Scandinavian Interest Group 2025
2025-09-21 12:30 - 14:30 (Australia/Brisbane) | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
The Scandinavian Interest Group aims:

To provide assistance to members researching their Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish or Icelandic Ancestors.

Meetings:
Meetings are held on the 3rd Sunday of the odd months of the year, unless otherwise advertised.
2025: 19th Jan; 16th March; 18th May; 20th July; 21st Sept; 16th Nov.
Please NOTE 18th May 2025 start is at 2:30 pm.

The Resource Centre opens at 12:30 pm and closes at 2:30 pm. Meetings usually commence at 12:30pm and take the form of discussions or guest speakers about Scandinavian research, migration or customs.
Attendees are asked to contribute a gold coin donation.

Contact Convenor Steinar Johansen on scangroup@gsq.org.au for further information.

Monday Indexing Team
2025-09-22 10:00 - 14:30, 2025-10-13 10:00 - 14:30, 2025-10-27 10:00 - 14:30 | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
This time is set aside for the Monday Indexing Team, who work at GSQ on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month from 10am – 2.20pm.
If you do need to have a meeting at GSQ during this time period please be aware of the team being there and keep meetings quiet and conducted as quickly as possible.

Regards
GSQ Indexing Team

MT Zoom 2025
2025-09-22 11:00 - 12:30, 2025-09-29 11:00 - 12:30, 2025-10-13 11:00 - 12:30, 2025-10-20 11:00 - 12:30, 2025-10-27 11:00 - 12:30 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
Welcome to Monday Morning Zoom

Are you interested in learning more about Genealogy/ Family History?
What can you find regarding records on the various websites, in the books at GSQ, microfiche that have not been digitized, and what you can find in Archives and Libraries.
Do you like to be part of a very relaxed group that LOVE to talk and share information?
GSQ is not opened on a Monday so why not join us from the comfort of your home along with a cuppa and don’t forget the pets.
We have discovered that many of our pets love being on Zoom and enjoy the attention of everyone saying hello to them. So all pets are welcome to come along as well.
We like to discuss events that are occurring in the genealogical world.
As a group we try to help others by offering alternative ideas or websites/records to search when someone has a problem or a brickwall.
So come and join Ailsa and Helen, every Monday from 11am – 12.30pm, and find out more about the joys of belonging to a Genealogical Society.
We do not meet on public holidays, see the event calendar,
If you are not a member of GSQ yet, you can come along for 2 meetings before needing to join.
Send your request to join us to mtzoom@gsq.org.au and we will add you to our list.
Your Hosts are: Ailsa Corlett and Helen Connor

Ailsa Corlett

Helen Connor

4th Wednesday Night Zoom 2025
2025-09-24 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
GSQ extends its invitation to everyone that is interested in learning or finding out more about Genealogical Research to attend the 2nd and 4th Wednesday Nights of the month,
via Zoom starting at 7pm.
You do not have to be a member of GSQ in order to come along, they are FREE.

Are you interested in knowing about Family History, What does it involve, How can I find out about records available, How do I go about doing Research, Would like to listen to some experts ?
The 4th Wednesday Nights we have a guest speaker talking on a large variety of topics that are involved in Family History of some sort.
These meetings are FREE to attend, but a donation is always welcomed to help sponsor subscriptions to various sites.

The Guest Speaker for this 4th Wednesday Night 24th September 2025 is:
Lilian Magill – You’re the Voice: Telling your family story.
Lilian is a Professional Genealogist with 40 years of genealogical research experience. She is the author of a book and has had many articles in genealogical magazines.
This talk cover various ways to tell your family story from blog posts, short stories, photo books and publishing a family history.
We ALL struggle with getting this done for all our research, come and listen to Lilian who will give you some hints and tips on not only how to get started but to make sure you get it finished.
https://www.researchbylily.com.au

To attend, please email wedpmzoom@gsq.org.au to advise you would like to be added to the attendee list. This will enable us to send you the Zoom link as well as information each month on what is happening.

Your hosts for the meetings are:

Ailsa Corlett

Fleur Creed

Ailsa has always been interested in family history, starting in 1989 after a trip to Central Otago and seeing photos and dresses of her Paternal ancestors in the Cromwell Museum. Being the eldest grandchild, her grandmother also told her stories and she obtained many of those wonderful little trinkets that get handed out.
Worked as a professional genealogist in the 1990’s specialising in NZ research for Australians. She was accredited under AAGRA. Now retired is very involved with GSQ and helps to run the website, the Monday and Wednesday Zooms as well as the FHTech group.

