Cooktown Historical Society

The Cooktown Historical Society is wanting to start a self interest Family History Group.  This is for anyone researching their family history, not necessarily just the Cooktown area.  This group will be under the umbrella of the historical society so there will be no separate committee etc.  They envisage this will be an ideal forum to discuss those 'brick wall' that all genealogists encounter and to be able to talk with others of a like mind.  If you are interested, please contact the Society to give an ideal time to suit and when number are ready, the group will let you know the date of the first gathering.  The historical society is also to trial a series of free public History Nights this year.  The first evening will be presented by Bev Shay and will be entitled 'A Productive Community'.  It will look at the production and exporting that was being conducted in Cooktown in the early 1900's.  The most exciting news of all is that the Society was advised by Council that it had been awarded a RADF grant.  This fund is to be used towards the 'Preserving the Palmer' project and cataloguing of the Wild Irish Girl collection.  This Community Engagement project aims to train volunteers on how to catalogue and manage objects from the collection of the late John Hay.  The workshop will be open to other participants if they wish to learn more about collection management.