Local love for pursuing the past

WHEN Joy Roy started researching her family history, all she wanted to know was how her three times great grandparents got to Australia.

But that first encounter with genealogy turned into a lifelong passion and as a result for 45 years she’s helped others trace their ancestry.

While she’s now retired from the profession, Ms Roy still conducts research for local people with the Bendigo Regional Genealogical Society.

Formed in 1982, the BRGS now works from the Bendigo Library to sift through historical records and unearth the past of the region and its people.

Ms Roy said genealogy was an exciting process all about putting little clues together to make a full family story.

“People want to know where they came from, it’s the sense of belonging and I like the thrill of the chase,” she said. “If you understand your own history, it makes it real.

“It becomes like a huge jigsaw that you’re constantly wanting to join the next person in.”

While the advent of online platforms like Ancestry.com have allowed people across the world to dive into their family’s past, Ms Roy said tapping into local experience could make for a much more successful, guided search.

“People do need help and they do need a structured way on how to find their family history and the computer hasn’t made it easier,” she said.

“It’s an advantage to come to the BRGS, they can learn tips from every one of our members because everybody’s had some unusual experience in searching for it.

“Then they can go home and apply it to their research whenever it’s suitable.

“I think in time it will go the full circle and come back to people saying, ‘I want to do my family history, the local group will be able to help me put it together’.

“I’d like to encourage local people to get more involved with us. Whilst we say we’re for genealogy, which is the study of one’s descent, in actual fact we do a lot with social history, the history of houses, hotels, businesses, where properties were located.”