Fleur developed an interest in family history from her father, who was active in family history research, also writing books about the early settlers of the Queanbeyan, NSW district prior to the selection of the Limestone Plains as the site for the Federal Capital. Her ancestors came from England, Scotland and Ireland, and Africa via America, and include convicts, assisted immigrants and some free settlers. She has completed the SAG Certificate of Genealogical Studies, as well as completed the Diploma of Family History at UTAS. Fleur has a PhD on the topic, “Australian churches building social capital in their local communities” and currently works part-time as an academic researcher. She also operates a Facebook group about the history the early settlers of the tiny town in the North Burnett where she and her husband are turning a little timber church into their home.

German Interest Group 2025
2025-09-28 10:00 - 14:30 | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
The German Interest Group aims:

to offer support and research assistance to all who are searching for their German Ancestry.
to encourage and exchange information in an informal setting.
to provide guest speakers when possible to help guide us through the maze of information available to us.
to learn the history of Germany and immigration and why our ancestors chose to leave.
to get to know about German people and their customs.

Meetings:
Meetings are held on the Last Sunday of odd months of the year, unless otherwise advertised.
2025: 26th Jan; 30th March; 25th May; 27th July; 28th Sept; 30th Nov.
The Resource Centre opens at 10:00 am until 2:30 pm, allowing time before or after the meeting for research or discussion.
The meetings are hybrid so that anyone who is unable to attend on the day can still join in with the meeting using Zoom.
The German Interest Group is a small, but very knowledgeable group and would love to have you attend their meetings.
Please contact via email in relation to any questions or suggestions that you might have in relation to how the group may assist you with your research.
Any GSQ members who think they may also benefit from listening to the QFHS Central European Group Zoom meetings of which are held on the 1st Sunday in the even months, please contact the convenor so that she can arrange for the link to be sent to you.
Attendees are asked to contribute a gold coin donation.
Contact Convenor Lesley Roebig on germangroup@gsq.org.au to obtain a Zoom link or further information.

WeArexyz - with Simon Davies
2025-09-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
WeAre.xyz – Fun Projects and Engaging with Family
FREE to GSQ/QFHS Members

Following on from Fleur Creed’s inspiring session on how to use WeAre.xyz, this session proposes some fun projects as well as recapping the basics of building a collaborative family archive. Project examples will be demonstrated and will include capturing a childhood Place, exploring the landscape of an ancestral family, bringing cherished heirlooms/artifacts to life so future generations will appreciate them more… and it would be good to brainstorm together other intriguing ideas.

Presenter:
Simon Davies
Simon Davies is the founder of WeAre.xyz an ingenious social archive platform for genealogists and their families, and a trustee of the Shropshire Family History Society.
At WeAre.xyz, we are all about making it simple and delightful to make an online archive of anything that floats your boat. We’ve started with two areas of personal passion: family history, and ‘one place study’ history (a house, a village, a national park, any heritage site…).
We are also constantly asking the question of how to ensure what we create survives and thrives for generations to come. And we have come to a solid conclusion on this; whatever nostalgia and history you are into, make time to generate and include a record of yourself. The next generation, above all, will want to remember you. But in the process of inspecting your own life record, those who start to share your family or other nostalgic history passion will find the treasure trove you have left them.

Presenter:
Fleur Creed
Dr Fleur Creed has been researching her own family history for many years, and is a generational family historian, following in the footsteps of her father. She understands the importance of handing on an interest to the next generation. Fleur holds a Diploma of Family History from UTAS, a Certificate in Genealogical Research Methods from SAG, and is currently working on a Diploma of Family History Studies with SAG. She also works as an academic researcher.

This is a TUESDAY Night event.

Tickets will close at 5 PM Tuesday 30th September 2025

The link is included in your registration payment – Please make sure you retain this.

Event via Zoom with Registrants being able to view the recording for the following month.
QFHS and any GSQ Affiliate members you will require to put in your Member No or Branch as well as the code given to you to use.

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Wednesday morning Zoom meeting hosted by Bobbie Edes
2025-10-01 11:00 - 12:30 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
Wednesday morning Zoom meetings hosted by Bobbie Edes.
Starting at 11am on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month Feb to Nov.

