Joan Hunt always knew she was pretty headstrong, but it wasn’t until she started tracing back through her family history that she understood where this personality trait came from.
Radical for Her Time
“I discovered that my great grandmother signed a petition in 1891 with 30,000 others because she believed women deserved to have the power of the vote. This fact alone immediately gave me a picture of the type of woman she was. That was very radical for her time, and it tells me she knew her own mind,” Joan says.
She has been tracing her family history for 35 years, and has discovered a number of intriguing facts along the way.
Joan moved from Melbourne to Ballarat about 30 years ago. Soon after arriving she discovered her family originated from Ballarat and owned land in the city from the early 1850s.
“Some people only research back to when their ancestors moved to Australia, but I like tracing right back to their past overseas. It’s a fascinating hobby.”
Joan, who is the Ballarat and District Genealogical Society president, has helped countless people unearth information about their family history. She says the Society has nearly 200 members.
An Illustrious History or Royalty?
“Some people want to trace through their past because they hope to have an illustrious history or hope they’re linked to royalty somehow, but often what they discover is far more interesting than they could have hoped for.”
Joan’s own quest for information has revealed that her ancestors on her mother’s side came to Australia as convicts. And while photos were scarce in the mid-1800s, there are other records available that can paint a pretty accurate picture of what a person looked like.
“Convict records include written descriptions of what the convict looked like, including their facial features, their nose, hair and any tattoos, so you can really envisage a person,” she says.
Joan will be on hand during the Ballarat Heritage Weekend to offer advice to others wanting to trace their family history. She says many believe the information they need to begin researching is available on the internet, but says that isn’t always the case.
“We can help people who have hit a wall with their researching. There are many other avenues other than the internet to assist researchers. There’s an enormous amount of material in many repositories that probably won’t ever end up on the internet.”
Records Date Back to the 1830s
The Public Record Office Victoria, for example, can shed some light on your family history. Its regional archivist Lauren Bourke, who manages the Ballarat Archive Centre, says a range of government records including wills and probates, shipping records, rate records, court documents and prison records are freely available to the public.
Lauren says “I’ve helped people uncover the most amazing facts about themselves. It’s incredible to help people trace back through their own personal history.”
