Happy New Year! It is now 2021 – a year of particular importance to family researchers with an interest in English and Scottish records.

The 1921 census results should become available in the coming weeks through, for example, Ancestry.com; Scotland’s People and other online data bases related to records from the United Kingdom.

Many of us have been waiting patiently for the next release of national census records, which only happens every 10 years.  Another chance for some 'Ah Ha' moments, hopefully!

Bev Lee

Next year we are changing our title from Tech Savvy Family Research to simply ‘Family Research’ and have adjusted our course description as follows: 

Family Research is a ‘guided self-help group’ which aims to provide support and encouragement to members who are working on their family history.  We also plan to provide 

• Mentoring for members keen to develop skills in using family history resources such as Ancestry.com; Trove; My Heritage; Scotland’s People and other online records such as Births/Deaths/Marriages, Rates Notices and Cemetery Records 
• Links to the resources available at the Benalla Family History Group
• Opportunities to write about our families, with monthly topics such as ‘Found’; ‘A Family Secret’; ‘A Family Treasure’; ‘I wish I’d met…’; ‘In search of ….’; ‘A black hole’; ‘Grandparents’, and more!

​We are looking forward to meeting up again next year with members who came to our first and only session in 2020.

Beverley Lee and Wendy Sturgess

It seems a number of U3A members are becoming absorbed in family history during this second round of Stage 3 COVID-19 Restrictions.  Tech savvy family researcher Andi Stevenson is using Facebook like a journal or blog to share her discoveries to the delight of relatives and friends.  It’s not every day a laneway, discovered on an old Melbourne map, is named ‘Stevenson Lane’ after an ancestor!

Members of our Tech Savvy Family Research class Barry O’Connor and Robyn Desmier have been immersing themselves in the worlds of their forebears, with expanding folders of files and papers documenting their progress.  Barry has been busy expanding on the background of his and Pamela’s family trees, with three books almost complete.  Robin recently set up an account on Trove and is now developing a Trove ‘list’ to keep an online file of newspaper articles mentioning her forebears. 

​If you attended our first class before the Covid-19 break, are continuing to work on your family tree and have any questions or require other support relating to your research, please do not hesitate to contact us. 

Bev Lee 0478 607 838 and Wendy Sturgess 0403 226 649 

​Family Research is an ideal pursuit during the Covid-19 break – a chance to become immersed in recording and finding family connections on ancestry.com; to get that DNA test; to sort out all those family documents into folders; to write up stories with photographs to go in a family history blog; to finish that family history book for the family.   It is wonderful that a new series of ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ is now screening on SBS (Tuesdays 7.30 pm). Recommended viewing for group members, it will help to tide us over until we are able to meet again as a group.

Beverley Lee and Wendy Sturgess

We had a very promising start to the year!  Individual interviews with most new members were followed by a hardworking session using both the U3A meeting room and office.  New and old members quickly became immersed in working on their family trees, setting the scene for the coming months. The grim reality of the corona virus pandemic was yet to set in... 

​As COVID-19 guidelines began to be released, we realised it would be hard to maintain the required social distance when mentoring class members using ancestry.com.  We were just about send out emails cancelling upcoming classes when the Executive decided to cease all courses and activities until further notice. 

We are planning to make contact with all members over the coming month to talk about whether and how we can continue to provide them with support during their family history journey.  

Beverley Lee and Wendy Sturgess

The Tech Savvy Family Research class meets after this month’s newsletter deadline, however we have been meeting with new members to develop an understanding of their goals, discover whether they have already started working on their family tree and assess their computer skills.  Our aim is for all class members to have an ancestry.com tree to work on at their first 'fourth Thursday' session with our support and encouragement from class members.
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Beverley Lee and Wendy Sturgess

As convenor I often take episodes of 'Who do you think you are?' to class, but haven’t shown one yet as members come to class already 'in the zone', keen to use the time to find out more about their own origins and family stories.  It has been a great privilege to support Tech Savvy Projects - Family History group members to develop skills in using internet based family history programs and resources this year and to watch as they make discoveries and deepen their understanding of family ties over time.
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Bev Lee

​Bill Willett from the Benalla Family Research Group attended our September session.  Bill described the wide range of resources they have at their research room at 9 Church Street (open Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 to 4) and made lots of suggestions drawing on strategies they use in supporting people who come to them for help with their research.  Bill shared stories drawing on his own family history journey, providing examples of techniques he used along the way.  He also showed a folder compiled using documentation available via the Family Tree program and a beautifully framed family tree prepared by one of the group's volunteer researchers. 

​Jane reported on a workshop she had attended on writing family stories which recommended finding our own voice and looking for themes which seem to recur during our research as a way of organizing our writing.  We looked at the thematic approach used by Penny Bristol Jones on her website www.digbystories.com and Bev's family history blog website https://leedevittfh.weebly.com. 

Time was also spent reporting back on progress during the month and working quietly on tasks which having a dedicated time in the month makes possible for busy members.  Scotland's People once again proved useful in solving family mysteries during the session. If you have Scottish ancestry, their records are a wonderful resource. 

Bev Lee