Forbes Family History Group is just one of many organisations in town that is in threat of dying if they do not get more volunteers.
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With an ageing volunteer base, the Family History Group are encouraging more people to join their ranks and help keep the history of Forbes and district alive.
“We want to get a bit more high profile because we need people to do things,” volunteer Carol Dukes said.
Secretary of the group, Janice Smith said she’s the newest member and she’s been there for two years.
“Everybody is getting old and we don’t want to think it will just fold,” she said.
“What would we do with all this information we’ve compiled?
“There are not enough of us to be doing everything that needs doing here.”
Members of the Family History Group want people to know that they do a lot more than just family history.
“It’s not only family history but information about the town and area,” Ms Smith said.
“We want people to know that we’re the history of Forbes and the district.
“There’s so much we can offer people...it’s not just Ben Hall.”
One of the most common things the Family History Group does is research for people, who are looking to find out about their family.
“People send us an email and ask to research their family,” Ms Smith said.
“If someone is researching a family and we find there’s a lot of information there, we will make up a family file.
“Genealogy is more important than life and death.”
The group also gets journals from all over Australia and the world.
Some of the principal records held at the group’s base (behind the library) include births, deaths and marriage (BDM) certificates from various states and New Zealand; pre 1856 BDM of NSW microfilms; international genealogy Index (IGI); passenger and shipping indexes; musters, census and electoral rolls; Pioneer Registers; local and district newspapers on film; probate indexes; cemetery listings; undertaker records 1929 onward; sands directories; Bank Signature books; Eugowra and district families; county and parish maps; conditional purchase register index; convict records; National Burial Index – England and Wales; Irish Wills index; British Census etc.
The home of the Family History Group (behind the library) is filled to the brim with journals and records that are slowly being digitised.
“Forbes has been transformed by fire, flooding has shaped us…all that history is here,” Ms Smith said.
“Originally everything was done by hand but we’re in the process of digitising it but we just haven’t got the manpower.”
The Family History Group also has boxes of negatives from local photographer John Meagher.
They often get inquiries from older people who become interested in their family history, as well as university and school students, or people writing books.
Everyone in the Family History Group is a volunteer, with about 10 regular volunteers all up.
Ms Smith said all of the volunteers have done so much.
“There is a lot of dedication and commitment that goes into the group,” she said.
“But people are getting older and I know things can be done online but not everything can.”
Ms Dukes adds that the history of Forbes is an important part of our town that most people would not want to lose.
“It is pride in our town that we’re trying to instil,” Ms Dukes said.
“Today is tomorrow’s history.”