Each of our friendly meetings is run for about 90 minutes or so. The sessions alternate between a Topic PowerPoint presentation with notes on the 1st Wednesday of each month and a help/learning aid session on the 3rd Wednesday with those present all sharing their contributions which are compiled into a handout on that subject so they can be kept for future use. Recently in these mid-moth meetings we have covered military, Australian births, immigration, land records, burials with more planned as well as helping members with their brick walls.
Our topic sessions have recently covered Plotting your ancestors journey using Google Earth, Preparations for visiting an archive, Education in Australia, Using short stories, Timeline creation, Using PowerPoint, and Using PowerPoint to tell your family story in movie format.
**Please email requests to join to: wedmorningzoom@gsq.org.au
2025 – 5th & 19th Feb; 5th & 19th March; 2nd & 16th April; 7th & 21st May; 4th & 18th June; 2nd & 16th July; 6th & 20th Aug; 3rd & 17th Sept; 1st & 15th Oct; 5th & 19th Nov; 3rd Dec Christmas Gathering.

Topic’s on the 1st Wednesday of the Month
Learning Aid/ Brickwall on the 3rd Wednesday of the Month.

English Irish Welsh Interest Group 2025
2025-10-05 10:00 - 14:30 | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
The English Irish Welsh interest Group aims:

To assist members with their research into their English, Welsh or Irish ancestry through discussion, guest speakers and acquisition of resources.

Meetings:
Are held on the 1st Sunday of even months of the year, unless otherwise advertised.
2025: 2nd Feb; 6th April; 1st June; 3rd Aug; 5th Oct; 7th Dec.

The Resource Centre opens at 9:30 am and closes at 2:30 pm, the meeting begins at 10:00 am with a discussion followed by one of the members giving a presentation relevant to one of the counties the Group covers. There will be opportunities to ask questions of the group, seek help with a research problems you may have and to share your knowledge. You will have time to do personal research and talk to members.
The meetings are hybrid, so that anyone who is unable to attend on the day can still participate in the meeting via Zoom.
Attendees are asked to contribute a gold coin donation.
Contact Convenor Kim Davis on irisheng@gsq.org.au to obtain a Zoom link or further information.

Kings Birthday 2025
2025-10-06 | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
GSQ will be closed on the King’s Birthday 2025

GSQ TAG IT Meetings 2025
2025-10-07 09:00 - 10:30 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
TAG IT, meet every 1st Tuesday of the month at 9.00am
Link will be sent out to all via Convenor at least the day before.

2nd Wednesday Night Zoom 2025
2025-10-08 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
GSQ extends its invitation to everyone that is interested in learning or finding out more about Genealogical Research to attend the 2nd and 4th Wednesday Nights of the month,
via Zoom starting at 7pm.
You do not have to be a member of GSQ in order to come along, they are FREE.

Are you interested in knowing about Family History, What does it involve, How can I find out about records available, How do I go about doing Research, Would like to listen to some experts ?
If these are questions you have, then please come along to our Wednesday Night Zooms. It is a self help group as well so that you can offer solutions/ideas/web sites/books and knowledge to anyone attending. Attendees are asked to participate in the 2nd Wednesday Night topic, thus sharing information about our ancestors.
The 2nd Wednesday Nights are topic based plus I have a Problem! night. (Please send in these problems or questions at least a week before the meeting)
The 4th Wednesday Nights we have a guest speaker talking on a large variety of topics that are involved in Family History of some sort.
These meetings are FREE to attend, but a donation is always welcomed to help sponsor subscriptions to various sites.

The topic for Discussion for this 2nd Wednesday Night 8th October 2025 will be:

To attend, please email wedpmzoom@gsq.org.au to advise you would like to be added to the attendee list. This will enable us to send you the Zoom link as well as information each month on what is happening.

Your hosts for the meetings are:

Ailsa Corlett

Fleur Creed

Ailsa has always been interested in family history, starting in 1989 after a trip to Central Otago and seeing photos and dresses of her Paternal ancestors in the Cromwell Museum. Being the eldest grandchild, her grandmother also told her stories and she obtained many of those wonderful little trinkets that get handed out.
Worked as a professional genealogist in the 1990’s specialising in NZ research for Australians. She was accredited under AAGRA. Now retired is very involved with GSQ and helps to run the website, the Monday and Wednesday Zooms as well as the FHTech group.

