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NNEEWWSSLLEETTTTEERRGenealogy and Local History Section

Newsletter Number 11 / January 2008

Table of contentsMelvin P Thatcher : an appreciation…………….…..………1

GENLOC Committee MembersChange of Officers……………..……………………………….2

Annual Report 2006 - 2007 -including items on IFLA GENLOC Durban and IFLA GENLOC Quebec………………..…….……….……...3

In celebration of Judith, North Carolina………….….…..…5

Visiting the Welsh in Ohio………..…….….….….……….…..7

Discussion on FAIFE……………………………...….….….....8

Family history the Australian and New Zealand way: The State Library of S Australia, Adelaide…..…..….….9

News from Elsewhere GENLOC Durban presentation for IFLA Journal…..….11

Italian Genealogy Research………….…….……..….…..12

Australian celebs to trace Family Tree……………….…12

Conference papers publication - update…..………..….12

Melvin P Thatcher

Melvin P Thatcher, Genealogical Society of Utah,has retired from the position of Chairman of theIFLA Genealogical and Local History Section. Melhad been the driving force in setting up andpromoting a Discussion Group on Genealogy and

Local History, inaugurated in 1999. It was due tohis tenacity and enthusiasm that this Grouptransformed itself into an official IFLA section atthe IFLA Glasgow Conference in 2002. Since thenhe has worked continually to promote thesignificance and appeal of family and local historyto all librarians and libraries – and thereby to allthose with an interest in the subject.

Among his many particular activities for GENLOC,Mel spearheaded joint sessions with otherSections at IFLA Conferences, initiated a surveyof genealogy and local history facilities in nationallibrary associations, and encouraged thecollection of guidelines for genealogy and local

history collections and services. A great interestwas in bolstering co-operation between GENLOC

Members of the IFLA GENLOC Committee in Durban August 2007 Durban seafront

Melvin P Thatcher

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and the IFLA FAIFE Committee in drafting adocument on data privacy and libraries.

At a GENLOC dinner at IFLA Durban, theincoming Chairman, Ruth Hedegaard, presentedMel with a photograph frame to thank him mostsincerely for all the effort he had put into makingGenloc a viable Section and to remind him of hismany colleagues from around the world who havebeen grateful for his advice and friendship.

Thank you, Mel, from all of us for all you haveaccomplished for the Section - and thereby forIFLA. We are looking forward to seeing you inQuebec with word of your future publications onthe history of ancient China.

GENLOC Chairman 2007: Ruth Hedegaard

Ruth Hedegaard

Since 1983, Ruth has worked as a librarian at theHistorical Archives at Vendsyssel HistoricalMuseum, Hjoerring, situated in the north ofJutland in Denmark. She is presently Head of theHistorical Archives and the reading room of theMuseum and Archives. She is responsible for theregistration of photos and printed matters.

She has a great interest in co-operation betweenarchives, libraries and museums and has beeninvolved with the national NOKS/ARBIMUS andDANPA digital databases. She has given paperson the issues of partnership at severalinternational conferences. She has also publishedpapers and articles on the subject. Last year sheadopted the role of joint-editor of a volume of theIFLA GENLOC Conference presentations to bepublished by Saur in Spring 2008.

Ruth was an original member of the IFLADiscussion Group on Genealogy and LocalHistory. She then joined the interim Committee

and has been a member and Secretary of theIFLA Genealogy and Local History Section sinceits inauguration in 2002.

GENLOC Treasurer 2007:Janice McFarlane

In Durban, counting the money

Fortunately for the Section and the StandingCommittee, Janice agreed at the CommitteeMeeting in Durban to continue as the super-efficient Treasurer of the Section.

GENLOC Secretary 2007: Russell Lynch

Russell Lynch

In Durban, Russ, a staff member at the FamilyHistory Library in Salt lake City, Utah, acceptedthe exacting role of GENLOC Secretary, takingover from Ruth Hedegaard. One of his first dutieswas to prepare the Annual Report.

