DO you have an interest in Broken Hill’s history and cataloguing it for future generations?
The Broken Hill Family History Group has a place for you.
Founded in 1977, the BHFHG has indexes on births, deaths, marriages, electoral rolls and mine employment – as well as 12,000 photos.
An extensive range of local records relating to Broken Hill and the district is also available, and the local cemetery and its headstones have also been indexed.
“We have school records, cemetery records which are accurate and checked all the time, we have amazing ladies who keep it up to date,” said secretary manager of the group Jenny Camilleri, OAM.
“We have ladies who help research and another lot who look after the school records.
“Another lady does all our labelling. A couple of ladies help me in the office.”
Ms Camilleri said a lot of people pop into the office when they get off the train or if they want to know their family history.
“We have a lot of people come to Broken Hill who come here wanting to know about their family,” she said.
“Some people we can find a lot for; some people their families never left a paper trail.
“It’s a really interesting hobby.
“We’ve been lucky to receive new computers thanks to donations from the Broken Hill Musicians Club and Broken Hill City Council.
“Council are always marvellous. We’ve had a technician come and help with the computers and all our data bases.”
Ms Camilleri said the group is self-funded and not-for-profit.
“Our main income is from donations; we do charge for research and mine photos,” she said.
“It helps keep the group going.
“We have 15 volunteers come in over the week.
“But we are getting up in age with the group. We had one of our volunteers retire last year at the age of 90.
“Another one of our volunteers is 91 and we have two ladies in their 80’s.
“We would love to have a couple of more volunteers, maybe some younger people.
“There is a membership fee, that covers public liability. We are joined to the NSW Genealogy.
“Having some younger people with computer knowledge would really be of benefit to us.”
She said she spent the Christmas holidays putting together a data base for their digital work.
“You find so many people have connections to Broken Hill, I’m currently researching a letter from a man in California.”
A popular point of call for many tourists, the BHFHG is based at the Railway Station in Crystal St. The office is open from 9.30am to 2.30pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and is closed on public holidays or during extreme heat.
For more information, contact 0419 861 153 or email jjcam49@bigpond.com
