There’s no better time to explore your family history than right now.
August is National Family History Month, and to celebrate, the Nepean Family History Society has waived their membership fees for anyone who wishes to explore their family’s past.
Christine Unett, Nepean Family History Society’s President, is encouraging the local community to come in and find out more about their ancestry.
“During the month of August it’s free, and anybody can come over at any time – we are offering tea and coffee and biscuits as well,” she said.
“We have subscriptions to Ancestry and FindMyPast, and as a member or a visitor during this month, you pay nothing, and have full access to them.
“You can find lots of family trees that people have already put up on those sites, and records from all over the world and there’s more becoming available as we speak.”
The Nepean Family History Society is holding free talks once a week on a variety of family history topics such as Ditch genealogy, colonial correspondence and Irish famine orphans.
“We’ve been having free talks every Wednesday. Last week’s was well presented and provided a lot of information,” Ms Unett said.
The next talks will be on August 19 at 11.30am and August 26 at 1pm, and will better equip visitors with research skills to find what they are looking for.
“People come in searching for ancestors in a particular area, where they are buried, if they had land grants in the local area, or family histories and we can help them with all of those,” she said.
Ms Unett said the Nepean Family History Society hopes to raise awareness in the community that they can access this service.
“The ultimate aim is to get people in to experience it and let them know that there are resources out there that they can use,” she said.
“They might only be interested in doing a history of a property, or a local area, but we can still help them with that.”
The Nepean Family History Society is located at the ‘Old School Residence’ on Lawson Street, Emu Plains and for opening times, visit www.nepeanfhs.org.au.
– Dale Drinkwater