Fleur developed an interest in family history from her father, who was active in family history research, also writing books about the early settlers of the Queanbeyan, NSW district prior to the selection of the Limestone Plains as the site for the Federal Capital. Her ancestors came from England, Scotland and Ireland, and Africa via America, and include convicts, assisted immigrants and some free settlers. She has completed the SAG Certificate of Genealogical Studies, as well as completed the Diploma of Family History at UTAS. Fleur has a PhD on the topic, “Australian churches building social capital in their local communities” and currently works part-time as an academic researcher. She also operates a Facebook group about the history the early settlers of the tiny town in the North Burnett where she and her husband are turning a little timber church into their home.

Executive Committee Meeting Dates
2025-10-10 09:00 - 12:00 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
The GSQ Executive Committee met on the Friday before the Committee Meetings which is the 3rd Monday of the month.
All meetings are held between 9am – 12pm and Committee Members will be unavailable during that time. Please just leave them a message and they will return your call once finished.

GSQ Annual Seminar 2025
2025-10-11 12:00 - 18:00 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
Rogues, Rebels and Respectables Seminar

Join via Zoom to listen and learn from 6 Fantastic Presenters plus Question and Answers Panel,
so that you can ask those questions you forgot at the time of the presentation.

Presenter:
Shauna Hicks OAM

Behind Bars: Convicts and Criminals.
Shauna explores a wide range of resources for those with convicts or criminals in the family and draws on the speaker’s experience in researching her own family history. All Australian states are covered.

Shauna Hicks has been tracing her own family history since 1977 and worked in government for over 35 years in Australian libraries and archives in Brisbane, Canberra, and Melbourne. She has tertiary qualifications from Queensland universities including a Master of Arts in Australian Studies, a Graduate Diploma in Library Science, and a Diploma in Family Historical Studies from the Society of Australian Genealogists. She is a Fellow of the Queensland Family History Society; Patron of History Queensland, and a recipient of the Australian Society of Archivists Distinguished Achievement Award and the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations’ Services to Family History Award. She has written numerous family history guides and is a well-known speaker at conferences, seminars, workshops, and genealogy cruises in Australia and overseas. Shauna is the Director of her own genealogy business at https://www.shaunahicks.com.au and is the author of the blog, Diary of an Australian Genealogist. Shauna was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in the King’s Birthday Honours List, June 2024.

Presenter:
Michael Flynn

Biographical Database of Australia.
BDA is a research tool for historians and genealogists comprising transcripts & indexes of original records and published biographies of deceased individuals who arrived, or were born in, Australia. Full text of many baptisms, marriages & burials 1788-1850s for NSW, VIC, SE Qld, TAS plus unassisted and assisted immigrants, myltiple records of most convicts, soldiers stationed in Australia; full online transcript of NSW 1828 census, 10,000 burials & inscriptions 1819-1901 from the Sydney Burial Ground. Full text of 31,000 colonial biographies giving as of April 2025 a total of 2.2 million records online.

Michael Flynn is a Sydney historian and genealogist and the author of The Second Fleet: Britain’s Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993). He is also the author of ‘Settlers and seditionists: the people of the convict ship Surprize, 1794’ (1994). He assisted the late Mollie Gillen with her 1989 book ‘The founders of Australia: a biographical dictionary of the First Fleet’
Since 2006 he has assisted the editors of BDA as honorary research officer, website text editor and BDA board member.
https://www.bda-online.org.au/

Presenter:
Helen V Smith

Gentlemen on the Fringe: the Fate of Downunder’s Remittance Men.
Do you have someone in your tree that you cannot find a reason for them coming to Australia or New Zealand. Perhaps he was a remittance man. Though many were from an upper or middle class family and because of their character were sent overseas after disgraces at home, not all were disgraced sons, but simply the younger sons of the landed gentry who could not inherit the estate. Many of these men that came out turned out to be very respectable and well known men.

Helen V Smith PGDip Public Health, BAppSci: Med Lab Sci, Dip Family History, P.L.C.G.S.
Helen is a speaker, DNA specialist, researcher, and author with a strong interest in Australian, English, medical and social history. She has spoken in person and online in every state and territory in Australia, in Canada, USA, New Zealand and England, on 18 Unlock the Past cruises and has regularly presented for Legacy Family Webinars. She is a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Genealogical Speakers Guild.

Presenter:
Dr Hamish Maxwell-Stewart

Crime, Protest and Profit: a Guide to understanding Tasmanian Convict Records.
Tasmanian convict records offer a rich resource for genealogical and historical research, detailing the lives of individuals transported to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) between 1803 and 1853. These records, many of which are digitized and available online, include arrival details, conduct records, employment information, and more.

