Sandy Walker with John Middleton studying historical occupations.
August is National Family History Month and Australia-wide libraries have celebrated the event by hosting webinars and workshops to support Australians who want to learn about their genealogy.
Esperance Library honoured the event with free weekly workshops offering locals what they called a “Passport to the Past”. Participants were given access to library recourses, online data bases, and historical information repositories as well as being taught digital literacy skills.
This year, the event has seen overwhelming attendance and had to upgrade to the Civic Centre to accommodate for everyone.
Esperance resident and family history enthusiast Sandy Walker said that for her, the workshops helped her delve in to a whole new side of her past.
“I have been able to discover new things,” she said.
“I have a Russian grandfather who I never knew. My father never spoke about his father or anything to do with his childhood.
“Seeing things in print and having access to national archives has been enabling and gives me an idea of who he is.”
Ms Walker has been especially impressed with the support the library provided in her research.
“I’ve been looking at the new ways of doing research that weren’t available,” she said.
“The library gave us web addresses we could go to using clues to find our family. If you had trouble finding things they could help you on the spot.”
Ms Walker said along with many other Australians, she had previously neglected researching her family history. Since participating in the project with the library, she said she had a new-found appreciation for the people and the stories of her past.
“We stand on the shoulders of our old people,” she said.
“You discover things and think, ‘wow if they could do that, I can do anything’.”
