a specific name on line we have to go to either Ancestry or FindMyPast and the research guide gives the date range for each website – note this a range and you’ll need to check that your years for your location are covered. These are subscription sites but you can access from home with a Library readers card (free). Alternatively visit the Library and use the computers there or the microfiche and microfilm. More years are available on microfiche there and the staff are very helpful.
A couple of other sources for names are the two suffrage petitions which have been digitised. The Victorian petition is on the Parliament of Victoria website https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/about/the-history-of-parliament/womens-suffrage-petition/womens-petition and contains about 30,000 signatures. The South Australian petition is shorter with about 11,600 signatures. it is on the Centre of democracy website https:centreofdemocracy.sa.gov.au/suffrage petition/
Updated 6 August 2021
