Welcome to our new web site
Following the takeover of Rootsweb by Ancestry, all the previous functions of Rootsweb have either been deleted or changed. Our Society website (https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nswbmfhs ) and all the other websites hosted on Rootsweb will become static and unable to be updated after 31 December, 2023.
We have operated that site since 1996 with monthly updates, galleries of photos, reports of excursions, details of our publications, lists of member interests, member convict connections and a listing of the catalogue of items held by the Society in Springwood Library able to be used by researchers.
Since May 2023, the Rootsweb site has not been functioning correctly and we have not been able to update the site with news or items of interest. Our only active web presence has been by our Facebook page.
The Society meets on the second Friday of each month, February to November every year, 10:00am – 12:30pm in the Small Community Hall at the rear of the Springwood Presbyterian Church, Macquarie Road, Springwood. At every meeting we either have a guest speaker or discussion on some aspect of Family History. At each meeting we also have a Morning Tea ($2) and a Trade Table. Everyone is welcome to join with us and will be made welcomed.
BMFHS – our Society
The Society was formed in 1986 and concentrates on serving the area of the Blue Mountains City Council from the rise from the Cumberland Plain to Mt Victoria and the off shoots of Mt Wilson and Mt Irvine to the north and the Megalong Valley in the south. We are a true family history society with interests back to our roots – in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, France etc, how & where our ancestral families lived and worked and where they travelled. We have a close association with the Local Studies Librarians of BMCC – but our main focus is facilitating the family history research needs of the local residents, not local studies.
We have close ties with adjacent regions: Lithgow in the west, Nepean (Penrith) and Hawkesbury in the east.
OUR SOCIETY
We are a very active family history society with regular meetings with guest speakers, workshops, regular help available (see under Springwood and Katoomba libraries), outings to resource centres and other places of interest, undertaking monumental inscriptions at local cemeteries and producing a variety of publications to aid family historians.
The Society meetings are held at 10am on the second Friday February to November in the small hall of Springwood Presbyterian Church, Macquarie Road, Springwood (right in the centre of the commercial centre). Visitors are welcome. Alternately meetings feature a guest speaker or a workshop as well as a resume of the business of the Society. Committee meeting dates are included for Activities (see under Archive of Events). Members are encouraged to make suggestions & raise concerns.
SPRINGWOOD LIBRARY
The genealogical resources of BMFHS and those of the BMCC Library are in the Family History section at Springwood Library (lower ground floor). Society volunteers are in the section 10am to 1pm every Thursday. Members able to assist may be present on other days without notice (including Saturday).
Bookings for Research Assistance by our volunteers may be made at the Library Circulation Desk during Library Hours. Bookings may also be made by telephone – Springwood Library (02) 4780 5040. Bookings are highly recommended.
By arrangement, support in individual research at Springwood Library can be given. Please contact the Society by email Blue Mountains Family History Society Inc. to arrange date and time.
Fiche readers & microfilm reader and 2 computers are set up for use in the area.
Ancestry.com (library edition) and Find My Past (Library Edition) are available though the general access computers in the main library as well as in the Family History Centre, but prior booking of these computers is strongly recommended.
Currently BMFHS holds more than 1200 books grouped by content. Following a new organisation plan, members led by Joan and Ian worked to improve the organisation of the library area and the resources. Now completed a new library catalogue is available and all resources are catalogued into new categories for ease of retrieval. BMCC Library family history holdings are in the same area.