QFHS Management Committee 2024-2025

Kevin Haley

President

Kevin joined QFHS in March 1987 and, later that year, volunteered as a Library Assistant for the Monday evening openings, then continuously for the next 35 years filled one or more sessions per month until evening openings were terminated on the move to Chermside.

Over the years, Kevin has worked on numerous tasks for the Society. He has served on the Management Committee from 2013 to 2022: four years as President, and three years as Vice President.

Kevin will use his skills and experience to provide continuing good governance of the Society.

Lyndal Cosgrove

Secretary

 Lyndal's particular areas of interest for the Society are contributing to the Management Committee (over quite a few years now), as Members Interests Co-Ordinator and as Speaker Co-ordinator for the Members Lounge Presenting... program.

Lyndal also edits our quarterly journal, Queensland Family Historian, creating the journals from 2008 onwards with coloured photos and weblinks ready to be added to the website for members. To assist researchers find names mentioned in published articles, she indexes the current journals to add to the searchable dataset Names Index.

In 2020, Lyndal was honoured to receive the Society's Services to Family History Award.

Graeme Drew

Treasurer

Graeme has been researching his family history since the 1980s. His introduction to QFHS was through volunteering with ORCA, a group which works with young post-high school students with disabilities to improve skills to gain future employment. Graeme accompanied a student from that group on their work experience at QFHS earlier this year and was impressed with the friendly and welcoming environment afforded both of them during their weekly visits.

He subsequently joined QFHS and is involved in the monthly meetings of the Family Historian group. Graeme retired in 1998 and has been volunteering with a number of organisations in Brisbane since 2001. His entire work background was in the financial sector and a number of past volunteering activities have been involved with financial aspects of the various organisations.

Graeme will work with the Management Committee to provide members with an ever-evolving platform to enhance their endeavours with family history research.

Carmel Bell

Committee Member

Carmel originally took the plunge into the rabbit warren of family history about 35 years ago. She says there have been many 'eureka!' moments, many frustrated sighs and many tears shed when finding a heartbreaking event in an ancestor’s life and would not have missed a single moment of it. 

Over the years of researching family history, she has learned much and met many interesting and knowledgeable people - and none more so, she says, than the members of QFHS.

Having completed her first year as a member of the QFHS Management Committee (and ‘wow, what a year it has been!’), Carmel is amazed by the passion and commitment demonstrated by members of the Management Committee and general members over this very busy period.

Although there were some challenging times, she feels she has grown in knowledge, skill and confidence, and is looking forward to learning more and sharing her newfound skills.  Carmel continues to work with the Subscription Journals team and manages liaison between the ORCA Project and the Society providing the young people involved with a welcoming environment and valuable skill development.

Greg Crawford

Committee Member

Born and educated in Brisbane, Greg worked in technical design and then general management in a variety of merchants and manufacturers. 

A QFHS member for only 3 years, he has established management structures and conducted training programs in the areas of emergency planning, risk assessment and fire safety at Chermside. 

Greg's research interests lie in our convict past, and family history in Bromsgrove and Belchamp, both in England. 

Clem Ditton

Committee Member

Clem started his family history research journey in 1986 in Canberra, the year his first child was born, and joined QFHS soon after moving to Brisbane in 1995. His participation in the Society has expanded since retirement from a career in IT. Clem is Coordinator of the Technical Advisory Group (aka the TAG team) and is focussed on the development of a new website for the Society. 

Clem is a Library Assistant and an active member of several Special Interest Groups, particularly the Family History Writers group. Writing is a particular joy and he has contributed a number of articles to the Society’s journal and published a book in 2021 Shaking the Mulga, an Australian family history which, to his delight, won the 2022 QFHS Family History Book Award.

Clem's particular focus on the MC is to continue helping the Society achieve our strategic priority to enhance our digital footprint.

Dette Glenday

Committee Member

Dette has been a member of QFHS since the late ‘80s when she started researching her grandmother’s 20 siblings.  Since then, her family tree has grown to encompass not only their families but many others from Irish, English and French lines.

Dette has been a Library Assistant since 1990 and took over the role of LA Roster Coordinator in 2017.  In that role, she manages a roster of 32 Library Assistants and contributes to their training.  Resulting from research into her husband’s Anglo-Indian family background, Dette now co-convenes with Wendy Angliss the Colonial India and Far East Interest Group.

As a member of the Management Committee, Dette hope to encourage more members to use the Society’s resources both in person at the Research Centre at Chermside and online through the QFHS website.

John Haberacht

Committee Member

 John has been a member of QFHS for many years but only recently started to become more actively involved.  Now semi-retired, he's recently taken on a role in the Education team.

John has ancestors from Germany, Poland, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England, and recently discovered an Indian connection, with his maternal GG grandfather apparently having been born in Calcutta. No wonder he couldn’t be found in Yorkshire!

John worked as a palliative care nurse for decades and spent the latter part of his career with Queensland Health educating health professionals about palliative care. With his background in education, he is keen to contribute to the Society's education activities in whatever way is helpful.

Over the years, John has contributed to a number of nursing and palliative care organisations and seeks to bring the benefit of that experience to the Management Committee so that QFHS continues to be an organisation that serves its members and volunteers well.

Lyn Hooper

Committee Member

 After retiring over 20 years ago and spending time at U3A, Lynn took up her twin sister's suggestion to join an association and look into their family history. From just the few aunties and uncles they knew about, it was amazing how quickly Lyn started to find out about their father’s family in Lancashire and Devon and later their mother’s family in Germany and Holland.  She is still discovering her German ancestry and their settlement in Queensland – none of which was achieved but by joining QFHS and using the Society's facilities and assistance.

When Lyn began volunteering at QFHS, she was entrusted to transfer to the computer all of the microfiche the Society held and what a mammoth job that was! She was awarded the Services to Family History Award in 2014. Then followed various positions such as Library Assistant, LA trainer, scanning of shipping and school records at the Archives, indexing the Schools and joining the Print Library team and her knowledge in the field of family history expanded rapidly.

Lyn was excited to be the scanner of the Les Moreland German scrapbooks and discovered more about her own family history in the process. She wants to ensure that these types of initiatives continue and see the exciting developments in our digitisation projects and our new Research Kiosk facility go ahead without delay.

Lyn encourages any new member, once they find their feet, to look at volunteering for the Society to learn about what is happening and also for the friendships that can be forged.

Charlotte Sale

Committee Member

Charlotte's interest in family history began in the 1990s and she has now researched her family’s lives in more than ten different countries.

Joining QFHS in 2012, Charlotte volunteered as a Library Assistant soon after. She was first on the Management Committee in 2014-15, and then as Vice President from 2019-2021. Charlotte presently convenes the Welsh Interest Group and is a tutor for the popular Finding your family: the fundamentals of research which the Society runs twice yearly.

Charlotte rejoined the Management Committee in September last year and, for the last six months has led the Society's review of our Constitution and By-Laws. She expects to bring the draft of a new Constitution and By-Laws to the membership later in 2024