The English Interest Group held its first meeting on Tuesday 24 June at the Cottage with eight enthusiastic members in attendance.

The expertise of the members covered the spectrum from beginners to 25 +  years experience and we look forward to helping each other.

We are indebted to Jean Macleay who took us through the various sections of our Library where we would find information about England, and showed how to find them on the library catalogue.  Then it was into the computer room where Helen Burkett showed off the British Newspapers website and also how to use the National Burial Index.  Thank you Jean and Helen.

One item discussed on our first day was the FreeReg section of the FreeBMD website.  This is an excellent tool for baptisms, marriages and burials pre-1837. 

We also talked about the website www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk    If members think their ancestors’ homes may have historical value, this is a site to search.

In addition to trying to solve members’ problems, we have decided to study one English County per month.  At the 22 July meeting we have chosen to look at the county of Gloucestershire.   In the next four weeks members of the Group will be looking for websites and places with Gloucestershire records and will bring the results of their search back to the Group.  As we progress Webmistress Kate will produce a page for each County with a link from the English Interest Group page. Click here to see what is up so far. At the July meeting we will decide which County to research for the August meeting.

Any member with an interest in English research is very welcome to come to the Group meetings.  Remember – next meeting 22 July at the Cottage from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.

Esther Dean

#23

                                                                                                                                                         Martin Fisher, member 653

Friday the 13th turned out to provide perfect weather for visiting a cemetery. We enjoyed Goldilocks weather, not too hot and not too cold, a little bit overcast but with the Sun making guest appearances throughout the day.  Eighteen of our members joined the bus and travelled down the freeway to Sydney. On arrival at Rookwood we stopped at Reflections cafe for a refreshing cuppa and something to eat before moving in to the cemetery and on with the tour.

I’m reluctant to mention that a certain person forgot to pick up the portable step before we drove out of Toukley shopping centre car park, and there was an altercation between bus and step.........the step lost and we spent the remainder of the day physically bracing what was left of the step with our feet so that the less mobile could alight the bus in safety.  The step has now been replaced with a metal folding one.

A special thanks to our driver Garry Lee, who spent most of the day driving around the maze of roads spreading throughout the 720 acres of Rookwood. With all that practice I’m sure Garry could now navigate around that cemetery blindfolded.

We were expertly guided by that doyen of the cemetery, “Harry (just try keeping me away from Rookwood) Johnston-Lord” who gave an illuminating running commentary about the various occupants of the graves, some of the history of the cemetery and the role the railways played within the grounds. Many thanks to Harry for providing his expertise on this trip.

Throughout the day members left and rejoined the bus as they searched for their relatives graves and I reckon that some of the more enthusiastic members must have covered more ground on foot than the bus covered.

Around about the middle of the day after we had rounded up all those who were on foot, we moved on to the Chinese Pavilion to partake of an enjoyable lunch before some of us recommenced the tour whilst the remainder re-entered the hunt for lost graves, on foot.

About 3:00pm we made our final stop on the tour with a visit to the Australian War Graves site before we departed the cemetery and headed for home, arriving back on the Coast before 5:00pm.

The conversations on the bus during the return journey led me to believe that most members who went on the trip found who/what they were looking for and everyone had an enjoyable day

Personally I rediscovered my brother’s grave which we couldn’t find during last year’s bus trip, probably because we had been misdirected by cemetery staff to the wrong area last year. I also located a family plot containing 7 relatives from my maternal grandmother’s branch of the family. Pre-trip research made it so much easier to find this grave, so it pays to do your homework before you go.

Rookwood cemetery will be holding an open day on Sunday 14th September 2014 but at this stage WHFG has not put in place any arrangements to run a bus trip for this event 

One word for it....

FUN

Honestly, how can it be so much fun torturing yourself over old documents, trying to decipher them?

If you want to learn how to do indexing, let the cottage know. They can compile a list and when we have a group of about 5 we can have another session. It is a super great way to help more free, open access, records get online.

We had about 17 people at the cottage last night, labouring over Tasmanian burial records, American census documents (woah they were hard), some sort of spanish birth certificate thing that was in the beginner basket, but was quickly returned and nicely typed school records.

One of the Tasmanian birth certificates I was indexing caught my eye. It was for a "Walter Ennyson Bates" died in Hobart, 1905. I wondered what kind of name "Ennyson" was so I googled his whole name. Google asked me if I meant "Walter Tennyson Bates" - and after a closer look I realised I did mean that.

He was a very interesting man, a merchant and a musician - a cornet player and a conductor. His mother was a descendent of Tennyson, the great poet. He had a long illness and travelled back to England to try and find a cure, before return to Hobart to die at home.

So there you go. I don't think I added much to the information that is already out there about him, his life is well documented, but I'm glad I took the time to find out how to spell his name properly anyway.

Kate #657

I wasn't really sure what to expect in terms of turn out for this event with the all day Rookwood excursion on the day before. I thought a few people might have been so exhausted at the end of the day that might have stayed down there and had a "little lie down".

However - we had a good turn out of about 9. People came prepared with questions, and we covered a lot of ground.

The focus of this first group was to go over the main features of FamilySearch and Family Tree - and we all learnt something useful and interesting (especially me).

I think the highlights were

1. For me - learning that you can search for a surname with a batch number and pull up all the name listings in the one batch. I didn't even know what a batch was!