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Annual Report 2006-2007

The Genealogy and Local History Section had 35section members at the end of the year 2007.

The Standing Committee consists of:

Chair: Ruth HedegaardSecretary: Russell LynchTreasurer: Janice McFarlaneInformation Coordinator: Janet TomkinsEditor of Newsletter: Elizabeth Melrose

Committee members 2005-2009: Richard Huws,Elizabeth Melrose, Paul Smart, and JuergenWarmbrunn.

Committee members 2007-2011: Anne Burrows,Lijing Chen, Ruth Hedegaard, AntonioLechasseur, Gerard Long, Russell Lynch, JaniceMcFarlane, Wayne Metcalfe, Mattye LavernePage, Janet Tomkins, Gui Won Lee, and Hsiao-ming Yu

Corresponding members: Gu Yan, Marie-LouisePerron, Susan Lugo

During the year we have been working on variousactivities and services, including the followingitems:

Open Session Program

The theme of the IFLA 2007 Conference programin Durban was Stories without writing: local andfamily history beyond the written word. TheAudiovisual and Multimedia section joined with usto sponsor the program held in two sessions.These sessions had 7 speakers and one videopresentation with a combined total of more than400 attendees. The speakers delivered wonderfulpresentations! Zhang Hongxia’s paper onsalvaging the vanishing Li culture was chosen forpublication in the IFLA Journal.

Study Tour

Like previous years, our section provided our ownstudy-tour that Mel Thatcher organized. TheGenealogy and Local History Section and theAudiovisual and Multimedia Section sponsored anall-day tour on Wednesday, August 22, 2007. Thetour included three locations: the Durban ArchivesRepository, the Killie Campbell Africana Library,and the Hidden Years Music Archive. Forty people

participated in the tour, which also included lunchat the Indian Connection Restaurant.

Entrance to the Durban Archives

The Durban Archives Repository is one of threerepositories for the Kwa-Zulu Natal ProvincialArchives. The Archives are the keepers of theofficial records of Kwa-Zulu Natal, dating fromcolonial government to the present. These includethe archives of magistrates, local authorities, andprovincial government. The three repositories,situated in Pietermaritzburg, Ulundi, and Durban,are responsible for the preservation of archivesand their use by the public. The archivistsexplained the records that are useful for familyhistory research and answered questions aboutpreservation, ethnic communities, and oralhistories.

Original documents from the Archives

The Killie Campbell Africana Library and WilliamCampbell Museum is part of Natal University.Killie Campbell (1881-1965) gathered books,manuscripts, and artifacts to preserve for posteritythe history of Zululand and Natal. The old CapeDutch-styled Campbell home Muckleneuk stands

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looking out over spacious gardens with indigenousshrubs and trees, high on Durban’s Berea. Theenthusiastic guides showed the artifacts,beadwork and paintings which were displayed -the beautiful treasures of South Africa in anabsolutely magnificent setting.

The Hidden Years Music Archive is at the EleanorBonnar Music Library at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

They participate in two projects: the South AfricanMusic Project (SAMAP) and the InternationalLibrary of African Music (ILAM). SAMAP aims tocreate an online resource on indigenous SouthAfrican music and associated cultural heritage soas to promote multidisciplinary research into thefield of popular music and culture.

Visiting these libraries and repositories allowed

WLIC participants to see in person the fascinatingcollections and services in the Kwa-Zulu Natalarea. The exciting developments in South Africawill benefit researchers worldwide.

Section Committee Meetings

The minutes can be seen on the Genealogy andLocal History Section page on the IFLA website.www.ifla.org/VII/s37/annual/s37-2007-minutes.pdf

The Standing Committee also reviewed each itemin the strategic plan during a spring discussion viae-mail.

Section Review

The Professional Committee recommended newdivisions for IFLA this year. The committeeoriginally recommended that GENLOC be in theLibrary Types Division. We recommend movingGENLOC to the Library Materials and ServicesDivision instead. This was approved, and ourSection has been moved to this division, that mayend up being called Library Collections

Membership drive

One important goal of the Section is to get moremembers in order to continue as a SectionCommittee. We were pleased that theProfessional Committee reduced the requiredminimum number of members from 50 to 40. Aftercontacting hundreds of libraries with a writteninvitation, we believe the best approach is stillthrough personal contact.

