Members and the community are invited to submit news items that may be of interest to fellow historians. Please send your items to secretary@historyqueensland.org.au and newsletter@historyqueensland.org.au including the date, time, a brief description, and related images or logos plus contact details including web links, email addresses or phone numbers as applicable.
Zoom Service available to members, visit the Service page for more information
Biggenden Historical Society - Create an archival quality record system of hard copies of resources - lockable bookcase and associated storage stationery.
Brisbane Valley Heritage Trails Inc - A laptop for digital storage of resources.
Bundaberg Genealogical Assoc Inc - Compile a history of the Drinan Area ( south of GinGin) Expenses for titles, printing, presentation, and storage.
Friends of Balmoral Cemetery - Engage a graphic designer to design and print 100 copies of the book to highlight their extensive research.
Friends of Pattemore House - 10 corflute printed panels and metal A frames to uncover the stories of 9 women from the Maleny district (1879-1886).
Jimna Forest Action Group - Partial Funding for Honour Board.
Wynnum Manly Historical Society - Digitisation services by an external provider of historical resources.
History Queensland farewells our long-term Patron...
Bill Kitson
History Queensland is sad to announce that our wonderful Patron, Bill Kitson, has decided to resign from the Patron’s role for personal reasons. Bill was a fantastic patron, and we are sad to lose him. He always answered our requests for assistance. He regularly attended our AGMs and more often than not, would speak of his historical research around surveyors and their families.
We wish Bill and his family a wonderful future and hope he keeps in touch.
History Queensland welcomes a new Patron... Shauna Hicks
We are delighted that archivist and family historian, Shauna Hicks, accepted our invitation to take on the role. Shauna is well known in Queensland and interstate historical and family history circles with academic credentials to support her reputation. She has worked at the State Library of Queensland, the Queensland State Archives, National Archives Australia in Canberra, and at the Public Record Office Victoria in Melbourne.
Shauna operates her own business Shauna Hicks History Enterprises and is a well-known speaker at conferences including Unlock the Past cruises and locally. Shauna blogs at Diary of an Australian Genealogist.
We welcome Shauna to her new role as Patron.
HQ-Newsletter Vol 12-No-4 December 2025
HQ-Newsletter Vol 12-No-3 October 2025
HQ-Newsletter Vol 11 No 4 December 2024
HQ-Newsletter Vol 11 No 3 September 2024
The Australian Federation of Family History Organisations Inc. (AFFHO) publishes regular newsletters of general interest to family historians.
AFFHO Newsletters: www.affho.org/news/index.php
The UK Federation of Family History Societies publishes regular newsletters of general interest to family historians.
The newsletter for January 2019 is of special interest to Welsh researchers. See: https://mailchi.mp/ffhs/january2019
FFHS: News & Events
Website: familyhistoryfederation.com
German-Australian history
Does your society, museum or location have a focus or interest in German-Australian history? Do you have members researching German family or social history? Is there a story that you need to tell about our German-Australian past?
The German-Australian Genealogy and History Alliance formed in September 2016 to help researchers of German-Australian history, heritage and culture to network more effectively.
With the aim to allow discussion between academic, public, popular and family historians, we are looking for presenters who have a story to tell, research to present, or methodology to share. With expressions of interest already received from the University of Newcastle, AIATSIS, and professional genealogists across Australia, we hope to present a program that captures our heritage, past and present, living the theme of "Reconnections - Recollections - Resilience"
On 5th January, we lost a most valued member when our secretary Marionne Amee Diggles died. Marionne was born in Cairns on 9th August 1948 to Verna and George Rogers. George took Verna to Cairns so that she would have support from her mother, Florence Wheeler, who was a trained midwife and sister of Amee for the birth. Several weeks later, they returned to Clifton, where Marionne grew up. She attended Clifton State School and then boarded with a family in Warwick to complete her secondary education.
Marionne married James (Jim) Diggles, and they moved to Ocean Grove, Victoria, where they raised their four children. Marionne was bitten by the family history bug while in Victoria in the mid-1980s, but it was not until she moved back to Queensland in late 1991 that she truly became involved in her own research and that of others. This is where she found her life purpose.
She joined what was then the Darling Downs Family History Society on 2nd June, 1992, and immediately became a volunteer, not just a member. In August 1999, she was elected Secretary, and for over 26 years, she was known as part of the M and M team (Marionne and Marie), only relinquishing the title on the 5th January as she drew her last breath.
When we were able to secure our present building at 61 Drayton Road, Marionne was one of the merry band of helpers who converted the old post office into our library. We moved into the building in November 2006, and she was up before dawn to follow the building and take a video. Then the hard work started of getting ready to reopen. And that’s another story.
While she had enough to do with her involvement with TDDFHS, she joined the History Queensland Fair Committee in 2007 and was secretary from 2009 to 2016. At that time, the secretary also took care of insurance.
While we were a large enough society to procure our own insurance, she felt it was an obligation to help other smaller societies afford public liability, which was being arranged through History Queensland. She and I travelled to places far and wide – Rockhampton, Goondiwindi, Texas, all in the name of supporting other societies who were members of History Queensland. Many trips were also made to help put the brochures into the information packs for family history fairs.
She attended every conference, exhibition, etc. that gave us a chance to sell our publications and promote the society. The last event we attended together was the Brisbane Valley History Expo on 25th October last year, 3 days after her terminal cancer diagnosis. Although she was not well at all, she was determined that we had committed to it. She knew this would be the last event we would attend together.
Marionne was the secretary right until the last, checking emails, giving us all instructions, checking research reports, etc. No one person will ever be able or willing to do the various tasks she did without fanfare or recognition. She saw what needed to be done and did it.
Marie Green
