Visit to the Society of Australian Genealogists

Earlier today I managed to fit in a very impromptu and quick recce of the Society of Australian Genealogists (www.sag.org.au) in Sydney, prior to boarding for the fourth Unlock the Past genealogy cruise, which sets off later this evening. The society is over 80 years old and located on Kent Street. There are in fact two premises - Richmond Villa, the society's administrative headquarters and where volunteers regularly work on indexing collections gathered by it, as well as being the venue for seminars, and the main Research Library, the public face of the society and open for research on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

I only had time to make a brief visit to Richmond Villa, along with Alan and Anthea Phillips, and Alona Tester, of Unlock the Past. As Alan picked up some stock for the cruise, Alona and I were allowed to pop into the adjacent rooms, where I managed to have a quick chat with some of the volunteers, and to grab some snaps. The primary records are usually kept downstairs in the building, so the area we saw was more of a reading room, with computer terminals to help the volunteers with the indexing projects. An Aussie genealogy treasure trove greeted us on the shelves, with all sorts of resources on display, whilst the lower floor housed many other donated collections.

Many thanks to Maria at the facility, as well as the volunteers present who were happy to let me take a few snaps!

And a wee sneak preview of the boat I'm joining - we're talking big! More soon :)

Chris

My latest genealogy books are Tracing Your Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), Discover Scottish Civil Registration Records, and Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet. My next Pharos course is Scottish Research Online, which commences Feb 27th 2014, 5 weeks, price £45.99.