Family History Group educates on how to start growing your family tree Myall Coast Myall Coast - popup ad Myall Coast News by News Of The Area - Modern Media - August 30, 2023 Judith Glover helped everyone get started on recording their genealogies. GROWING your family tree is about knowing yourself and where you come from, as the Tea Gardens Family Research and Local History (TGFRLH) group showed many on Monday, 21 August. A large gathering at the Tea Gardens Library watched as TGFRLH member Judith Glover unpacked the seemingly daunting task of just getting started on the family history. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au “Begin with yourself,” Ms Glover suggested, “work backwards from the known, to your forebears and then deeper back in time.” Using a ‘Pedigree Sheet’, available from the Family Research group, building a family history can be as fascinating as it is personal. “Everyone likes photos, so you should collect them and entice later generations to keep it up,” Ms Glover explained. “Even if you aren’t into it yourself, write down your own history and memories, so descendants have that resource,” Lesley Turner added. Attention to detail could also potentially unearth some vital medical information, such as propensities for ‘genetic time-bombs’. There is already a massive range of resources available, from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, to the Police Gazettes, downloadable genealogy programs and send-away DNA tests. “DNA test services can give you correlations to geographical regions, but beware of the difference between mitochondrial and ‘y-chromosome’ DNA,” said Garry Worth, noting how one follows the mother, the other the father. Trove (National Library of Australia), carries a vast and varied array of published and uploaded documents, photographs, books, news articles. Trove also contains decades’ worth of NOTA articles, which the Family Research & Local History group painstakingly uploaded back in 2019. Pitfalls in the process often include historically varying attitudes towards convict lineage, immigration/emigration patterns, suppressed ‘black sheep’, and the inevitable changing of diocese and government bureaucratic borders over time. Names on old documents can be misleading, often caused by re-marriages (especially of younger widows), burials under maiden or other names, illegitimate progeny or secret adoptions. “Not all the information is online, a huge amount is only available from books,” Shirley Cox stressed. By Thomas O’KEEFE Audience members at the Family History presentation. The array of resources on offer through the Family History group. Jenny Little’s excellent example of a family history album. Inside one work, showing just how inventive you can get.
