The Bob Howard Award is presented each year for the best article (accuracy, referencing, sources etc) published in Explorers’ Tree, BMFHS prestigious journal, the previous year. Bob Howard was a stalwart of the Society, a founding member and holder of executive positions, he passed away many years ago and this Award is made in his memory.
A newer award, The Coolgardi Safe Award, instigated more recently is for an article published in Explorers’ Tree in the previous year that “exhibits a breath of fresh air”.
Springwood Library, Manager, Community, Library & Customer Services, Blue Mountains City Council , Vicki Edmunds has for many years judged the Awards and made the presentations to the winners each year at one of the monthly meetings. We heartily thank Vicki for her time and effort.
Vicki says: ‘I still really love doing this! Thank you for letting me stay involved.’
The Winners of the Bob Howard and Coolgardie Safe Award for 2023 are:
The Bob Howard Award goes to Ian Kendall for William Shipman Baxter & Ann Rankin.
“This was like reading a soap opera except that every fact in the story was verified with newspaper articles, parish registers, biographical database etc. Thank you for creating such an interesting story from your sources. So many twists and turns, it should be a Netflix series.”
The Coolgardie Safe Award goes to Patricia Liddell for The Palantine Connection.
“What an interesting pocket of history. It nearly sounds like a European Folk Tale. How a population from the Rhine area of Germany ended up migrating to Ireland. Also wonderful for the author to see the original houses and barns still standing in Ireland.”
The Bob Howard Award and the Coolgardie Safe Awards are awarded annually. The Bob Howard Award is awarded to the best researched article published in the Explorers’ Tree. The Coolgardie Safe Award is awarded to an article published in the Explorers’ Tree that may ‘not satisfy the criteria of the Bob Howard Award but is worth preserving and exudes a breath of fresh air’. The articles published in the Explorers’ Tree reflect the genealogical interests of the BMFHS members and can also reflect our childhood memories and of our contemporary lives and times. Our memoirs will become the day-to-day family history of the future and will inform future family historians of what it was like to live in the 20th and 21st centuries. I encourage all members of BMFHS to submit an article. All articles will be considered for the Bob Howard Award or the Coolgardie Safe Award.