Searching for ancestors

The culmination of 'History is a story' month, will be the "Searching for Ancestors : family history seminar" which is a unique opportunity to have renowned presenters speaking to local audiences.

The seminar will provide practical information and guidance to use in your current or future family history and local history projects.

The presenters are:

Eric Kopittke has been researching his family history in Australia, Germany, England and Wales since 1985. Eric joined the Queensland Family History Society in 1985, and has been convenor of its Central European Group for over 20 years. He is also President of the Baptist Historical Society of Queensland.

Academically, he studied at the University of Queensland where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science (Physics and Mathematics), a Bachelor of Arts (Geography and Computer Science) and a Diploma of Education. He recently retired from teaching Physics and Mathematics at St Peters Lutheran College, Indooroopilly.

Eric regularly speaks at family history societies and at other events as his teaching commitments allow. 
At the ‘Searching for Ancestors family history seminar’ Eric will be presenting:

Emigration from Germany to Australia - How to use records from Australia and elsewhere to determine your German ancestor’s place of origin, and an overview of the Hamburg Emigration lists – direct and indirect – why these are useful for researching your European ancestors.

Researching German civil & church records - Prior to the introduction of civil registration, church records provided details of baptisms, marriages and burials. German records often give far more detail than their English equivalents. Discover how to locate and use German civil registration records, unlike Australian and British records, German civil registration was not centrally located nor did all regions begin at the same time.

Rosemary Kopittke has been researching her families in Australia, England and Scotland since 1985. That year she joined the Queensland Family History Society and has held many positions within the society.

Her academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) and Bachelor of Arts (Computer Science) at the University of Queensland and she has completed the Certificate of Genealogical Studies (English Records) with the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Though trained as a statistician, she currently works as a part-time consultant for Gould Genealogy & History and Unlock the Past. 

Rosemary’s topics at the ‘Searching for Ancestors family history seminar’ are:

Using Directories & Almanacs for family history - A look at the wide range of directories and almanacs available and why you should use them when compiling your family history.

Tracing your ancestors in England - An overview of basic resources – civil registration, church records, census, cemetery records, directories, elector registers, maps, newspapers and wills - including many examples and covers a variety of ways of accessing the data – free and subscription.

Alan Phillips has been a publisher and re-seller of a wide range of historical and genealogical resources since 1976, trading now as Gould Genealogy & History. Gould Genealogy brought leading publishers from the UK and US to Australia in 2003 for a national roadshow to 6 cities around the country. One result was the establishment of Archive Digital Books Australia, part of an international network of Archive CD Books publishers bringing a wide range of historical resources to researchers, societies and libraries. Alan has spoken widely around Australia and here will be speaking on:

Getting the most from Gould Genealogy and Unlock the Past – Gould & Unlock the Past resources and services for family and local historians.

There will be an exhibition by Gould Genealogy & History, and Unlock the Past, with special offers & prizes, along with opportunities to purchase discounted Gould books and materials.

The seminar is intended for those interested in family or local history - or any form of history; and those who might be encouraged to research and record their personal or family/local history; and writers who are interested in developing more skills and ideas for historical writing.

The Shire of Wimmera honour board in the Conference Room

It will be held on Saturday 31st October 2015 from 9:30am to 4:30pm at the Horsham RSL Conference Room (next to the Horsham Library) 36 McLachlan Street, Horsham. 
Parking is available in the RSL and Mibus Centre carparks. 
The cost will be $20:00 for Advance bookings and $25:00 for bookings made on the day. For the price you get a 2 course lunch at the RSL’s ‘Bistro on McLachlan’, with morning and afternoon tea and a day full of inspiring talks. 
Bookings are essential and need to be made at the Horsham Library, Mibus Centre, 28 McLachlan Street in Horsham. Inquiries: Phone 03 5382 5707.

Archival film launch

The library has been involved in the creation of ‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ for some time, and now finally the film is born.

John and Relvy Teasdale were farmers in the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria. Over more than fifty years they created a rich and evocative filmic record of working and community life in their particular dry-land farming district of Rupanyup. For John and Relvy, farming and film-making were an inter-related devotional practice. 

Upon his death ten years ago, John Teasdale left a cupboard full of films that reveal and evoke a rich and nourishing terrain. Spanning five decades from the late 1930s to the late 1980s, the Teasdale films offer views into the psychological, social and economic complexities of a wondrous and sophisticated rural world that on the one hand seems to be disappearing but on the other continues to sustain, adapt and recreate itself. 'The Farmer's Cinematheque' exhumes the Teasdale films from the archive and explores their resonance in the context of a world rapidly changing but connected still to a profound legacy of ideas, desires and rituals.

Set against contemporary footage and embellished with story-telling from members of the Teasdale family and the Wimmera community, the film stimulates thinking about the power of memory and the nature of our attachment to particular country, drawing parallels between Indigenous and settler modes of country-keeping and providing elements of revelation and affirmation about rural life. A meditation on the power of country and also a demonstration, quite literally, of the power of film, Combining sequences from the archive with contemporary footage and voices 'The Farmer's Cinematheque' teases out important questions about our custodianship of places and communities in the context of a rapidly changing global environment. It is a lyrical film about the power of memory, the nature of our attachment to country and the ways in which communities strive to balance change and tradition.

‘The Farmer’s Cinematheque’ has its own website, where you can get a sneak peek at the film trailer. The film is a Reckless Eye Production, written and directed by Malcolm McKinnon and Ross Gibson, with cinematography by Ben Speth, produced by Annie Venables, and music by Chris Abrahams.

The world premiere will be at the 2015 Adelaide Film Festival, on 19th October, and importantly its local screening is a free event on 1st November, in Natimuk, part of the Nati Frinj Biennale.

'Combine Nation' 2004 Space and Place

The Nati Frinj Festival is a bi-annual event with an eclectic mix of programs and performances (one of the most notable has been the pictures and lights projected onto the exterior walls of Natimuk’s railway grain silos).