Committee Leadership Change

Mel Thatcher ended his eight-year term as sectionchair. Mel represented the section very well andkept the committee moving forward. The standingcommittee members honored Mel at a dinner inDurban for his tremendous work and wonderfulaccomplishments.

Communication

Elizabeth Melrose continues to produce excellentnewsletters. Copies of the newsletters areavailable on www.ifla.org/VII/s37/index.htm

Guides at the Killie Campbell Museum

The University of Kwa-Zulu Natal

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GENLOC

Unfortunately we still have not succeeded inmaking GENLOC our listserv into a discussionforum, but we use the listserv to send informationfrom the Section, our minutes, newsletter etc.

Publication of conference papers

The Section decided to compile and publish theGENLOC conference papers from 2001 to 2005.Ruth Hedegaard and Elizabeth Melrose becameeditors and had the sometimes hard work ofgetting the papers from the authors and editingthem into the same format. Several StandingCommittee members helped with proof-reading,and the manuscript was handed over to IFLAheadquarters at the conference in Durban. Themanuscript is now sent to K.G. Saur Verlag forpublication and will be published in the first half of2008.

Survey

The Section is continuing to survey genealogicalsources in national libraries and national archivesthrough the following questionnaire.

www.llgc.org.uk/ifla/holiadur_ifla.htm

The response to date has been good, and theinformation collated has been very useful inassisting our membership and publicity drives.Relevant institutions can still respond to thequestionnaire, as it will remain on IFLANET for theforeseeable future.

The port of Quebec City in the 19th c (Wikipedia)

Open Session

The theme for the Open Session is Access toGenealogical Records: Data Protection versusUnlocking the Records. GENLOC will hold a jointsession with FAIFE (Free Access to Informationand Freedom of Expression). Janice McFarlane isorganizing the session with Paul Sturges fromFAIFE.

Study Tour

The Section is planning a study tour to Grosse Îleand the Irish Memorial National Historic Site inQuébec. This is the Canadian equivalent of NewYork’s Ellis Island. Grosse Île was a quarantinestation from 1832 to 1937.

Russell LynchSecretary, GENLOC Standing Committee

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In Celebration of Judith – OralTradition, Museums and Libraries Keepthe Story Alive

Come July, in the foothills of the Blue RidgeMountains in Wilkesboro, North Carolina will hosta two-day family reunion celebrating the life ofJudith Barber, originally Judith Williams. Judithwas an enslaved woman who was originallyowned by Fannie Williams and later became thehouse slave with her 13 daughters. She sharedthe period of the 1850’s until emancipation withthe Barber family, where Fannie stayed with hersister Mary. Reverend R. E. Barber was theEpiscopal minister of St. Paul’s Churchcongregation and Judith and her daughterscarried out the difficult work that enabled thesocially prominent wife, Mary Taylor Williams

GENLOC at IFLAQuebec

10th –14

th August 2008

GENLOC OpenSession

Access to GenealogicalRecords: Data

Protection versusUnlocking the Records

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Barber, to entertain the many guests at their homeat Cedar Lawn.

Judith Williams Barber was born in 1820 and diedin 1912. Her descendants will not let her time onthis earth go unnoticed nor unappreciated. Theoral history is alive and well in the family withenough information about her to be the subject ofmany documentaries, plays, books, etc.

Where does this source of information comefrom? Two descendants of hers were key in thepassing down of her ‘story’ to the rest of the world.In many ways two women descendants in differentgenerations served as ‘griots’ and united thefamily with stories of Judith’s legacy, her dignity,and spirituality (after all Judith was a midwife andhealer, and according to African traditions curedthe body and the soul). The first was Ms. AnnieJones, Judith’s first granddaughter, and Judith’sgreat-great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Grinton(1916-2001) who began the family reunions thatthe Barbers and the community enjoy today.

