What could possibly be a better way to celebrate Family History Month than graduating with a Diploma of Family History? Not that I ever set out to do the Diploma, it just sort of happened!
I’ve always wanted to write about my family history. We have such a rich collection of family memorabilia in the form of letters, diaries and photographs, dating back 150 years or more. With each successive generation though, these resources are becoming more scattered as they are passed down in various branches of the family. I wanted to use these as a basis for presenting our family story in a format that would not only be accessible, but also informative and interesting to the reader. But where and how to start?
Back in about October or November of 2015, I heard of a free, on-line study unit at University of Tasmania, titled “Writing Family History”. This caught my interest, and I enrolled. Over the next few weeks we explored different writing styles and were given a selection of topics for which we had to write a weekly 250 word piece. These were submitted and critiqued by our fellow students. Our final assessment task was a 1000 word story. I loved writing those short weekly stories. Grandfather’s Violin and New Beginnings, previously published on this blog, are two of my stories.
Six months later, another unit became available – “Writing the Family Saga”. This followed a similar format, building on the skills learnt in the first unit, but requiring us to link different generations of family using a common theme. In addition to the short weekly stories, there were two longer assessments. Both of these have been previous blog posts – Kilbaha – Here and There and Mary Emily Way – my 2x Great Grandmother.
The following year (2017) another unit “Place, Image, Object” became available. This was the unit I enjoyed the most, and learned a lot from. In reality it was three different subjects combined into one unit. The Place component involved mapping skills, the Image part taught skills in dating old photographs, and Object required researching a family heirloom to trace history and provenance. Grandmother’s Teapot is my assessment piece for this unit.
By now, I had been notified by University of Tasmania that they had combined these units with others to offer the Diploma in Family History. I wasn’t really interested at this stage, but continued to enrol for units that interested me, or assisted me in my own research.
Next up was “Convict Ancestors”. I thought this might be a good chance for me to prove conclusively whether my 3x great grandfather William Humphries, born about 1796 in Shropshire, England, was or was not the convict William Humphries who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in 1819. Unfortunately, there is just not enough evidence to make a convincing argument either way. Instead, I found Richard Pilkington from county Clare, Ireland, who might or might not be a relative, but was definitely a convict. So Richard’s story became my assignment, in Transported for Ten Years.
Continuing the convict theme was “Convicts in Context”, the only compulsory unit in the Diploma. The unit looked at the wider convict experience rather than just one person. Whether because I didn’t have my own convict relative, or because I subconsciously rebelled at ‘having to do it’, I found this unit an effort.
“Families at War” focused on the First World War. Once again, I didn’t have a family member of my own to write about, instead choosing my husband’s grandfather James Joshua Perry. In the Service of his Country tells of his war experience and post war civilian life. This unit was probably the heaviest in terms of the research involved and the volume of material available, but I really enjoyed it and learned so much from my research.
It was about this point that I suddenly realised I had completed 6 units and only needed 2 more to obtain the Diploma – that was when I made the decision to actually keep going! So then followed “Photo Essay” and “Oral History”, both of which gave me some useful techniques for recording and presenting family stories. I also managed to sneak in an extra subject - “Introduction to Family History”.
Having completed all units by the end of 2018, it was a long wait until 17th August this year for Graduation Day. I didn't travel to Tasmania to attend in person, so am now looking forward to the postman delivering my certificate in due course.
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