Dr Hamish Maxwell-Stewart is an academic expert on convict life in Australia who teaches History and Classics at the University of Tasmania. Born in Nigeria, raised in England, and schooled at the University of Edinburgh, he migrated to Tasmania in 1996 where he is now internationally recognised for his work on the history of convict transportation. He has published a number of books on the subject, most notably Chain Letters: Narrating Convict Lives (MUP, 2001) with Lucy Frost for which they won the inaugural Kay Daniels award, and Pack of Thieves?: 52 Port Arthur Lives (Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, 2001) with Susan Hood, and Closing Hell’s Gates: the death of a Convict Station.

Presenter:
Emma Maxwell

The Scottish Criminal Database.
It is perhaps ironic that when our family fell on hard times that we can often find out a lot more about them. These records can help us overcome brick walls and understand the lives of our ancestors.
The index includes records from a variety of records. We have indexed High Court records, Sheriff Court cases, prison registers, Crown Counsel Procedure Books and the ‘Registers of Pardoned or Ticket of Leave Criminals on New Charges’. All of these records are different and will tell you different information. Although our database now includes over 800,000 entries it is not yet complete.

Emma Maxwell is a genealogist and co-founder of Scottish Indexes. Working extensively with the records of the National Records of Scotland for over 20 years, Emma has an in-depth knowledge of the most useful records for Scottish genealogy as well as the more obscure.

Emma’s passion is to uncover stories of ‘everyday’ people, the people who do not show up in history books. She uses diverse records to piece together the stories of our ancestors, uncover their lives document by document and shine a light on their past.

To help others do this, Emma and her husband Graham Maxwell began indexing mental health, ‘paternity’ and prison records. In 2014 Emma and Graham launched Scottish Indexes which has continued to grow and now includes indexes to criminal, health, poor relief records and more.Emma and Graham also host the Scottish Indexes Conferences.
https://www.scottishindexes.com/default.aspx

Presenter:
Dr Janet Few

Ducking Stools, Dissenters, Debtors and Drunks – Crime and Punishment in the 17th Century.
How was crime dealt with in the seventeenth century? What were the punishments for various crimes and how could you avoid them? It would be unusual for the lives of our Stuart ancestors not to be touched by crime in some way; whether as victims, witnesses, lawbreakers or law enforcers. Learn how they would have been regarded and treated by their contemporaries, in whichever of these roles they found themselves.

Dr Janet Few is a specialist in seventeenth century social history. Working as an historical interpreter, I spend time living in the seventeenth century as my alter ego, Mistress Agnes. My book, Coffers, Clysters, Comfrey and Coifs: the lives of our seventeenth century ancestors, describes the social history of the period. I am the manager of Swords and Spindles https://swordsandspindles.wordpress.com, a company providing living history presentations.

My doctoral research focused on migration patterns in nineteenth century North Devon. This also involved a study of the Bible Christian church (an offshoot of Methodism) and the links between religious faith and emigration.
I am also an internationally known family historian/genealogist, with an in-depth knowledge of English research.
https://thehistoryinterpreter.com/

ALL presenters will be present to answer questions and queries in the Q&A panel
being held at the end of the day.
Early Bird Tickets Finish 3rd Oct 2025 – $60 Members and $75 Non-members so get in earlier and don’t pay the extra:
Ticket prices after 3rd Oct 2025 will be – GSQ/QFHS/Affiliate and Corporate Members $70 and Non-members $85
Tickets will close on Saturday 11 Oct 2025 at 8am.
All sessions will be recorded and available for one month’s viewing after the event to registered attendees only.

Get your RAFFLE Tickets here: $2 each or 5 for $10
tickets available also at GSQ and will close 8am 11 October 2025. Drawn during the Seminar.
1st Prize: FindmyPast – 12 month Everything Subscription valued $369.99

2nd Prize: TheGenealogist – 12 month Diamond Subscription valued $355.00

3rd Prize: Custom Designed Family Tree by Acorn Family Tree Art valued $316.00

Lucky Door Prize: Book – The Good Genealogist by Danielle Lautrec valued $45.00

Click here to purchase the tickets

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Seminar Raffle Tickets
2025-10-11 12:00 - 18:30 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
Get your RAFFLE Tickets here: $2 each or 5 for $10
tickets available also at GSQ and will close 8am 11 October 2025. Drawn during the Seminar.
1st Prize: FindmyPast – 12 month Everything Subscription valued $369.99

