Annual General Meeting

We hope that all Members can join us at this important event where we will elect our Office Bearers for the coming year. To participate in the election Members must be current Financial Members.

Meeting this Saturday

The theme for our meeting on Saturday relates to death, an important event in everyone's lives. As family historians we seek answers to these questions about our ancestors.

Where, when and how did, they die?

Where are they resting.

Visitors are welcome at all of our meetings.

Come on Down

 

June Meeting

Members and guests are invited to join us for our monthly meeting tomorrow at Marmong POINT Community Hall.

Saturday Meeting

 Members, Please bring your Stories of Service stories to share in our Discussion Group. 

Family History Tourism

 We had a successful monthly meeting at LMFHG on Saturday last..

For our morning discussion Jenny M gave members an introduction to our newly acquired ARK Kit, https://mhnsw.au/guides/archives-resources-kit/.

After a lively general meeting chaired by President Patrick and discussions over lunch our 30+ attendees settled down to hear guest presenter Maria Northcote present a session on Family History Tourism. We all learnt something from the tips Maria shared.

Maria is on the right of this photo with a few members and guests who benefitted from her presentation.

February Meeting this Saturday - All welcome

 

Festive Fun

Who will take home the delicious hampers?

It was smiles all round at the Lake Macquarie Family History Group meeting today as members gathered to celebrate a successful year. 

Our day started with a lively Discussion Group led by Committee Member, Jan. Jan supplied members with a Christmas themed prompt and, in turn, we dived into the recesses of our memory to share our responses. We all enjoyed our trip down memory lane.

Some of the prompts were:
What smell conjures up Christmas memories for you?
What is your first Christmas memory?
What did you do on Boxing Day?
What is your resolution for next year?

While the catering ladies set up our buffet lunch we had a very short formal meeting.

President Patrick and Secretary Valda lead our meeting

Librarian Linda prepares the Punch

Lunch is ready

During our very long lunch our photographer took the opportunity to record some of our members' smiling faces.

After some time to clean up President Patrick called for order so that the draw for the hampers could proceed.

Patrick playing Santa

A lucky winner draws the next prize

Winners are grinners

Thanks to all who contributed to the success of this event. 

We wish you and your loved ones a Joyous Holiday Season and a Bountiful New Year. 

September Meeting

 Visitors are always welcome to our monthly meetings.

Annual Open Day

Please join us for our Annual Open Day with Guests Andrew Redfern, Amelia Young and Peter Capomolla Moore

RSVP to teasurer@lmfhg.org.ay by & March 2024

September General Meeting

 All members of the community are invited to join us at our monthly meeting in September. with guest, Ed Tonks. 

Meeting Reminder

 We meet today at The Marmong Point Community Hall

The Ryerson Index

 

Monthly Meeting Tomorrow

We are thrilled that local family historian, Professor Maria Northcote, will be joining us as guest speaker via zoom at 2pm tomorrow to show us how we can use Wikipedia for Genealogy.

All members are welcome to attend in person, wearing of masks is encouraged. If you are unwell please stay at home and enjoy the presentation via zoom.

A Two Year Term

 When I was elected as the President of our Group it was for a one year term, then Covid19 came along. My term subsequently extended to two years as we had to postpone our Annual General Meeting and Election of Officers. That meeting will proceed this afternoon as a face to face meeting with an option for members to join via zoom. 

I have been so proud of the manner in which our members rallied and met the Covid challenges head on, I thank you all for your support and guidance during this challenging time. In the following President's Report to be tabled at today's meeting I outline some of our activities during the term.

Jill Ball - President 

Lake Macquarie Family History Group

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Lake Macquarie Family History Group

President’s Report 

August 2019 - October 2021

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My current term as President of the Lake Macquarie Family History Group is nearing an end. This time has been personally rewarding for me and, hopefully, has produced some benefits for our Group.

When reflecting on this time I think of the acronym TEAM:  Together everybody achieves more. The strength of an organisation lies not with the person who wears the President's badge but with those individuals in the group who bring a range of experience, skills and opinions to achieve common goals.

I thank you all for your support, advice and words of encouragement during my term. I send a special shout out to the dedicated Officers and Committee Members who have supported and guided me on this journey. I'm so grateful to all of our volunteers who carry out their allocated duties quietly and efficiently. It is gratifying to arrive at the hall for our meetings and see the members swing into action to set up, organise and then pack up for our events. You are a well-oiled machine.

I am absolutely delighted that our group has weathered the Covid-19 storm. Despite the challenges of the past eighteen months we remain a vibrant organisation that has faced challenges with determination and a willingness to embrace new tools that allow us to connect, communicate and collaborate.

Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, who donated the funds for our Zoom account, we were able to move our monthly meetings online once the Covid lockdown was announced. We returned to face-to-face/zoom hybrid meetings for a short time until our second lockdown and we continue to stream our guest speakers presentations via Zoom.

We owe a huge thank you to our treasurer, Karen, who each week, hosts a zoom session for our members which provides an opportunity for them to chat and learn. Our recently formed DNA Special Interest Group organised by our member, Jan, and a small group of DNA enthusiasts is proving to be popular with an average of 19 members in attendance each fortnight. On occasion we have organised one on one zoom sessions to assist members solve particular research questions or demonstrate a particular tool.

I am proud of the varied and interesting education programme we have presented over the past two years. Although several members and I have made speaker suggestions we are indebted to Elspeth Bradbury who has managed the programme with grace and no fuss. Elspeth, who also co-edits our Chronicle with Glynda, has been a wonderful mentor to me during my term.

It is pleasing to note that two of our members, who have given many years of service to our Group, are to be recognised by The RoyalAustralian Historical Society. I congratulate our Secretary, Warren Oliver, and Vice-President, Jennifer Myers, on their awards of Certificates of Achievement from that Society.

To be successful in the 21st century a family history organisation needs to be involved in local and genealogical communities. The Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/lmfhg/, that we set up in 2019 has enabled us to connect with people in our local and the broader genealogy community. Among the 220 followers of our page are people from all Australian States, the US, UK and Canada.

About a third of our members have also joined our Facebook Discussion Group, a private forum where we can connect to ask our questions, share family history news and store documents of interest to members. It saddens me that the majority of members are not taking advantage of this private space for discussion.

Our blog, https://lakemacfhg.blogspot.com/, which shares stories of Lake Macquarie people, mostly sourced from the newspapers on Trove, and news of our events and activities, has received 9250 visitors from Australia and beyond in less than 18 months. Many of these are because we shared our posts to relevant Facebook Groups.

Another initiative being undertaken by our librarian Linda and I is the cataloguing and entering of our library collection on the Librarything platform. We have already added nearly 2000 items to that catalogue which you can view here online: https://www.librarything.com/profile/LMFHG. Unfortunately without regular access to our Library this task is taking longer than expected.

Some links have been established with Lake Macquarie Council. Earlier this year we recommenced our volunteer research service at Speers Point Library which had to be cancelled due to COVID-19, this was cancelled again during the latest lockdown and will recommence next month.

We recently collaborated with the Society of AustralianGenealogists and Lake Macquarie Council to run a six session beginners’ course at Speers Point Library. We managed five of these sessions before our second lockdown, the last session is to be delivered by zoom this week.

I have been appointed to the Cultural Collections Consultative Committee at Lake Macquarie council where I try to advocate for genealogy and local history services in our area. I have recently been invited to join a group to review Council’s current Community Strategic Plan. 

Our membership number has remained constant during my term, I welcome the new members who have joined our Group, it has been a joy to connect with you at our recent meetings. As a reasonably new arrival to the Lake the fellowship of LMFHG members has buoyed me during my time as President.

Under our Treasurer Karen’s stewardship we have maintained a reasonable bank balance. We only managed to hold one Bunning’s Barbeque in October 2019 before Covid struck. We have missed this source of valuable income and hope that we will be able allocated another day in 2022. Our ongoing onlinesecond-hand book sale has generated valuable income.

Serving as your President during COVID-19 times has given this passionate traveller a focus during my stay-at-home months. I thank you for giving me this opportunity and your continuing support. I will be nominating for a further year’s term as President of LMFHG but then I plan to graciously retire and resume my globetrotting.

 Jill Ball

President, Lake Macquarie Family History Group

9 October 2021

Annual General and Monthly Meeting - 16th October 2021

 

To attend our Meeting in person on 16^th October. You will be required to:

• Check in on arrival with the Service NSW QR code system or via our Covid sign in sheet
• Provide proof of full vaccination
• Wear a mask indoors
• Observe safe physical distancing, hand washing and sanitising practices
• NOT attend this event if you feel unwell

The link to join the meeting via zoom has been distributed with the meeting papers.

Numbers increasing at the Hall

The attendance at our monthly meeting on Saturday was the largest we have had this year. We saw some members we hadn't seen in person since pre-Covid times, had a couple of visitors call in for research advice and personally welcomed three new members. The atmosphere was busy, warm and friendly.

Our President facilitated our morning Discussion Group on Organising and Saving our Family History Stuff , tasks that we don't find as exciting as chasing down our ancestors.

In the times between our our organised sessions members could be found researching on our computers, collaborating over their research problems and enjoying the opportunity to have a convivial chat with fellow genies.

