This month marks 40 years since a group of volunteers with a passion for history and community got together and formed what is now established as our Family History Group - a trove of information on local families, footy clubs, businesses and so much more.

The Group welcomes members, with the rooms open for research on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 11am and 3pm.

To celebrate their 40th anniversary, there will be an open day on Wednesday, 25 March from 10am until 3pm and all are welcome.

Cheryl Barton has compiled their history to mark the milestone:

OUR BEGINNING

Due to the efforts of Marj Ticehurst, Dianne Lambert and Kim Smith, a meeting was called at the Jemalong Retirement Village on March 26, 1986 and eight people attended: Marj Ticehurst, Dianne Lambert, Kim Smith, Hazel Madden, Jean Little, Leila Collits, Jill and Les Peasley. It was decided to form the Forbes Family History Group.

The office bearers elected were:

President - Jill Peasley

Vice-President - Jean Little

Treasurer and Secretary - Kim Smith

Publicity Officer - Dianne Lambert

Research/Librarian - Mildred Churchill

The main aims of the Group were to trace and help others to trace family origins and to discover and record as much as possible of the history of Forbes, the surrounding district and the pioneer families who settled here.

OUR GROWTH

The management of the Jemalong Retirement Village kindly allowed us to hold our first few meetings there, while we searched for somewhere to call “home”.

With little finance this was proving difficult, until the Forbes Historical Society came to our aid and allowed us to use a spare room above the museum.

“Our funds” were very limited and most of our research material belonged to our members, who brought their books, microfiche and reader, to the room when it was open for research each Wednesday.

As our membership began to grow, we were able to buy research material of our own. More people became interested and our small room was rather crowded on research days.

We decided to look around for somewhere else, a little roomier and with easier access.

Having discovered, at the back of the Town Library, a dusty room, part of which was being used for the storage of library books, we approached the council for help.

They agreed to our use of the room if we agreed to their conditions, which were to repair the floor and partition off part of the room for the use by the librarian as a storeroom.

Our members held “working bees” to clean up the room and dust and stack the books for the librarian. After a number of working bees, the floor was cleared and ready for the men in our Group to start repairing the floor.

This done and the partition up, we purchased some second hand carpet, lined the walls with maps and the room was ready for use.

On April 17 1987, with a membership of 46, we moved from the room above the Museum to our present “home” behind the library.

We shall always remember with gratitude the Forbes Historical Society for the use of their room when we needed assistance to “get on our feet”.

The Advocate has been reporting on the group's progress throughout:

New premises for family history group

Forbes Advocate - 19 May 1987

The Group, which has only been formed for just on a year, previously housed their information in a room above the Forbes Museum, but quickly outgrew the space available.

Group spokesperson Dianne Lambert said the research room was open to the public every Wednesday between 10am and 4pm for people wishing to trace their family history.

The research room has recently acquired the Irish International Genealogy Index and has some parts of the English, Scottish and German Indexes.

Members are also pooling their information to compile a research index.

Miss Lambert said the Group’s 50 members were actively researching their own family histories, and that she had been able to trace her mother’s family back to 1850 when they lived in Italy.

The Group also has a number of books to assist its members, as well as people wanting to trace their family tree, Miss Lambert said. She said that although genealogy is very time-consuming, the Group was attracting new members all the time.

History room extension

Forbes Advocate - 22 November 1997

Profits from the sale of Forbes History Book launched last week will be put towards the cost of just completed additions to the Family History Group Rooms.

The final cost of the extensions to the history rooms was $86,495, just $4695 over budget, according to Director of Environmental Services and Planning, Brian Jones, in his report to Forbes Shire Council’s November sitting.

Mr Jones said the additional costs covered the replacement of the library electrical board ($1495) found not be in a safe condition.

Other additional costs arose due to circumstances not evident prior to start of work.

Councillor Dianne Decker passed a motion that profits from the sale of the latest history book on Forbes “go towards off-setting the costs of the room”. This motion was carried.

The new-look history room will be officially opened by NSW Premier, Bob Carr, in February next year.

TODAY

In 2026, our membership stands at 99, which includes five Life Members.

We also have 45 associate members with whom we exchange our Journals, which are published three

times a year.

Membership of the Forbes Family History Group is open to anyone interested in our local history or in climbing the family tree.

Our rooms are open for research on Wednesdays and Saturdays between 11am and 3pm.

As part of our 40th birthday celebrations, we will be having an Open Day in our rooms on Wednesday, 25 March from 10am until 3pm. Morning tea will be provided from 10am-midday. All welcome.