What’s on

Events

A complete list of our events, workshops and sessions can be found below. More information on an event can be found by clicking the down arrow next to the event name.

Please call or email the Research Centre for more information on an event or workshop:

Phone

Call us on (02) 4324 5164

Email

admin@centralcoastfhs.org.au

Events

April 2025

07 April

9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Introduction to Autosomal DNA

May 2025

03 May

1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

2025 AGM

Location

Lions Community Hall

3/8 Russell Drysdale St, East Gosford NSW 2250

Category

Event

2025 AGM @ Lions Community Hall. 1.00pm start.

Speaker:

HOW WOMEN CAME TO BE IN THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVY

Justin Holmwood from the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) will be speaking about “From Wives and Sweethearts to Comrades in Arms”. The presentation will show how the commencement of recruitment of women into the Royal Australian Navy that began in World War 2 was not an event ‘out of the blue’. It turns out there were precedents going back centuries that, cumulatively, were enough to persuade the relevant authorities in 1942 that having women in the Navy was an idea whose time had come.

Today, of course, women perform practically every role available in the Navy and it is hard to imagine a time when the present situation could ever have been otherwise. But in the not too distant past it was and the story of how that changed demonstrates the consequential nature of history. One thing almost always leads to another and the women of Australia have always shown themselves to be enthusiastic supporters of ‘sea changes’ for the better. Come and hear about some of the highs and lows of that struggle.

05 May

9:00 am - 12:30 pm

Writing Your Family History

June 2025

02 June

9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Introduction to Autosomal DNA

07 June

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

June Meeting. Patricia (Trish) Skehan will be speaking on her new book, The Secrets of Anzac Ridge, In Flanders Fields.

Location

Lions Community Hall

3/8 Russell Drysdale St, East Gosford NSW 2250

Category

Event

Trish Skehan

Patricia (Trish) Skehan will be speaking on her new book, The Secrets of Anzac Ridge, In Flanders Fields, being published by Hachette, in bookstores from 26 March, for Anzac Day 2025. (Slight name change from Flanders 1917 to In Flanders Fields)

Jim Armitage was the last surviving Central Coast WWI veteran, dying in Brentwood Village in Kincumber in 1999, after he turned 100 years old. His previously unpublished war diary was given to Trish by his niece, Jane. Jim served under Sir John Monash in the 3rd Division, 8th Field Artillery Brigade in Flanders. He was one of eight boys from Sydney Grammar school who signed up on Jim’s eighteenth birthday in May 1917. Despite odds of 1 in 4 dying in the conflict, all eight boys survived.

Letters from other soldiers, nurses and doctors, tell amazing stories in and out of the trenches. Supporting extracts from Monash diaries included.

Jim Armitage and wife Lurline taken after the war.

Jim receiving his Chevalier Medal of Honour from the French Consul-General

30 June

9:00 am - 12:30 pm

Advance Family Research – Australia and New Zealand

July 2025

05 July

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

July Meeting. Dr Mat Lohmeyer will be speaking about Fairview Homestead.

Location

Lions Community Hall

3/8 Russell Drysdale St, East Gosford NSW 2250

Dr Mat Lohmeyer will be speaking about Fairview Homestead. Fairview is a heritage-listed homestead. It is a historically significant landmark, being the last remaining example of the settlements and farms along Upper Mangrove Creek. The homestead was built over 100 years ago and soon became a central part of the community. Schoolteachers and students alike lived there during the week, travellers on their way to Gosford stayed overnight before tackling Pemberton’s Hill, and families gathered there to celebrate births and weddings and to mourn their dead. People came together to work, to play, to dance, and to find love. Fairview was at the heart of the Mangrove Creek community. Dr Matt Lohmeyer, President of the Fairview Homestead Association will showcase some of the extraordinary history discovered in their research, and how it is made accessible to the world through WikiTree. The mission of the Fairview Homestead Association is to preserve the unique history of the Mangrove Creek community and to restore the homestead for future generations.

07 July

9:00 am - 12:30 pm

Advance Family Research – England, Scotland, Wales & Ireland

No event found!