Local author, Greg Ray, entertained and educated us in his afternoon presentation with Stories of The Great War related to people from the Hunter Region. You can read more of Greg's stories on his blog, https://www.phototimetunnel.com/blog, 

Greg and his co-author Sylvia had brought along some of their books for sale, three of which we purchased for our library. When these are processed they will be available for loan by members. In the interim you may wish to borrow these titles which we already hold in our library. 

Newcastle, the missing years : photographs of Newcastle in the 1930s and 1940s

Destination Newcastle : featuring photographs from the Ken Magor collection

We were pleased that the eight members who joined us via zoom were able to see and clearly hear Greg's talk. We hope that we have solved the sound issues previously experienced with our hybrid, in person/zoom, meetings.

July Meeting Report

Two dozen of our members met via Zoom yesterday for our monthly July meeting as our Group has not yet reinstated our face to face meeting schedule. It was gratifying to see some members who had not previously zoomed with us join in our two hour session.

Our Group is most grateful to an anonymous member who has donated the funds for us to purchase a 12 month subscription to Zoom to enable us to connect, collaborate and chat with fellow members. Already in the calendar are regular Wednesday Q&A help sessions with our Treasurer, Karen, fortnightly Saturday discussion sessions with our President, Jill, and some one on help sessions with individual members. Members are invited to seek help via Zoom. 

For those members who were not able to join us yesterday following is a list of some items we covered.

* The LMFHG CovidSafe Plan and our return to Marmong Point Hall.

* The Group's response to the proposed move of  local and family history resources from Speers Point to Swansea Library.

* Treasurer, Karen, reported on the Group's finances.

* The deferral of our Annual General Meeting and Election of Officers. Thanks to Public Officer, Arthur, for following this up.

* The vacant position of Newsletter Editor. 

* Members were invited to a Zoom Session with Jess Dowdell from Lake Macquarie Council to discuss Local and Family History services. 

* The next edition of The Chronicle - Subject Books - Submissions due - 26th July. Several ideas for this next issue were discussed.

* A live demonstration of the Lake Macquarie Family History Group blog - submissions from members are invited and most welcome. If you have an ancestor story from our region please consider sharing it via our blog which can act as cousin bait for you. 

*  Member Lyn shared her screen to discuss the latest news from Ancestry DNA. Thanks Lyn for demonstrating both your content and how to use Zoom to show your screen.

* There was an active discussion on the various software and platforms members use to manage their data eg Legacy, Family Tree Maker, Brothers Keeper, Reunion, Family Historian. Your Committee will investigate ways for members using the same products to support each other. 

* Our webmaster, Robert, indicated that he is also available to give research assistance to members via telephone.

* Several members practised sharing their screens via Zoom thus demonstrating how the platform can be used as a learning tool.

* During a discussion on the new Trove website a member reminded us of the forthcoming online help sessions planned by Trove. See : https://trove.nla.gov.au/event/webinar-discover-troves-newspapers and

https://trove.nla.gov.au/event/webinar-discover-upgraded-trove. 

* Member, Jan, told how she uses Zoom to collaborate each month with a DNA contact in Denmark.

* Member Kerrie shared her latest op shop find - a book about Bushrangers. Found at The Salvos in Warners Bay.

* Vice-President, Jenny, gave an overview of the regular Scottish Indexes Conferences.

* A number of members spoke about books they had recently read or were reading. The titles included:

    Esther - Jessica North

    Denny Day - Terry Smyth 

    The Convict Valley - Mark Dunn

    The Love that Remains - Susan Francis

As well as the opportunity to learn from each other the value of the social interaction afforded by our meeting yesterday was priceless. Being able to chat and share with fellow members is an important element in a Group's activities. Thanks to all who joined our July meeting, your contributions are  appreciated.

Jill Ball

President

Lake Macquarie Family History Group

Zooming along at Lake Macquarie

Due to Covid-19 restrictions the members of The Lake Macquarie Family History Group have not been able to meet in person. Since February we have kept in contact via email, our Facebook Page and Members' Discussion Group on Facebook. 

In May we followed the lead of other genealogy groups like The Society of Australian Genealogists and The Botany Bay Family History Society to host some online meetings via Zoom for our members. Our first few meetings were of a social nature, these gave members an opportunity to become familiar with the Zoom interface and catch up on personal news. We suggested that, if they were uncomfortable, members ask a young person to help them conquer Zoom so it was delightful to see a member's grandson online and give advice not just to his gran but to others online. LMFHG now has a core of confident "Zoom Genies." 

LMFHG - First Zoom Meeting 16 May 2020 (Attendee names obscured)

In June our Committee met for the first time via Zoom and found it to be a reasonable substitute for a face to face meeting.  Members had a most successful collaborative educational Zoom session on "Google Tools for Genealogy" on the day of our cancelled June meeting.  The members found this most useful and requested more practical demonstrations. Currently scheduled are sessions on "The New Trove" and "Legacy Family Tree" software.