It’s often said there’s nothing like travel to learn more about yourself, yet your great Australian adventure can also be the perfect time to start your family history search.
You may be expecting endless horizons, dramatic deserts, astonishing beaches and ancient forests, however, a wealth of information about your own family can be uncovered by visiting local family history societies, cemeteries or museums in the smallest of towns.
Genealogy is the collection of names, dates, and places of your direct ancestors. Who were they, where were they born, married and where did they die?
Family history fills in the detail and helps you understand your ancestors, the lives they led, the locations and times they lived and helps put your family’s history into context.
Cemeteries are a good place to find information about relatives PIC: Jezza
Brisbane-based The Genealogical Society of Queensland Incorporated (GSQ) – which will host family history conference, Connections 2025 in Brisbane in March – is dedicated to helping people discover their family history.
Conference convenor David Barnes – a former grey nomad who travelled Australia extensively until 2010 – encourages travellers to take advantage of readily accessible information from local communities while on the road.
“Start with yourself and your own birth certificate, that will provide your parents’ details, then look at their birth certificates, which will give you details about their parents,” he said. “Select as much information as you can from your own family records, but don’t treat them as being accurate – it’s so often what people think they know, every little clue will need to be verified as you start building your tree.”
Mr Barnes recommends grey nomads work out where local family history societies are around Australia and contact them in advance.
“They can be a goldmine of information and family historians are always willing to help,” he said. “They may have newspaper clippings or files on local families, special books or publications on families that were not widely printed … this will give you context of what was happening in the area when your ancestors were there.”
Mr Barnes also suggests visiting the History Queensland or the Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations’ websites for a list of family history societies.
“Cemeteries can also be a great source of information,” he said. “Do your research in advance, get in touch with the local council in the area and find out who the caretaker is … usually, they are happy to show you around or share maps.”
GSQ has a lot of information available online and members can join Zoom calls, take part in special interest group meetings, workshops, programs, lectures, seminars and hands-on activities.
“These days you can do a lot online,” Mr Barnes said. “But nothing beats seeing the area or a physical grave site or dwelling where your ancestors lived or worked to put it all in perspective.”
GSQ has a comprehensive collection of resources in print, microfiche/film and digital formats. It also has many volunteers who staff its resource centre, index cemetery records and advise on next steps.
If visiting Brisbane is on the cards, grey nomads might consider the GSQ resource centre a stop or even registering to attend Connections 2025 at Brisbane Technology Park on March 21-24.
Are you a Grey Nomad member yet? Click here to find out about the discounts, competitions and other benefits on offer
In 2012 I was tracing my fathers family history in Theodore when someone suggested I contact a cousin in Taroom. Although we had never met or had contact we hit it off straight away. They introduced us too their favourite camping spot and we have been going there , camping with them every year since. To get to know this side of my family has been wonderful.
We’ve been retired for 14 years & have travelled 170,000 kms with our caravan.
We’ve never done a big lap & we’ve never met anyone on our travels that has done the big lap.
With current fuel prices we don’t think a lot of people will bother.
My ancestors were born in the UK like myself.
We chased them all up when we flew over there.