NEWSLETTER

 

TEA GARDENS HAWKS NEST FAMILY RESEARCH GROUP Inc.

Shop 3, Masonic Centre, 209 Myall Street – PO Box 250 Tea Gardens 2324

 

Vol.1 N0.2                                                               May 2009                                                Editor: M.Munright

 

 

New opening hours: Shop 3 will now be opening for research on Mondays from 10.00am till 3.00pm the same as Saturdays and Sundays.

Welcome to new members Heather McGuinn, Rosemary Bright, David Bruck and Helen White. Welcome and good luck with your family history research.

Our congratulations to our esteemed member Rex Sargeant on his well deserved lifetime membership of Surf Lifesaving Australia. Another string to Rex’s bow is his delicious curried egg sandwiches and yummy pikelets. It’s always a pleasure to be in his and wife Merle’s company.

Easter Garage Sale: Firstly thank you to all who donated items to be sold and a big thank you to those few members for their super effort in the setting up on Friday and the full on job of selling on the Saturday. Lucky members won both prizes in our seafood raffle. 1^st prize to Pat Adam who enjoyed prawns oysters and crab and 2^nd prize to Lyn and Ernie Reid who took home the bream. Our thanks also to Ted Mowbray who donated his catch of the three big bream, which I’m told, were delicious. A fantastic sum of $1160.00 was raised on the day. 

Your support of this event, the weekly raffle and the various activities of the Group is vital if we are to increase our research material in all its formats.

Carcoar Trip: The trip to Carcoar and surrounds was voted a tremendous success. Eight members were accommodated at the Royal Hotel, Carcoar with new adventures everyday. Cemeteries, properties, libraries, various historical sites, places of interest and even the odd game of golf were par for the trip.

Areas covered were Lyndhurst, Millamolong, Mandurama, Sofala, Bathurst, Hill End, Millthorpe and Blayney. In appreciation of their time and help to our group Daryl presented Rhonda of Blayney Research Group with our member Jan Winn’s book, Tea Gardens-Hawks Nest and Northern Port Stephens for their library. The Autumn tones, the knowledge and memory of the locals, good company at table, a nice red, warm fire, lots of conversation and laughter begs the question. Where to next?

As a matter of interest the first bank robbery committed using firearms in Australia took place in Carcoar in 1863. Back in 1863 it was a wealthy grazing town and close to the goldfields. The Commercial Bank provided rich and easy pickings for Ben Hall and his gang of bushrangers. Could any of them be yours?

What’s new in our Library

Stephanie Dee is collecting items of interest on occupations, places and surnames from old donated journals. These topics, in three appropriately named folders make enjoyable reading and add interest to the life and times of our ancestors.  Good job and thanks Stephanie.

Three new CD’s: Index of Irish Wills 1484-1858, Index of Wills & Marriage Licences for Dublin Diocese up to 1800 & Family Archives-Tithe Applotment Books-Irish Landholders 1823-1838.

Books: Tales of old Tasmania, Carcoar historic village, Rum Rebellion, Story of Gulgong written in gold, Grist to the mill, Camden Park: birthplace of Australia’s agriculture & City of York.

Some Useful Websites

Papers Past Digitised NZ Newspapers covering years 1839-1920 http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz

Immigrant Ships to New Zealand from UK and Ireland

 http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~shipstonz/ships_uk&i.html

Irish townland database, listed by County, Parish and Townland

www.ulsterancestry.com/ulster_townlands_by_county

Public Records Office UK.  www.pro.uk/

The National Archives UK. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline

The State Library of NSW will do up to two hours of free research for lookups on a specific question. www.sl.nsw.gov.au/about/policies/request.policy.html

Interesting Info.

Certificates of Title from the Land Titles Office in Sydney often have the words ‘rood’ and ‘perches’ mentioned. Rood is an Old English unit of area, equal to quarter of an acre, i.e. 10 890 square feet. A perch in England is 5½ yards or 16½feet. In Ireland it’s 7 yards or 21 1/320 feet. Hence 11 Irish miles equal 14 English miles. If you understand this then you’re Irish. How easy was that to work out your ancestry? Check out this website to learn more on perches. www.sizes.com/units/perch.htm

Tea Gardens Hawks Nest

Family Research Group Inc.