PHOTO: Coonamble Family History Society members at Coonamble Shire Library: Nina Sands, Vicky Fulmer, Pauline Ditchfield, Karen McCusker, Glen McCusker, Angie Little, Marj Parsons, Lee O’Connor (Coonamble Times Editor). Missing: Tara White (President), Alannah Hall (Treasurer).
The volunteers of the Coonamble Family History Society have several go-to sources for the dozens of research requests and inquiries they receive each year.
It means hours and even days or weeks of searching through books, registers, CDs, floppy discs, microfiche and microfilm in their room near Coonamble Shire Library or underground in the Coonamble District Archives.
Now, thanks to support from Coonamble Bowling Club and the Royal Australian Historical Society, one of their primary sources of information is about to begin the move to online.
At their meeting on Monday 4 November, members welcomed news that two of their recent grant applications were successful.
With just over $2596 from the ClubGrants Program and $1320 from the RAHS Cultural Grant Program, they voted to digitise 60 rolls of microfilm containing hundreds of historic editions of the Coonamble Times – and its early competitor the Coonamble Independent – ranging from 1898 to 1966.
A specialist company in Victoria will undertake the work of transferring hundreds of editions of the newspaper onto a hard disk.
While it doesn’t make it immediately available on the internet, it is the long-awaited first step of the process.
“It’s been at least five years in the making,” said long term member Vicky Fulmer. “This will get it up and going.”
The film will be converted into ‘Trove’ format, making it easier for future transfer into the National Library of Australia’s free, online database of Australian history and culture – known as Trove.
“At the moment we have 66 requests for assistance that are in varying stages of research,” said Ms Fulmer. “The inquiries keep coming.
“People email, call or message us, and they come to Coonamble in person wanting to know about their ancestors and what they did in Coonamble.
“We do our best but there are only a handful of us so we have some inquiries that are a couple of years old.
“Being able to search a digital record will make it so much easier and our plan is to make it easy for people to search the newspapers themselves.”
The Society have many other essential sources of information among their collection that they would eventually like to see made available to those piecing together their history.
While the nation’s passenger shipping records are already largely online, others like the Pioneer Index for NSW, Victoria and Queensland dating back as far as 1829, local Births & Deaths, and the Coonamble Cemetery Records produced by earlier members of the Society remain locked away in precious hard copy versions.
“It’s one step at a time,” said Vice President Karen McCusker. “We’ll just do each step as we can afford it.
“We’re very grateful to the Bowling Club and the RAHS for helping us to do this for the community.”
