Family History Course for Beginners

Anstey the Echidna researches his family tree

Have you ever thought about starting your family tree? Interested in where you came from but not sure where to start?

Come along to our Family History Course for Beginners. This course will be run every Saturday morning for four weeks by our Local History team. Over the four sessions you will be taught how to find information about your family, and how to record the information you find.

Dates: Saturday 6, 13, 20, 27 August
Time: 10:00 – 11:30am
Venue: City of Tea Tree Gully Library Local History Area
Cost: Free

There are limited spaces available for this course, so book now!

Finding families

The Local History room had a visitor today who had come to us a few months ago to pursue her husband’s Hungarian family tree. She came back this afternoon to tell us about their trip to Hungary in search of long-lost relatives.

Our customer arrived in the area the family were from and asked around at many places including the local town hall. They had a few difficulties with language barriers, but eventually got through to a staff member who spoke English and could understand what they were looking for. After being told that the staff member would take some time to gather as much information as possible, our customer and her husband went for a walk to pass the time. When they came back they were told that a cousin would be there very shortly to pick them up so they could stay with him!

Our customer found this to be an amazing experience and said the cousin looked exactly like many others in her husband’s family. They stayed with these new-found family members and were sent off a few days later with food and many newly formed friendships.

This is just one example of how exciting it can be to discover your family history. Come talk to our friendly staff and volunteers and start yours today!

History Bites

Have you ever thought about how everyday life might have been different 150 years ago? Here’s your chance to find out.

The first History Bites talk for this year is coming up on Wednesday 23 March at 6:30pm. It will be held in the Community Learning Centre and is all about life in the Victorian era. Discover what your ancestors would have seen, done, worn or even eaten. No bookings are necessary, just come along!

Journaling your family history

Have you ever thought about keeping a journal of your family history research?
It’s different from a research log – instead of just names, dates and facts, a journal records your feelings and opinions on finding out about your ancestors.
It can be a fun and helpful way to reflect on your work and uncover information you may have missed.
Our final Lunch Time Bites session for the year will be on Wednesday 17 November from 1:00pm in the Community Learning Centre.
If you’re interested in keeping a research journal and want to know where to start, come along and find out. Don’t forget to bring your lunch!

Celebrating Our Successes: Heritage Heroes Award

(L-R): Geoff (Local History Volunteer), Pam (Local History Volunteer), David (Local History Officer), June (Local History Volunteer), Melaina (Librarian, Library Partnerships)

Did you know the City of Tea Tree Gully Library’s Local History Volunteers were recently recognised as finalists for the Heritage Heroes Award?

 The Heritage Heroes Award is an annual award which celebrates South Australia’s heritage. It is open to volunteers working in a heritage field or organisation. The “One on One Family History Help,” project was nominated, which developed in 2009 in response to a growing interest in family history. It has gone from strength to strength over the past year with its popularity far exceeding initial expectations. Collectively the Local History Volunteers have donated 2,594 hours of their time and assisted more than 850 people during 2009 to 2010.

 In addition, Melaina Tate, Librarian for Library Partnerships, here at the City of Tea Tree Gully Library recently gave a short presentation at last weeks Council meeting on the 14^th September to celebrate the Heritage Heroes Award and acknowledge the time and dedication our Local History Volunteers share with the community.

 The City of Tea Tree Gully Library simply could not achieve all the things we do without the support, hard work and ideas of our volunteers.

 If you are interested in making a booking with our fabulous Local History Volunteers for One on One Family History Help please contact the City of Tea Tree Gully Library on (08) 8397 7444.

What’s been happening in Local History?

It’s been a busy few weeks in the Local History Room, with the volunteers hard at work and Local History Officer David setting into his new role.

Wednesday evening saw the final session of the Family History Course for Beginners, where ten eager genealogists in training attended four sessions to learn about how to kick-start their family history research. There was a very positive response and it will be great to see the progress they make with their family trees.

The Web 2.0 and Genealogy sessions have also been going well. This year saw the introduction of these specialised courses to show family history enthusiasts how to use Web 2.0 technology such as Facebook, blogs, Google and wikis to help them in their research. The next sessions will be held on Monday 11 October and Thursday 14 October and we’ll be looking at message boards and forums. Bookings open Friday 24 September, so stay tuned for more information!

Another feature of the Local History program of events that was newly introduced this year was Lunch Time Bites – informal talks about various areas of genealogy, where you can bring your lunch and chat to other like-minded researchers. Our next one is called “An illustrated field guide for cemetery explorers”, and David Wald will be in to talk about the wealth of information to be found in cemeteries. It will be on Wednesday 15 September from 1:00pm and there’s no need to book.

As always, our friendly volunteers are available for one-on-one Family History help on Thursdays, so phone 8397 7333 to book some time with them.

Farewell for now…

In the last week the Library has said farewell to two very valuable and well loved members of staff.

Emma with some cute baby clothes!

Our Systems Librarian Emma Hayes has taken maternity leave for twelve months and we wish her all the very best for the arrival of her baby in April.

We will miss Emma’s smiling face and calm, caring nature but look forward to seeing her and bubs at Baby Bounce later in the year!

Daina with her parting gift

Congratulations to Local History Officer Daina Pocius, who is leaving Tea Tree Gully Library to take up a new role at the City of Playford as Heritage Coordinator.
We wish Daina all the very best in this new, exciting role and we thank her so much for all the terrific work she has done here to promote and develop local and family history in Tea Tree Gully. 

Daina’s  expertise and sense of humour will be greatly missed by staff, volunteers and library patrons!

It all adds up!

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!

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?

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.