THE explosion of interest in family history research is a much-unheralded social revolution around the world.
Some pundits claim the topic “genealogy” ranks among the top five subject categories on the World Wide Web. (It may not surprise some to learn that “sex” holds top billing!)
The advent of easy, low-cost access to computer technology and the Internet has provided a conduit for individuals around the globe to disseminate, discover and debate their family’s origins.
Family history is something every single person can do and for a wide variety of individuals – especially those enjoying their retirement years – the hunt for ancestors has become a way of life and a passionate past-time.
A welter of resources come on-stream for researchers throughout the world every single day, and more and more computer-users are discovering the pleasure and personal satisfaction of pursuing the clues that abound in libraries, archives and on-line about their forebears.
A telling example of just how popular genealogy has become was reflected by American, Cyndi Howell’s “Cyndislist” site at www.cyndislist.com.
This is an easy-to-use, searchable list of more than 264,040 links to other pages that discuss almost every conceivable aspect of family history research. In October 2001 this site boasted a catalogue of only 79,400 links – it’s more than trebled since then.
In Brisbane (Queensland, Australia), the phenomenal interest in family history research hit its straps some 24 years ago with the foundation of the not-for-profit, community-based Genealogical Society of Queensland (now based at East Brisbane) and a little later, the Queensland Family History Society, whose home is at Gaythorne, in Brisbane's north-western suburbs.
These two peak bodies for genealogy – located at www.qfhs.org.au and www.gsq.org.au on the Web – have attracted between them some 4,000 paid members and each organisation has a fantastic library, chock-full of resources that are essential to the piecing together of your family history.
QFHS and GSQ are always looking for new members and anyone starting out on their hunt for an ancestor should seriously consider how much easier the journey might be by joining with other like-minded individuals.
The family history “bug” could become all-consuming passion for those individuals who want delve into their pedigree.
It is a gentle, non-competitive, stimulating and highly social hobby that gathers momentum as you don the mantle of amateur detective and gather the strands of the intriguing story of your family’s origins.
You don’t need anything more than a budding curiosity to start off with…but be aware that down the track you may become so keen you’ll want to visit libraries, read books, look up Websites on the Internet, join a local genealogy organisation or even take on the challenge of organising a family reunion.
In 1988, together with my cousins, Heidi Kneipp, Pam Cooper and Donna Kenny, I co-authored a prize-winning history – Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: A History of the Maudsley Family.
I've been a working journalist since 1977 and went freelancing some two decades ago; but researching and writing up family histories has proven a far more satisfying pursuit than sweating bullets over some sensational scoop for a fickle newspaper audience. For one thing the stories you uncover poking around in libraries, on the Net and in archives (not to mention face-to-face interviews) are always evolving and revealing new tantalising aspects; each generation is a collage of diversity and foibles of human nature and experience.
It's a hobby that is impatiently calling you to become the teller of the stories of the people who constituent your own pedigree.
Professional genealogist, local historian, broadcaster, editor and author, Peter N. Collins, founded Garrison Communications Family History Research Services in 1995. He whet his genealogy appetite with the launch of the Alexander Henderson Award-winning book, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: A History of the Maudsley Family, in 1988. Offering commissioned family history and archival research services, Peter serves an Australian and international clientele who typically have ancestral links with Queensland. Garrison Communications stocks state-of-the-art genealogy research software and other information technology equipment (including the ScanPro 2000).
