Encouragement Award - presentation

President Nick Reddan and Secretary Gina Tooke of the Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra (HAGSOC) visited the Centre to present us with the Cynthia Foley Encouragement Award for 2018. The Award carries free membership of the NSW / ACT Family History Society for twelve months. The Society has its offices in the Cook Community Hub, where they have an extensive library and some special collections related to family history.

The Centre has immediately gained very good value from winning the Award. Nick and Gina stayed on after the presentation, joining six of our volunteers for a planning workshop. The workshop aimed to clarify the goals, priorities and policies of our newly established Family History Unit (FHU), and included some valuable discussion about ways in which our two organisations might collaborate. On that list are reciprocal visits, so that our members can get to know a bit more about each other.

One of the most distinctive features of our FHU is that its scope is modest and well circumscribed; we aim to tell the stories of Ginninderra settler or pioneer families, from the time that settlement began in the 1820's to the aftermath of WWII. We also have the special benefit of custodianship of the Gillespie Collection, a great deal of which relates to the history of Ginninderra. We have not yet however, developed a sufficient talent pool of 'family historians' to help with the task. Volunteers needed!