2nd Prize: TheGenealogist – 12 month Diamond Subscription valued $355.00

3rd Prize: Custom Designed Family Tree by Acorn Family Tree Art valued $316.00

Lucky Door Prize: Book – The Good Genealogist by Danielle Lautrec valued $45.00

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Colonial and Convict Interest Group 2025
2025-10-12 10:00 - 14:30 | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
The Colonial and Convict Interest Group aims:

to provide a specialist forum for members with a particular interest in the history of settlement from 1788 through the colonial period, before the colonies united to become the nation of Australia in 1901.
to seek to collaboratively explore all aspects of this fascinating period of our history and our colonial heritage, Develop insights into your ancestors’ life experiences, including the horrors of transportation. Join, research, learn and share information. Hear the stories of others.

Meetings:
Meetings are held on the 2nd Sunday of even months of the year unless advised.
The Resource Centre opens at 10.00am and closes at 2.30pm. The meeting begins at 10:00 am until 12 noon, to allow members to conduct research after the meeting.
The Annual General Meeting of the Group is held in February each year.
The meetings are Hybrid, so that those unable to attend on the day can still join in the meeting via Zoom.

2025: 9th Feb; 13th April; 8th June; 10th Aug; 12th Oct;
Attendees are asked to contribute a gold coin donation.
Contact Convenor Bev Murray on CandC@gsq.org.au to obtain a link for Zoom or further information.

Committee Meeting Dates
2025-10-13 09:00 - 12:00 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
The GSQ Committee meet on the 3rd Monday of each Month between 9am – 12pm
Committee Members will be unavailable during this time period, please leave them a message so they can return your call.

Wednesday morning Zoom meetings hosted by Bobbie Edes
2025-10-15 11:00 - 12:30 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia

GSQ AGM 2025
2025-10-18 10:00 - 12:00 | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
GSQ Annual General Meeting
18th October 2025

It will be held at the Resource Centre at Wishart – 25 Stackpole Street, from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
It will be a Hybrid Meeting to allow members to be present at the Resource Centre or via Zoom.
Due to limited seating at the Resource Centre, please notify the secretary if you will be attending in person.
List of Nominations received for 2025-2026 Management Committee
(As at 3.00pm on 12 September 2025)

Name
Position
Nominated by
Seconded by

Alistair Henderson
President
Rob Thompson
Keith Jeffery

Fleur Creed
Vice President
Ailsa Corlett
Helen Connor

Secretary

Michael Houlahan
Treasurer
Helen Veivers
Alistair Henderson

Leanne Taylor
Committee Member
Ailsa Corlett
Helen Connor

Paul Grevell
Committee Member
Kim Davis
Lyn Evans

Claire Rodwell
Committee Member
Helen Veivers
Alistair Henderson

Kim Davis
Committee Member
Paul Grevell
Lyn Evans

Marg Doherty
Committee Member
Ailsa Corlett
Helen Connor

Ailsa Corlett
Committee Member
Helen Connor
Fleur Creed

Angela Williams
Committee Member
Ailsa Corlett
Helen Connor

Rob Thompson
Returning Officer

You can download a copy from here.
Further information secretary@gsq.org.au
Please advise if attending in person or wishing to attend via Zoom so that the link can be sent to you.

Writing Interest Group 2025
2025-10-19 10:00 - 12:00 | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
The Writing Interest Group aims:

to provide a forum in which members can learn more about the writing, editing, and publishing processes.
meetings will include discussion and presentations. Guest speakers will be invited from time to time.
members are invited to submit pieces of writing for comment and suggestions by other members.

