History

In February 1980, the inaugural meeting of the Branch was held at the home of Margaret Belcher - a gathering of some twenty folk interested in forming a local group. Her daughter Anne came along to make supper and much to her surprise, became Secretary, and Margaret the first Chairman. In those early days there was an abundance of enthusiasm and a dearth of funds; Ron and Jean Griffin donated a book, and so our library was born. Our first librarian was Ruth O'Keefe, followed by Bruce McLeod, a local lad who worked at Queensland University followed by Helen Roberts, Paula Sprake, Sondra Stafford and the current librarian is Robyn Simpson . Secretaries and Treasurers came and went much more frequently.

The first fund - raiser was a garage sale - how rich we felt at the end of that long weekend and how eagerly we planned library purchases! The concept has been repeated twice on a much grander scale, giving large boosts to our funds. Soon, increased numbers made us move to a larger venue at the Coorparoo Primary School. Our library was carried to each meeting in boxes and we felt a milestone had been reached when the school gave us the use of a small cupboard.

The discomfort of the small desks that forced us to sit, knees reaching to our ears, drove us to other accommodation at Cavendish Road High School in late 1981, where we revelled in the facilities in a comfortable double room which easily housed our steadily growing library. The school later moved us to a smaller room, but we still had room for our own library cupboards with a small amount of space for expansion. Here we could not expand our activities to during the day, so in May 1996 we moved to join the Scouts at Upper Mt Gravatt, where we now have a much larger area and more flexibility for our many activities.

We have mounted displays at shopping centres, libraries and various venues whenever there is an opportunity to spread the good word on family history, and encourage people to look for their ancestors wherever they were in the world. We have gained many members from this activity and they have thoroughly enjoyed their interest in the past because it is their own family they are researching. It is a quite personal thing!

We have transcribed the Mt Gravatt cemetery - no mean feat for a small group. The names on the headstones were those of a veritable United Nations - Greek, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Central European, Jewish, etc., besides those in English. We were often assisted with translations by people visiting their family graves. One notable exception was the man who ignored our explanation, and raging at us, dug up the heavy grave marker, stowed it in the boot of his car and lurched away, leaving three bewildered genealogists in his wake.

The first edition of our newsletter "Scroll" was also a milestone and now it has grown into a journal, we exchange with Societies far and wide. Another great leap forward was the Incorporation of the branch in 1987.

Although we are a Branch of the main society, we operate quite independently with our own library of Fiche and Books for lending to members. We meet at the Upper Mt Gravatt Scout Den in Logan Road, Upper Mt Gravatt on the third Monday of each month (excepting December) at 7.30 pm. We are open at the same venue on Wednesdays from 9.30 am until 2.00 pm, for access to our facilities and for members to do their research if they wish. Non-members can use our facilities for a small fee. As we are in a parkland, there is plenty of off street parking. There is always someone to help with friendly advice where to look for your ancestors wherever they came from. The real art of Genealogy is to find the records of where your ancestors were at any given time; knowing where the records are and if they are available to the member is where we can help. There are many kinds of useful records, from Parish Registers and Census to Local and Family Histories. There are many places where records are kept and each country has their own system of storing them.

Our Library caters for most people's research. It is organised in a geographical format. For example all the Irish books are together on one shelf and all the English are together. It is easy to browse and find a book to research with. We have a complete catalogue of all our books, in geographical order, so members can decide if something may be suitable to look at on their next visit. Then for a small fee, the member can borrow the book for up to a month to do their research at home. We have printed lists of Microfiche in the same order and the fiche can be hired for a small fee - with a reader if required. All of this can be done on Wednesdays and the 4th Sunday at the Library if they do not wish to take them home. Free helpful advice from members is there on the spot. Our Cd Rom collection can be access at the ibrary on these days. They cannot be borrowed, but printouts are available. This system is very helpful for people who work.

Sometimes, out of fear that they may be misused or destroyed, individuals keep records at home, in the mistaken belief that they are safe; local Record Offices and Archives have such good facilities these days, they offer the best protection for the preservation of old Documents and books. It is a very complex business and sometimes requires expensive facilities which the ordinary person cannot afford to provide. A member has a relative in England whose husband was a Solicitor, and she still has his large tin boxes which were used to store his client's documents. This is ideal for the purpose, but how many of us have this kind of storage available to us, and the climate is quite different to Australia.

All branch activities, be they bus or boat trips, displays, classes, fund - raisers etc., have helped members to know each other better, so that while some have come and gone, the spirit of friendliness remains. Several members have served on the GSQ Management Committee and many have been generous in sharing their time and expertise both with the parent society and the branch.

We look forward to sharing our accumulated knowledge with anyone who is interested. We "Genies" as we call ourselves are always interested in telling others "where to go" to find the Records they seek! We warn you that it is a hobby that can quite easily become an obsession; it does not necessarily cost you all of your paypacket either. We learn the cheapest ways - there are quite a few different ones - to find what you want to know about your ancestors.