I personally knew Elizabeth Grinton when she wasin her elderly years. She was a charismaticretired educator and community activist. I taughtlibrary science classes at Appalachian StateUniversity. When I met her I realized thatElizabeth Grinton’s years were numbered and thataccording to the African proverb, When an old

person dies, a library is burned. How to documentthe incredible life of Judith Barber and themesmerizing mission of Elizabeth Grinton to uniteher large extended family and let them understandthat though enslaved, through no fault of her own,Judith was a woman to be proud of, someone tohonor, someone to inspire coming generations.Elizabeth Grinton, five years before she died,published the family book called Treasure Troves,documenting the family history. It includedpictures of the tombstones of the early Barberfamily in the cemetery of Old Damascus BaptistChurch, an early place of worship after slaveryended.

Betsy Barber Hawkins, also a retired educator andformer resident of Wilkesboro, came up fromFlorida one summer. Iin her mission to documenther ancestors, the Williams and the Barbers, sherevisited Elizabeth Grinton, whom she had heardabout in her youth. The two began sharing storiesand came out with more information than eitherever thought they could have achieved. Slaveowner and enslaved…their lives had meshed preand post civil war. Rev. Barber became the firstWilkesboro public school superintendent after theCivil War, and by then several of Judith’sgrandchildren prepared themselves for teaching.Records show them on the rolls of thoserudimentary schools for blacks.

A university grant and assistance of severaluniversity departments resulted in a 55 minutedocumentary called I Go There in My Dreams:New Memories of An Old South. I completed it inMay 2001, just days after Elizabeth Grinton died.The documentary features Elizabeth Grinton andBetsy Barber Hawkins walking through the homewhere the slaveowners and enslaved women hadlived. It was a true reality show with no script butthe sharing of two deeply committed individualsgiving testimony to their connection to family.

But no such work exists in a vacuum. Museumsand libraries lent their support. The AppalachianCultural Museum at Appalachian State University,Boone, North Carolina lent artifacts from its exhibiton the Barber family for filming. These artifactscame from a donation of Elizabeth Grinton severalyears earlier, and to the university’s credit wasfashioned into a telling of the contributions thatAfrican Americans made to the Appalachian area.There were pictures of ‘Mammy Judith’, as thefamily called her, pictures of her children andextended family, plates that she used, kettles,quilts made by her daughters and pictures of herextended family - and the documenting of some oftheir migration into the coal-mines of WestVirginia. Recently, while a new museum is being

Judith Williams Barber 1820 - 1912

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planned, the exhibit was lent to the WilkesHistorical Museum in Wilkesboro and localcitizenry are learning about the early presence ofAfrican American women and families.

Wilkes Community College’s Learning ResourceCenter under the leadership of Dr. Fay Byrdprovided and still provides a wealth of informationon the Barber family, both the black side and thewhite side. Master copies of videos taken byvideographer, the late Bob Pate, have beenmeticulously preserved for future researchers, andthis researcher is planning a second documentaryabout Elizabeth Grinton’s life using many of thesearchival videos. Ms. Grinton’s niece, educatorJane Wilborn, has also shared many of theGrinton films taken over a span of 25 years. TheLearning Resource Center has vertical filesdocumenting family activities through the years.Recently Betsy Barber Hawkins has been filmedsharing the research she has spent years doingabout her family for the Wilkes County Save OurHistory Committee.

Though each community focuses on the recoveryof their heritage, giving particular attention tothose in their jurisdiction, the IFLA Conference inDurban, South Africa moved all of us toward therealization that collectively recovering the heritageof each community leads all of us in libraryinstitutions to better understand the diversity andrichness of the world’s heritage.

Dr. Linda Veltze, Appalachian State University Library, US.

Visiting the Welsh in Ohio- more from Ohio and the National Library ofWales

During Autumn 2007 a research officer from theNational Library of Wales visited the towns andvillages in the state of Ohio that were founded byWelsh emigrants in the nineteenth century.

