News - April 2024
Saturday 20th April - 2:00 pm Annual General Meeting
VENUE: St Marks Church Hall, Scott Street, Bellerive
GUEST SPEAKER: Malcolm Ward
TOPIC: My long journey to discover my Ward family history (I found I'm really a Butler)
Dr Malcolm Ward is a retired geologist who lives in Orford. When he retired, he undertook a PhD in History at UTAS, with the life of George Meredith as his subject. After finishing that, he has been researching and publishing articles on various aspects of Tasmanian colonial history and is currently Vice President of the Tasmanian Historical Research Association (THRA). He has also written and co- authored several books on historic colonial buildings in Hobart and on the east coast and counts tracing property history as one of his current fields of expertise.
He began his interest in family history as a teenager, but the passion only really developed in his 30s. He has published books on his Thorne, Ward, Seabrook, Reid, and Shakespeare family histories.
His Ward family history proved the most difficult of them all and took 25 years to finally unravel and in the talk, Malcolm will describe the problems he encountered, and some solutions employed. This history includes episodes in London, Napoleonic War sea battles, the foundation of Hobart Town, Port Arthur, Forcett, Lewisham and Bellerive Post Office where TFHS is located.
NOTE: The Branch Library will be CLOSED for the afternoon on Saturday 20 April to allow library assistants and others to attend the AGM.
More for Your Diary
Thu 18 Apr - 10.00am Branch Committee Meeting
VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive
Thu 18 Apr - 1.30pm DNA Group Meeting
VENUE: St Marks Church Hall, Scott Street, Bellerive
Thu 25 Apr - 2pm Library Committee
VENUE: Branch Library, Bellerive
Tue 21 May - 7:30pm General Meeting
VENUE: Old Sunday School, St Johns Park Precinct
SPEAKER: Maree Ring
TOPIC: From Home to Gallipoli: what our World War 1 soldiers ate!
From Your Branch President
Let's talk about funerals. Or should I say Hobart Branch's unique collection of Funeral Registers for the Hobart area - an underappreciated and underutilised resource. Have you ever used it to get details of a deceased family member?
Since 2003 Hobart Branch has been indexing and publishing in book form the names recorded in Funeral Registers, as maintained by the various undertakers in the Hobart area over the past 135 years. These records are an invaluable asset to any family historian interested in families from the Hobart area, and especially so for:
- deaths that occur after 1930 when the Tasmanian Federation Index to Deaths ceases
- deaths not published in a newspaper, and
- deaths after 1954 when information ceases for all Tasmanian newspapers on TROVE.
The details recorded in the Funeral Registers are not uniform or consistent from company to company and often differ from one time period to another. But some are a wealth of information and may contain details not available anywhere else.
Copies of the indexes produced by Hobart Branch are available for purchase or may be viewed at the Hobart Branch Library. If you find a funeral you are interested in, Hobart Branch holds images of the original pages from all of the undertakers' funeral record books (except Pierce J Keating, and for those there is a transcription). The image of the original pages may be viewed at the Branch Library.
More information: https://www.hobart.tasfhs.org/funeral_registers.php
A big thankyou to the Monday Group of volunteers who work tirelessly on this project.
Ros Escott president@hobart.tasfhs.org
Vacant Branch Committee Positions
At this stage we still have a couple of vacancies for the coming year. If you are interested in knowing more about what that entails (it is not a lot really) please talk to one of the existing committee members or email the secretary but do it soon.
Books for a Gold Coin
The Branch was recently given a collection of history-related books from the estate of a deceased member. We have accessioned those that we thought should be placed in the Branch library but there are fifty or so books left over. These tend to be UK focussed and many focus on a specific region.
They will be offered to members for a gold coin donation after the AGM this Saturday.
Branch Library Car Park
Some years ago, then secretary, Howard Reeves marked out and painted white parking lines in the Branch library car park. They are important to ensure safe parking and keeping our allocated spaces free from others. The paint has slowly faded and is in need of refreshing. We are looking for a volunteer to help with this one quiet weekend. If you think you could help or would like to know more about it, please contact Maurice at the Branch library. library@hobart.tasfhs.org or 62 459351.
Renewing Your Membership For 2024 - 2025
DON'T DELAY!
RENEW TODAY!
Our membership fees for the current year 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 are now due.
The renewal form was posted with the Tasmanian Ancestry Journal Vol 44 No. 4 in early March. If you have not yet paid your subscription and have misplaced the renewal form, please let us know at membership@tasfhs.org and we will arrange a replacement.