2. For everyone else - learning that the batch search feature was still available. Many thought it had been done away with in the upgrades.

3. We looked at the FamilySearch booklet which is a great way to introduce the young people in your life to family history. See it here https://familysearch.org/campaign/myfamily. I can probably get you a free copy if you are interested. 

4. I think we were all surprised at the number of digitised online family history books available through the FamilySearch website. Check it out here https://books.familysearch.org/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=FHD_PUBLIC. If you open these books in your PDF viewer they are searchable.

5. And of course there was the highlight of watching me marry my father to my great great grandmother as a demonstration on how to add someone to the FamilyTree - and then not being able to delete the relationship. I managed to get it sorted, but nearly had to call head quarters for help! 

People went away planning to create their FamilySearch accounts and create their GEDCOM files to upload into FamilyTree. At the next meeting we will see how everyone went with that and learn some new features for searching and storing records.

If you missed this group and are ever interested in learning the basics of family search - contact me by email by clicking here - and I can arrange to meet you at the cottage and go through it.

The group will continue to meet monthly on the second Saturday. Next group scheduled for Saturday 12th July 10am - 12pm at the cottage.

Kate Walter #657

Wyong Family History Group launched its inaugural Family Tree Maker Workshop last Thursday (15th May)

Family Historian, Marie Heilbrunn, catered for the novice, right through to the experienced FTM users,sharing her knowledge and expertise with all there.

Many facets of FTM were covered in the short time available, including uploading portrait photos of ancestors, and incorporating official sources from various records.

There was a full-house in attendance, all of whom were generally impressed with the two hour workshop. So much so, that it was decided to run a regular FTM Interest Group - the details of which will be forthcoming on our website.

Click here for more info

WFHG recently conducted a survey of members where one of the results was a wish by members to have a workshop about researching family history in England.

This workshop was held on Friday 16 May at the Cottage and was attended by 18 members.   The three main resource tools covered were Births, Marriages and Death Records, Census returns and Parish Records.   In addition over 25 other avenues of research were highlighted.   I hope those 18 members have gone home inspired to break down some brick walls.

Arising from the workshop we are now commencing an English Interest Group for members to get together to discuss their research and problems, and reap the benefit of other members’ experiences.  The first meeting of the English Interest Group will be held at the Cottage on Tuesday 24 June from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, and will continue meeting on the 4th Tuesday of each month.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Esther Dean, Life Member

#23

We would love to hear from people who attended this seminar. How did you find it? What did you enjoy?

A GREAT DAY ON THE RIVER

Susan Fisher (654)

We weren’t sure how the day would be as it had been raining the night before and the sky was grey in the morning, but it turned out to be perfect weather for the cruise. Some of our members met on Wyong station, travelling down by train while others chose to drive to Brooklyn.  All 26 of our group arrived in plenty of time for the 10am departure on the Riverboat Postman.

Not long after we left the jetty, we were given morning tea, with a choice of either coffee or tea and the best Anzac biscuit we’ve had, so thin and crunchy with everyone wanting more and happy to pay a dollar for the recipe. On the reverse side of the recipe was a map of the route we would be taking.

The first mail drop off was Dangar Island. Last November our group had visited here and learnt about the history, so it was good to see the island again.

Once we left Dangar Island the skipper, Justin, turned the boat westward and we headed off up-river to deliver mail, supplies and river locals who don't have their own boats, to the water access only settlements of Danger Island, Kangaroo Point, Milson's Island, Bar Point, Marlow Creek, Fisherman's Point and Milson's Passage.

We passed under the railway bridge and then the road bridge, all the while being given a running commentary from Justin on the history of how the bridges were built.

The sandstone formations on the shores of the river are really beautiful. The actions of the wind, rain and tide over time carving the most unusual and colourful shapes into the Hawkesbury sandstone.

In the distance we could see an old hulk in the mud on the bank of the river. Justin informed us that this was the hull of the first HMAS Parramatta which was commissioned in 1911 and was decommissioned in 1928. After being stripped at Cockatoo Island Dockyard the hull was sold to NSW Penal Department who used it to house prison labourers whilst they were building roads along the river. When being towed down the river in gale conditions the tow rope broke and the hull ran aground in the mangroves where it remains to this day.

Some of the jetties on the river have public phone boxes.  Justin explained that once a month a man from Telstra cleans all the phone boxes, whilst the mail is being delivered to the settlements.  As it’s a fairly easy day he relaxes with a beer or two on the way, as the day goes on more drinking is done and less cleaning.

We passed by Bar Island where there is a cemetery, ruins of the church, an old cottage and a memorial.

The Ploughman’s Lunch was delicious, add to that a beer or two, a glass of wine, tea or coffee, talking with friends, watching the beautiful scenery go by, the day was perfect.

Justin was friendly, very informative keeping us amused along the way with stories of things that happened over the years. As he lives on the river Justin is well versed with all the daily happenings that go on along the river.  Justin really brought the river alive with his stories of homes having names such as “Tumbledown” and “Blotto Grotto”. You’ll have to go on the trip to find out where those names came from.

We arrived back at Brooklyn at 1.15pm with ½ an hour to spare for the train, enough time to climb all the steps at the station and board the train for home.  We were so lucky that the rain had stayed away and everyone agreed that it was a great day out.