Dr Menna Morgan, the Wales-Ohio Project officer,travelled to places such as Shandon, Oak Hill,Gomer, Venedocia and the Welsh Hills to promotea new bilingual website that was launchedrecently by the Library. The Wales-Ohio websitewww.ohio.llgc.org.uk chronicles the history andthe experiences of many hundreds of emigrantswho flocked to the heart of North America to seeka better life.

‘We have collected and interpreted the materialsin the Library dealing with the history of the Welshin Ohio and presented them on a website foraudiences in every part of the world,’ said MennaMorgan.

At present the website displays around 5,000digital images of archives and manuscripts,printed materials, photographs, maps andpictures.

‘The response to the website has been excellentso far,’ she said. ‘We have received messagesfrom people in every part of Wales, and from Ohioand beyond expressing their surprise at thehistory and at the amount of information that isavailable on the website.’

During the journey Menna also looked for morematerials to digitise. The first phase of the Wales-Ohio Project was financed by Evan E andElizabeth F Davis of Oak Hill, Ohio. Furthersponsorship has been received from them tocontinue with the digitisation work and to extendand enrich the present website.

‘It was a pleasure to visit places I had heard somuch about, especially in the south-east where alarge number of people from Cardiganshire had

Gomer Welsh Community Museum, Ohio

Menna Morgan, Elizabeth Davis, Jeanne Jindra (MadogCentre) and Evan Davis

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settled. While I was there I had the opportunity toattend the annual Singing Festival at Nebo, whichhas been a tradition there for 135 years! Severalpeople came up to me after the Festival to presentmaterials that we could digitise for the project.’

‘I was also surprised that the two Welsh Museums– at Oak Hill and Gomer – had collected so muchmaterial during the years recording the history ofthe Welsh people of Ohio, and their customs andtraditions. We look forward to co-operating withthem and to digitising some of the most importantitems in their collections.’

Menna visited the Madog Center at the Universityof Rio Grande, the Welsh-American HeritageMuseum in Oak Hill, the State Archives atColumbus and the Gomer Welsh CommunityMuseum to find appropriate materials fordigitisation during the second phase of the project.

From now until the end of March 2009, it isintended to develop the present website by:

� adding transcripts and translations of thematerials that have been digitised already

� developing the present education section

� publishing the contents of The Cambrian on-line

� digitising further suitable items includingmaterials in archives and private collections inAmerica.

For further information about the Wales-OhioProject visit: www.ohio.llgc.org.uk or send an e-mail to: ohio@llgc.org.uk

Menna Morgan, National Library of Wales

FAIFE - Free Access to Information andFreedom of Expression

Resolution on Access to Personal Data

Mel Thatcher of GENLOC asked FAIFE to draft aresolution on access to personal data - a difficultissue because on the one hand, society needs toprotect personal privacy; but on the other,scholars and public policy makers need to haveaccess to some of this data in order to doresearch and make social changes. BarbaraJones, FAIFE Committee Member and ActingSecretary, developed a draft in 2006. The FAIFEcommittee did not have time to address the issuein Seoul, but did so in The Hague in April 2007.Barbara put the resolution on the IFLA FAIFEagenda wanting this to be agreed as a resolution.

The FAIFE Committee had been concerned attheir April meeting with access to personal datafrom official records, touching on issues such asadoptees and their 'right' to trace birth parents,and the need/desire of people from communitieswith multiple heritages to trace ancestry through arange of national records.

At the second GENLOC Standing Committeemeeting in Durban, members, including AntonioLechasseur of Library and Archives Canada,agreed to help on a committee concerned withdata privacy and access – and, if viable, with aconference in South America in 2008.

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In Victoria, Australia there has recently been anannouncement that public access to Victorian birthand change of name records will increase from 75to 100 years. An exact date has not been set forthis change.

Revised policy effecting access to VictorianrecordsA revised Access Policy will come into effect in thesecond half the year governing the access torecords held by the Victorian Registry of Births,Deaths and Marriages.

