Fridays@QFHS

Contribute to Wikipedia: what and how

Presenter: Dr Kerry Raymond

Learn what local and family history information can be added to Wikipedia, and learn how to add the information to Wikipedia. This is an hands-on computer course. Participants should have basic computer skills, e.g. using a web browser, copy-and-paste, basic word processing such as Microsoft Word.

The presenter, Dr Kerry Raymond, is a local and family historian, and is the first Wikipedian-in-Residence at the State Library of Queensland.

Register Online

DNA testing and genealogy: the basics

Presenter: Ann Swain

Are you interested in DNA testing to extend your family history or are you confused by test results?

This session will cover the basic biology and jargon so you can understand what the three main types of genetic genealogy DNA tests can give you. It will also cover the interpretation of the test results.

Register Online

Beginners German research workshop (August)

Presenter: Dr Keith Treschman

In this workshop,  Dr Keith Treschman will assist those who wish to trace their family into Germany.

It would be preferable if you have an Australian death certificate of your German ancestor, which may give the birthplace and the number of years in the colony.

The aim is to find an emigration record, details of birthplace, possible places for records in Germany, and avenues for future research.

One-on-one help will be available during the session. 

Register Online

Research in South Australia and the Northern Territory

Presenter: Bob Thistlethwaite and Chris Schuetz

Many people from Britain and Europe came to South Australia during the 19th century. Many moved on; some to Queensland and also some to the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory was part of South Australia from 1863 to 1911.

Compared to the volume of shipping on the southern clipper route, only a few immigrant vessels came to Queensland via the northern route through the Torres Straits, but many merchant vessels plied regularly between Asian ports and Darwin. These merchant vessels also carried passengers.

If your family members were in South Australia or the Northern Territory, this session will help you to find their records.

Register Online

Wikipedia, beyond the basics: photos and more

Presenter: Dr Kerry Raymond

This is an hands-on-computer course. Topics to be covered include photos, categories, infoboxes, and Talk pages.

Participants should have attended one of the previous introductory courses 'Contribute to Wikipedia' at QFHS (or have prior experience contributing to Wikipedia using the Visual Editor).

Please check before the session that you can remember your Wikipedia user name and password (and do any password recovery or new account creation before arriving).

If possible, participants should bring a USB drive containing:

• a digital photo of a church (or other community building). It must be a photo you have taken yourself; do not bring other people's photos.

• a scan (or digital photo) of an old photo of a church (or other community building) taken in Australia before 1955 (check your family photo albums).

In both cases, you should know the name and approximate location of the building (e.g. Smallville Town Hall or St Peter's Catholic Church at Bigtown) and the approximate date of the photo (very rough approximations will do for historic photos, e.g. 1930s)

The presenter, Dr Kerry Raymond, is a local and family historian, and is the first Wikipedian-in-Residence at the State Library of Queensland.

Register Online

Microsoft Word advanced features for authors (Sept)

Presenter: Dr Bob Thistlethwaite

This workshop will introduce you to some advanced features of Microsoft Word, which will make life easier when you are writing larger family history documents. These advanced features include:

• master documents, outlining, styles, and

• features such as cross-referencing, footnotes and endnotes, table of contents, bibliography, index, glossary, insertions, links, text boxes.

You will receive practice examples to help you gain proficiency in these techniques at home.

You will need bring to bring your own laptop/notebook computer which has Microsoft Word installed (any version).

 This workshop is for QFHS members only.

Register Online

The Gale NewsVault: a free source of British newspapers

Presenter: Sue Reid

The Gale NewsVault is newspaper database offered by both the Brisbane City Council (BCC) Library and the National Library of Australia (NLA). If you hold either a BCC or an NLA library card, you can log into this database from home and use it for no charge.

The Gale NewsVault offers access to some newspapers, such as The London Times, which are not available via the British Newspaper Archive. It is not the same as the British Newspaper Archive. 

Come along and see what you might find.

Please note: NLA library cards are available to all Australian residents and BCC library cards are available to Brisbane residents, both free of charge. You do not need to hold either of these cards before attending the presentation, but you will probably want to get one afterwards.

Register Online

Bus trip to Queensland State Archives

Presenter: QSA staff

Join us for a visit and behind-the scenes tour of the Queensland State Archives. We will travel by bus from the Library and Resource Centre, leaving the QFHS Library and Resource Centre promptly at 9.00 am for the trip to Runcorn. You will need to be at the QFHS Library and Resource Centre by 8.45 am.

We will have some free time at the Archives before the Archivists take us on a behind-the-scenes tour.

After the tour, we will have more time in the Reading Room for your own research.

In the afternoon, the bus will leave QSA at approximately 2.15 pm to be back at the QFHS Library and Resource Centre at approximately 3.15 pm.

Cost of bus fare:
Members $20.00, non-members $25.00

Please note:

• The behind-the-scenes tour will take about one (1) hour. During this time participants will be required to be on their feet and often in confined spaces.
• You will need to take your own lunch and other snacks.
• We will contact participants prior to the event to make arrangments for Readers' Tickets.

Closing date: 

Bookings for this trip will close on Friday 29 September 2017, to enable QSA to make arrangments for staff to guide the tour.

Register Online

Life Notes: recording people and their stories

Presenter: Sam Davison

Sam Davison will present a workshop on how to develop and record life stories, drawing on his experience doing this professionally, as well as his general background in storytelling and communications over the last 20 or so years.

Sam will show the importance of recorded life stories as historical records, and also in the techniques for curating and capturing these stories.

Typically, Sam's workshop is aimed at people who might be interested in recording their own stories, but it could also involve capturing the stories of other people in the family.

See Sam's website, Life Notes.

The workshop runs at around 45mins, involving time for participants to engage in hands-on story-development activities.

Register Online

Research in New South Wales

Presenter: Susan der Kinderen

If you are researching family in New South Wales, then this session will detail the records and sources available in this state. The first European settlers arrived in NSW in 1788. At this time, the colony of NSW occupied almost half of the Australian continent. Gradually, other colonies were established, and the area governed by NSW changed until it assumed it current boundaries in 1911, after the creation of the ACT.

Learn what records are available in New South Wales and how to access them.

Register Online