November 2025 Mini-Seminar Event
Australian Dictionary of Biography & Australian Colonial Records
with Jan Richardson
The Australian Dictionary of Biography describes the lives of significant and representative persons in Australian history.
The individuals listed in the ADB come from all walks of life, from prime ministers to authors, engineers and schoolteachers. In this talk, Jan will explain how you can search for individuals, as well as search for people born in a particular country, or search by their occupation. Jan will also show us how family historians can contribute biographies, among other things. |
Australian Colonial Records
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The focus of this presentation is Colonial Records in the Queensland State Archives, what you can access and how to find them. Jan will also review the recently digitised material that you can access from home.
These include shipping records, hospital admissions registers, gaol records, the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum, and the Goodna Mental Hospital (previously Woogaroo lunatic asylum). She will also explain how best to use the indexes that cover these records. Jan will touch on how to research using the NSW State Archives indexes and digitised records. |
Jan Richardson
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Jan Richardson is a PhD candidate at Griffith University investigating the presence of non-European convicts and indentured labourers ('coolies’) in Queensland before 1860, along with ethnic minority individuals of African, Indian, Chinese and Pacific Island ethnicity.
She is also a Research Assistant at Griffith University's Harry Gentle Resource Centre, contributing to a biographical dictionary of Queensland's early colonial residents, including a representative sample of the 900 Chinese coolies imported by pastoralists to Moreton Bay in the 1840s and 1850s. Jan's publications include 'Out of sight, out of mind: Ex-convict female paupers incarcerated in Queensland's benevolent asylums'. Together with Dr Janis Hanley, Jan is co-founder of the Facebook page, 'Journeys into Queensland's Chinese Past' — https://www.facebook.com/QldChinesePast/ — and has researched the Chinese communities of Annerley-Stephens in Brisbane and Croydon in the Gulf Country. |
Gold Coast Family History Society is organising a series of talks by well-known experts to help you with your research in 2025. All are open to both GCFHS members and the general public for a small fee, bookings will be essential as numbers will be limited. Visit our Up Coming Events page to see a list of future events .
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