Our group email is colonialaustgroup@gmail.com.

Please get in touch with us by this email with your suggestions or input for upcoming meetings.

Thanks to those who have been in touch with us about their Arrival brick walls.

Looking for convict, crew/mariners and military arrival brick walls.

Do you have an ancestor from one of these groups whose arrival is a bit of a mystery?

Please get in touch!

Kristine

On 2 September Dr Ashley Barnwell is our guest presenter and will be talking about her research into the stories or secrets or blurring of family history and how that informs our understanding of Indigenous and colonial settler experiences. We should have a lively Q&A session after such a thought provoking presentation.

In the second half of our meeting, we’ll be discussing our own experiences of the sugar coating of our individual family histories, how it has influenced our understanding of our family and how we’ve unraveled the truth.

Our meeting will run from 12.30 to 2.30pm. We hope to see you there.

Myths and Mythbusters!

Have you got an ancestor who was larger than life?

And when you looked for details to write up a brilliant memoir of your ancestor, suddenly the story fell apart.

Or do you have an ancestor who big noted themselves in a local newspaper interview?

Only for you to check through the facts and find they were a phoney.

Maybe one of your ancestors is famous/infamous and all the generations have venerated them for their brilliant career.

After doing many SAG courses you’ve taken on the advice to find the sources for deeds of your famous/infamous ancestor. But the sources don’t add up and you find s/he’s not your family after all.

If these instances sound familiar or you have similar stories, please get in touch with us on our email. We’d love you to present to our group about how you unraveled the truth and what impact this has had on your family history. 

Our next meeting is on 2 September at 12.30pm.

colonialaustgroup@gmail.com

In our 16 March meeting we'll examine the colonial rural expansion - the march inland.

Do you have a squatter or pastoralist, shepherd or stockman in your family tree? Or maybe your forebears were the town wheelwright or funeral director. We'd love to bring the bush to life in our meeting through your family stories of these colonists. 

Get in contact with us to contribute to the discussion on rural ancestors. It could be a recent research find, a brickwall or breakthrough, or some rural research insights.

Our email is colonialaustgroup@gmail.com