Meetings:
Meetings are held on the 3rd Sunday of even months of the year, unless otherwise advertised. Via ZOOM.
2025: 16th Feb; 20th April; 15th June; 17th Aug; 19th Oct.
The Writing Group was formed in 2012 and grew out of two education sessions presented in 2011. We meet five times per year except December. From our beginnings as a small cohort of 10 members to a regular attendance of between 20-30, the group’s activities have also evolved.
As at June 2021 our meetings are held virtually via Zoom from 10am to 12 noon. It is hoped that we can have a mix of Zoom and face-to-face meetings in the future to provide members with the opportunity to do some personal research as well as engage with other members over morning tea and lunch, as well as meet the needs of those members who do not use Zoom.
The format for the meeting varies depending on the main topic to be discussed. Regular features include short practice sessions on a random topic; review of writing submitted by members in advance; an opportunity for members to share their achievements. Main topics we have covered include grammar, writing and style, evidence and proof, citation and referencing, copyright, different formats and structures for family histories, and many more. We have had guest speakers from time to time.
Members are encouraged to share their writing as group members may be able to provide suggestions for enhancing the style, format, etc. All comments are constructive, and the writer has discretion on whether to accept them or not. It does help, however, to have input from those not connected with a story.
Group members are at different stages of their writing; some are published authors, whereas others are just beginning. It is exciting to note that most of the winners of the Joan Reese Memorial Short Story Competition are members of the Writing Group. We regularly review how the group operates in order to meet the differing needs of beginning and more experienced writers.
Attendees are asked to contribute a gold coin donation.
At present meetings are being held via Zoom.

Contact Convenor Pauline Williams on writing@gsq.org.au for the Zoom Link or further Information.

4th Wednesday Night Zoom 2025
2025-10-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
GSQ extends its invitation to everyone that is interested in learning or finding out more about Genealogical Research to attend the 2nd and 4th Wednesday Nights of the month,
via Zoom starting at 7pm.
You do not have to be a member of GSQ in order to come along, they are FREE.

Are you interested in knowing about Family History, What does it involve, How can I find out about records available, How do I go about doing Research, Would like to listen to some experts ?
The 4th Wednesday Nights we have a guest speaker talking on a large variety of topics that are involved in Family History of some sort.
These meetings are FREE to attend, but a donation is always welcomed to help sponsor subscriptions to various sites.

The Guest Speaker for this 4th Wednesday Night 22nd October 2025 is

To attend, please email wedpmzoom@gsq.org.au to advise you would like to be added to the attendee list. This will enable us to send you the Zoom link as well as information each month on what is happening.

Your hosts for the meetings are:

Ailsa Corlett

Fleur Creed

Ailsa has always been interested in family history, starting in 1989 after a trip to Central Otago and seeing photos and dresses of her Paternal ancestors in the Cromwell Museum. Being the eldest grandchild, her grandmother also told her stories and she obtained many of those wonderful little trinkets that get handed out.
Worked as a professional genealogist in the 1990’s specialising in NZ research for Australians. She was accredited under AAGRA. Now retired is very involved with GSQ and helps to run the website, the Monday and Wednesday Zooms as well as the FHTech group.

Fleur developed an interest in family history from her father, who was active in family history research, also writing books about the early settlers of the Queanbeyan, NSW district prior to the selection of the Limestone Plains as the site for the Federal Capital. Her ancestors came from England, Scotland and Ireland, and Africa via America, and include convicts, assisted immigrants and some free settlers. She has completed the SAG Certificate of Genealogical Studies, as well as completed the Diploma of Family History at UTAS. Fleur has a PhD on the topic, “Australian churches building social capital in their local communities” and currently works part-time as an academic researcher. She also operates a Facebook group about the history the early settlers of the tiny town in the North Burnett where she and her husband are turning a little timber church into their home.

Mining the Genealogical Treasure: Making the Register of Deeds remotely accessible
2025-10-25 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
What is the Register of Deeds? Is it of any use to family historians? How can we get to use it? These questions will be answered in this presentation of interest to anyone with Scottish ancestors.
The Register of Deeds spans the activities of the full breadth of society over some 500 years. It is a huge record series which contains both original legal documents and their copies made by the clerks of the various courts all over the country. However, it has remained relatively inaccessible to researchers outside of Scotland due to a lack of published or on-line finding aids and calendars.
To improve this situation, a co-operative effort has started between Scottish genealogists and the Genealogical Society of Queensland Scottish Group to transcribe and index the records for future generations to use. This international project has become possible by the use of modern imaging techniques and communication methods to enable the volunteers to access the records remotely. Even so, the work requires a number of volunteers with palaeographic skills to read and interpret the historical images. Some examples of the deeds discovered during the process will illustrate the usefulness of these records to family historians.
This presentation will explore the ways in which the project can be speeded up to make the vast number of records available in a reasonable time frame. The rapid advances in artificial image interpretation hold promise in this area. The presentation will cover experiments using large language model AI systems to enhance the process and ways that the project can be improved by other societies. Examples and live interaction with the AI models will demonstrate the use of these systems in this important area of research.