The Access Policy 2007 defines: - who may be eligible to access Registry records - the conditions of access - the format in which information will be released - the time period for which records are restricted

One of the key changes to policy is that restrictionperiods on public access to birth and change ofname records will increase from 75 to 100 years.

The VicHeritage CD and microfiche productscontaining records that are in breach of the 100year restriction period will no longer be availablefor purchase from the date of release of theAccess Policy 2007. These products include:

- Edwardian Index, 1902 to 1913 on CDRom andmicrofiche - Great War Index, 1914 to 1920 on CDRom andmicrofiche

Alex Byrne: The politics of promotingfreedom of information and expression ininternational librarianship: the IFLA/FAIFEproject. Scarecrow Press, Lanham,

Maryland, 2007

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Policy changes are driven by a number of factors: - a need to better protect an individual’s identity - an increase in life expectancy

‘Ultimately it is my responsibility as the Registrarto ensure all records held and released by theRegistry are done so in accordance to strictstandards that do not compromise an individual’ssecurity and personal identity’, said Ms HelenTrihas, Registrar, Victorian Registry of Births,Deaths and Marriages. ‘We recognise and valuethe role we have in family and historical researchand remain committed to supporting and workingwith all members of this community in their work’.

Further information and the policy itself will beadded immediately to the Registry’s websitewww.bdm.vic.gov.au on release. Information willalso be passed onto various genealogicalsocieties for dissemination as soon as it becomesavailable.Anne Burrows, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne

There are a couple of examples here in Canadaregarding increasing constraints on public accessto genealogical information:- here in BritishColumbia, birth records were until recently open tothe public, without restriction, after 100 years. Butin 2003, that was changed to 120 years. So now,the public can access birth records from 1903 andearlier, but will not have ready access to any laterrecords until 2025, when 1904 records will bereleased.

There was a long battle between StatisticsCanada and Library and Archives Canadaregarding release of 1906 and 1911 censusrecords. This was based on a supposedassurance given to people enumerated in thoseyears that their records would not be released inthe future, although no documentation was everproduced to support the contention that such anassurance was given. This was recently resolved,and 1906 and 1911 census records are now infact available. But in the most recent (2006)census, the form specifically asked people to opt-in if they wanted to consent to having their recordsreleased after 92 years. In the case of those whodid not opt-in, their records will never be releasedto future generations.

Janet Tomkins, Vancouver Public Library, Canada

Family history the Australian and NewZealand way

In the second of a continuing series of articles onmajor Australian and New Zealand libraries and

how they provide services to genealogists, wefocus on:

The State Library of South Australia inAdelaide (SLSA)

The State Library of South Australia underwentmajor redevelopment between 2000 and 2003.The 1960s Bastyan Wing of the Library had beenbuilt before the advent of computers, therefore itneeded to be drastically updated to enable anupgrade of our information technology capabilityand to make the building compliant. What used tobe a dark building with very little natural light andoffices and corridors everywhere was transformedinto wonderful light, bright, open plan areas.

The Bastyan Wing is now named after CatherineHelen Spence, Australia’s first truly professionalfemale journalist and the first female politicalcandidate in South Australia. She was a fearlesssocial and political reformer. Largely due toCatherine Helen Spence’s influence on suffrage,South Australia became the first place in the worldto give women the right to stand for Parliament.Her role in Federation was recognised nationallyby her placement on Australia’s Federation five-dollar note.

The magnificent glass foyer, which forms theentrance to the building, connects the two heritagewings of the Library without overshadowing them.One of the heritage buildings, the beautifulMortlock wing, which opened in December 1884,is now the home of a variety of permanentexhibitions. The other, the Institute Buildingoriginally built in 1860, now contains an exhibitionof items from the Library’s Sir Donald Bradmancollection.

On the ground floor of the Catherine HelenSpence wing is the Adelaide City Council LendingLibrary, the State Library Café and the FlindersUniversity Gallery.