Payment methods are endorsed on the renewal form.
Members can now renew online by debit/credit card through our website. For more details copy the following to your address bar https://www.tasfhs.org/renewals
This will reduce the societies bank charges and save time for our hard-working volunteers.
Direct deposit, cheques or postal orders are still acceptable.
If using direct deposit, it is very important that your 8-digit CRN is used as the reference.
In the past a number of deposits have been made that can't be identified due to lack of CRN details. The CRN is clearly marked on the front, bottom right-hand side of the renewal form.
If using Debit/Credit card, please ensure that your card is current, the card number is entered clearly and in full and that the expiry date (mm/yy) is entered as well.
Cheques are still acceptable and should be sent to:
Membership Registrar TFHS INC PO Box 326 ROSNY PARK TAS 7018
We look forward to your continued membership and hope you enjoy the articles in Tasmanian Ancestry.
Oral History Workshop
Jill Cassidy will conduct an oral history workshop in Launceston on Saturday May 25 for Oral History Tasmania. It will cover all aspects of oral history practice. Topics include the value of oral history, the use of equipment, preparation for an interview and interview technique, along with ethics and alternatives to transcription. There will be a demonstration of OHT's digital recorder, available for hire, and participants will do practice interviews and listen to interview excerpts.
Cost of the workshop is $50 for non-members of OHT and $30 for students. Prior registration is essential: go to www.oralhistorytas.org.au .Enquiries to Jill on 0418 178 098, Lana on 0435 861 927 or president@oralhistorytas.org.au
Female Convicts Research Centre Seminar
Presented in partnership with the School of Humanities, UTAS
Freedom: Time served, moving on
Sunday 5 May 2024, 9.00 am - 3.00 pm at the Stanley Burbury Theatre, University of Tasmania
Registration options:
- In-person attendance: $60.00 plus 50c TryBooking fee (includes morning tea and lunch)
- Zoom webinar attendance: $40.00 plus 50c TryBooking fee.
https://femaleconvicts.org.au/fcrc-seminars/seminar-registration
Library Accessions March 2024
Books
ยท Alexander, James and Alison; THE HOPKINS BICENTENARY - Henry and Sarah Hopkins arrived in Hobart Town, 10 September 1822 (Celebrated by their descendants; Hobart, 10 Sep 2022) [Q929.2 HOP]
* Aplin, Graeme; S.G. Foster, Michael McKernan, 'Eds; AUSTRALIANS Events and Places [994 APL]
* Atkinson, Alan; Marian `, Eds; AUSTRALIANS 1828 [994 ATK]
* Borchardt, D.H., Ed; AUSTRALIANS A Guide to Sources [994 BOR]
Coal River Valley Historical Society Inc; 200 YEARS IN THE VALLEY - Celebrating the Bicentenary of Richmond (Journal 7, Jan 2024)
* Colour Library Books Ltd; TRADITIONAL BRITISH CRAFTS [Q680 TRA]
* Curthoys, Ann; A.W. Martin, Tim Rowsc; Eds. AUSTRALIANS from 1939 [994 CUR]
* Leitch, B; THE JAM FACTORY [994.6 LEI]
* Nicolson, Nigel; GREAT HOUSES OF BRITAIN [Q728.80942 NIC]
* Radi, Heather; 200 AUSTRALIAN WOMEN - A Redress Anthology[920.094 RAD]
* Stanley, Peter; THE REMOTE GARRISON - The British Army in Australia, 1788-1870 [355.00904 STA]
*Thomas, Bertram 'Snow'; SNOW AT NORTH DOWN - 91 Years from 1931 (Recollections and Letters of Bertram (Snow) Thomas [Q929.2 THO]
* Denotes complimentary or donated item
Birth Deaths and Marriages
Earlier this year we announced the release of a new members-only website designed to deliver increased value for our members. It features a free-to-use online version of TAMIOT and provides a quicker and safer way to renew your membership and many of you have used it over the last month.
We are now please to advise that we have just added a Tasmanian Births Deaths and Marriages search tool. It is based upon the same data as Libraries Tasmania's Names Index but also offers fast and complex searching and sorting, such as Digger products used to offer.
You will find it under the Resources menu tab. The first step, if you haven't already done so, is to register for the first time with the members-only website
When registering, you will need to choose a username of your choice, a password and enter the email address which is recorded with the Society. Once completed, you will receive an email with a link to click. After that, you will be able to login.
Major General Robert Harley Wordsworth