Presenter:
Alistair Henderson
Alistair Henderson of Fordell, B.E., FSA (Scot) is a retired electrical engineer who travelled through all continents of the world endeavouring to clean the skies from the effects of dirty polluting industries, and has worked in those parts that tourists never get to see.
As hereditary Chief of the Name and Arms of Henderson, with a lineage stretching back over five centuries, he is also one of only six full Scottish chiefs resident in Australia. His duties as a Chief take him to all parts of Australia, Canada and the U.S.A. as well as to Scotland.
He has been chairman of the GSQ Scottish Interest Group for over 25 years, and has a daughter resident in Glasgow, which means he regularly travels to Scotland for family visits and research.
His interests include industrial archaeology, heraldry, woodworking, Scottish history, and of course, tracing his wife’s Scottish and Irish family history.
Tickets available until 8 AM Saturday 28th October 2025
The link is included in your registration payment – Please make sure you retain this.
Event via Zoom and recording available to all attendees to view for a month afterwards.
QFHS and any GSQ Affiliate members you will require to put in your Member No or Branch as well as the code given to you to use.

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DNA Interest Group
2025-10-26 09:30 - 13:30 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
The DNA Interest Group aims:

The DNA Group launched in May 2015 to assist members understand how DNA works and how it can assist you with your research.

Meetings:
Are held on the 4th Sunday of even months and begin at 9:30am sharp, with the Zoom room open to login from about 9:15am. These can be long meetings and can go up to 1.30pm depending on needs.
2025: 23rd Feb; 27th April; 22nd June; 24th Aug; 26th Oct.
GSQ members are welcome to join our meetings as well as our closed Facebook group. Because our meetings are usually attended by 30 – 40 members we meet currently only via Zoom and an invitation with the meeting link goes out a few days before the event.
During the meeting we have a presentation on recent updates in the DNA world, usually one other presentation and Q&A sessions.
Another feature of the group is the Mentoring sessions where those attending decide which Zoom room they’d like to join to learn more about a specific subject ie DNA general, DNA Painter, Clustering, Y-DNA/FTDNA, MyHeritage/23&Me/Ancestry etc.
DNA Clinic:
GSQ members with DNA problems can arrange a one-on-one virtual help session with one of our admin team during our DNA Clinic nights on the 5th Wednesday of specific months from 7 – 8:30pm. Dates can be found in the GSQ Events calendar.
Attendees are asked to contribute a gold coin donation.
Contact Convenor Greg Carlill on dna@gsq.org.au to be sent the Zoom link or further information.

DNA Clinic 2025
2025-10-29 19:00 - 20:30 | Virtually via Zoom, QLD, Australia
The DNA Clinic help sessions are available to all GSQ members only and will be in your home with a one-on-one virtual meeting through Zoom.
It is held on the 5th Wednesday of the month.
2025: 29th Jan; 30th April; 30th July; 29th Oct.

If you’d like to make an appointment, please email dna@gsq.org.au by the Wednesday prior to the session, stating you would like an appointment and set out your DNA problem.
The appointments will be for approximately 1 hour each on that Wednesday evening between the times of 7pm – 8:30pm. A virtual meeting link will be sent to you the day before the DNA Clinic with your appointed time and the person’s name who will be assisting you.

Leveraging AI in Family History
2025-11-01 09:00 - 11:00 | Genealogical Society of Queensland (GSQ), 25 Stackpole St, Wishart, Brisbane, QLD, 4122, Australia
Artificial Intelligence is fast becoming integral to our work as Family Historians. In this presentation, learn about the latest updates in this fast changing landscape and see live demonstrations of some of the ways AI is being incorporated by genealogists into researching their ancestry. Utilising a variety of tools, both free and paid, participants will learn how to streamline their workflow and take advantage of the power of AI.

Presenter:
Andrew Redfern
Andrew Redfern is a passionate family historian with particular interests in Colonial Australia, the convict experience and DNA. He is a current director of the Society of Australian Genealogists where he contributes significantly to its education and IT programs. Andrew is particularly interested in how digital tools can be used to enhance our family history work and combined with his professional background in educational technology, Andrew has become a leader in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into family history research. He has presented at RootsTech and to many family history groups internationally.

Tickets will close at 8am Saturday 1 Nov 2025
The link is included in your registration payment – Please make sure you retain this.
Registrants will be able to view the recording for the following month
QFHS and any GSQ Affiliate/ Corporate members you will require to put in your Member No or Branch as well as the code given to you to use.

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