State Library of South Australia in Adelaide Family History area

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Upstairs is the Library’s main information point,which now houses all our many and variedcollections. This includes the Family HistoryCollection, which is co-located with thenewspapers on microfilm. Family Historians arethe greatest users of the newspapers. They areabsolutely invaluable not just for providingpersonal notices relating to births, deaths, andmarriages but are also wonderful for learningabout the social history of the times people’sancestors lived.

We have about a 90% coverage of all thenewspapers published in South Australia,beginning with the Register which was the veryfirst newspaper in the colony. In fact, the firstedition was published in London in 1835 beforethe travellers set out to establish South Australia.The collection includes regional papers, not justthose published in Adelaide. Those that we donot have tend to be the early sports papers.Included in the collection is one newspaper fromevery State, from the first edition to the presentday, but we also keep a number of shorter runs ofpapers for the other states.

Access is provided to the Times Digital Archiveson the Library public access computers and wehave microfilm copies of the paper itself from 1834onwards. Once again, reading the Times can putancestors’ lives in context.

In the Family History Area there are 15 digitalmicrofilm readers and 8 of these are attached toprinters so anything of interest can be copied.

Included among the Libraries public accesscomputers are 28 which people can use without

booking. On these, many of the most heavily usedfamily history electronic resources have beennetworked. This includes various birth, death andmarriage records for each state and AncestryLibrary Edition. There are also 4 family historydedicated computers, which people can book toensure that they can get access to the resourcethey need at a time that suits them.

We do understand that generally people are notgreatly interested in the Dewey System. They areonly interested whether a book will help them withtheir research. So the hard copy South Australianfamily history resources are not shelved amongstthe interstate and overseas books and are all kepttogether on separate shelves.

In the Library we are the custodians of theAnglican, Methodist, Congregational andPresbyterian Church records. Many of theAnglican records have been microfilmed and arein the Family History Area. These include therecords of Trinity Church, the very first, and for along time the most prominent, church in SouthAustralia. Given that civil registration did not beginuntil 1842 in South Australia, the early churchrecords are very important for family historians.This may be the only way to find out about anevent which happened in the family.

Between 10 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday thereis a staff member on duty in the Family HistoryArea. Outside these times the service is operatedfrom the main Information Desk.

Alongside the Family History Area is the collectionof government publications. This includes theelectoral rolls, which are very useful for finding outwhere people lived, and the early ones may alsogive a person’s occupation. The Library has anincomplete set for South Australia beginning in1863, and incomplete sets for all other States from1938 until the present day.

The collection also contains the GovernmentGazettes which are invaluable to family historiansas they give so much information about individualsas well as what was going on within the State.

There are various links on the State Library webpage at www.slsa.sa.gov.au under FamilyHistorians to help with family history research.From here it is also possible to print off LibraryFactsheets.

The Library’s South Australiana catalogue, whichis also available at the above address, containsbiographical information relating to SouthAustralians and over 70,000 photographs. Ofcourse there are many resources which helpfamily historians in other collections in the Library.

Microfilm Readers in the Family History areaState Library of South Australia

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This is especially true of the South AustralianaCollection which contains things like alreadypublished family histories, school year books,police gazettes, local histories and companyhistories.

The Library has an impressive map collection Itwould be difficult to find a place in the world forwhich we do not have a map. Our maps are noton open access but during our core opening hoursthere is always a map-trained librarian who canretrieve relevant maps from the collection forcustomers. Arrangements can be made for mapsto be retrieved for use outside our core hours.

The Library offers a number of courses to helppeople with their family history research and wealso offer sessions via public libraries. A newinitiative this year enables customers to book in tohave one on one half hour sessions with a FamilyHistory Specialist prior to the Library opening onTuesday and Thursday mornings.

A large number of people coming to the StateLibrary of South Australia do so to research theirfamily history. It is anticipated that the numberswill continue to grow as more and more ‘BabyBoomers’ retire and have the time to trace theirroots. At the moment we are undertaking a reviewto decide how we can best accommodate thesenew Library users.

