Convict Seminar was a huge success
It was held on Saturday 5 August for National Family History Month at the Indoor Bowling Club in Golden Beach. The guest speakers Helen Smith and Vicki Osborn as well as two of our own, Shauna Hicks and Trisha Hyde, were brilliant. Helen and Shauna have agreed to share their notes with those who attended. The talks were extremely informative and I think everyone in the room learnt lots of new facts. The talks were very interesting and I certainly appreciated the humour from the speakers.
Roz Kuss lead organiser with Shauna Hicks and Helen Smith, two of the speakers.
We had about 40 people attending including a number of non-members which was great to see.
L-R- Shauna Hicks, Jason Hunt, Helen Smith plus Exhibitors the Fellowship of First Fleeters, Moreton Chapter Jan Grant and Pam Miller.
Val & Lyn at the exhibitor Convict Connections which is a Special Interest Group of the Genealogical Society of Queensland Inc.
Both exhibitors came up from Brisbane which was really generous of them.
Sue Schott and Tim Hill welcomed everyone at the door and looked after the finances with their usual aplomb.
Cathy Meyer, also helped by Colleen, was in charge of our raffle and sold heaps of tickets came all dressed up as convicts. It was good to see a couple of our own members win a prize. The prizes were well worth winning too – two bottles of a convict-themed wine, a lovely basket of chocolates donated by Mark McArdle and the ladies from Colonial & Convict Connections which is an interest group with GSQ also donated beautiful tins of tea and a couple of interesting books. We had a couple of “lucky seats” in which the prizes included a book donated by the Peachester History group on “Weddings” and the other one was a book on how to research your family. The wedding book was under an unoccupied seat so that was added to the raffle prizes and was won by one of our exhibitors who was thrilled.
Kate and Loris did a great job displaying many of our convict books and journals that are useful for members wishing to do convict research. We also have databases on the computers to help with convict research. Interesting discussions were held around those viewing Kate’s convict bricks.
Roz Kuss organised everything and everyone. Jan Swift did a brilliant job as our MC.
We got to find out about Convict Bonnets and Convict Lives
Vicki Osborn presented on the Transportation of Maitland & the Hunter Valley female convicts & “Roses from the Heart” Convict Bonnet Project included a Video presentation that was an eye opener on female convicts’ lives. To see so many unique bonnets with each one representing an individual female convict. Starting with Maitland, one day they hope to have a bonnet for each of the 26,600 plus female convicts shipped to Australia.
The final talk was by Trisha Hyde based on her Tasmania University Assignment: Ann Elliott’s Journey (from Convict to Family Matriarch). Like Shauna and Helen’s talks, it was filled with loads of sources and examples we can use to follow up our own convict research. To show how seminars are great for learning skills, here is one source Fran, our Webmaster, found about Ann with her conviction and transportation details.
Many others helped make the day and a big thank you to them. They included:
Jen Milner, Robin Sverdloff and Denise O’Brien had the kitchen working like a dream and were ably assisted by Colleen Jones and Paul Carty.
The people who pitched in to set up the room included Bob Brummell, Tim Hill and Paul Carty. They worked hard to have all the chairs and tables ready for participants including the exhibitors.
The AV folk: Thanks to Ian Edwardson for being there at the beginning and end to sort the projector and screen out, Valerie Thornton and Bob Brummell had the videos and Zoom running efficiently and Sue Brownjohn was darting around taking many photos.
The whole day was extremely successful only due to the commitment and help from some of our wonderful members. A big thanks to all listed above and others who helped on the day.