Marie Maddocks,, State Library of South Australia,Adelaide, South Australia www.slsa.sa.sa.gov.au

The State Library of South Australia

News from Elsewhere

Congratulations to Jenny Zhang Hangxia, andZhan Changzhi of Hainan University Libray,China, whose joint Durban presentation ‘Alibrary’s efforts in a journey of salvaging thevanished cuture’ has been chosen for publicationin the IFLA Journal.

This fascinating paper told of the efforts of HainanUniversity Library in documenting the rapidlyvanishing culture of the Li people of Hainan Islandin the south of China. This ethnic group have nowriting script, only a spoken language. Theirtraditional culture, fast disappearing, includes folksongs, weaving and a unique tattooing culture – inco-operation with Global Memory Net (GMNet)and other international scholars, Hainan Universityis salvaging the Li culture in multimedia format sothat it can be studied and preserved.

Elizabeth Melrose, Editor of the IFLA GENLOCNewsletter has been awarded the UK LocalStudies Group Dorothy McCulla MemorialPrize 2007 for Local Studies Librarianship. Herwork as part of the IFLA GENLOC Committeecontributed to the citation. The awardpresentation will take place at a UK LocalStudies Group Meeting in April in Scotland.

Meifu Li facial tattooing c1930

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Italian Genealogy Research

Foerster, Robert Franz: The Italian Emigration ofOur TimesCambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1919.556p.

This thorough book should be read by allgenealogists interested in Italian family history. Itdescribes the emigration from Italy not only to theUS, but to Switzerland, Argentina etc., and in turnthe second migrations to other countries andthose returning to Italy.

Foerster discusses the migration from Italy fromthe earliest times, but his focus is the pace ofmigration from each of the regions of Italy from1876 to 1909. He gives charts and tablesthroughout the text. Note the useful table on page529 showing the numbers of migrants from 1876-1886, 1887-1900, 1901-1909.

Conti, Marcello: L'Argentina come paese di-immigrazione e dicolonizzazione agricola.Florence, Italy: G. Ramella, 1908. 19p.

A scarce item about Italian migration to Argentinaand the impact the Italians had on the agriculturaleconomy and practices there.

Rotellini, Vitaliano: La legge di immigrazione ecolonizzazione per lo stato di San Paolo.Messaggio, legge, commenti; una lettera al"messagero" di Roma.Sao Paulo, Brazil: Fanfulla, 1901. 30p.

This title is a very scarce and unusual manual forItalian immigrants. Written in Italian and publishedin Sao Paulo, Brazil, it briefed them on the lawand on what they could expect in Brazil. SaoPaulo encouraged migrants to build theireconomy.Tom Kemp email: thomas.j.kemp@gmail.com

Other book titles with descriptions can beseen on Genealogy Librarian News blog

http://genlibrarian.blogspot.com/

Australian celebs to trace family tree

Following the success of the UK series ‘Who doyou think you are?’ an Australian series has beenunder production, tracing the family history ofcelebrities. Now details have been revealed as towho the Australian celebs will be. For moreinformation:www.tvtonight.com.au/2007/09/aussie-celebs-to-trace-family-tree.html

I am interested in strategies that other librariesmight have developed to cope with increaseddemand on genealogy services caused by thescreening of the ‘Who do you think you are?’television program. The Australian version goes toair on 13 January 2008.

Anne Burrows, Genealogy Librarian,State Library of Victoria, 328 Swanston Street, MelbourneVictoria 3000email: aburrows@slv.vic.gov.au

Publication of GENLOC Conferencepapers 2001–2006

The volume of GENLOC Conference Papers2001-2005, edited by Ruth Hedegaard andElizabeth Melrose, is in the hands of thePublishers KG Saur Verlag and the collectionshould appear in print this Spring, 2008.

For more information about the Section and itsactivities, please visit our website:

www.ifla.org/VII/s37/index.htm

A leaflet promoting the work of the Section isavailable in the following languages: Afrikaans,English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese,

French, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian,Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Please email the Editor, GENLOC Newsletter at elizabeth.melrose@btinternet.com with any

comments on the Newsletter