Learn@QFHS

Charles Booth’s 19th century London maps and poverty notebooks

Presenter: Dr Penny Walters

Old maps are a rich and fascinating family history resource. British businessman Charles Booth became concerned with the plight of the Victorian London urban poor. In 1886, he began an ambitious project to survey their living and working conditions, which took 17 years to complete. His survey involved questionnaires, interviews, and he and his small team physically walking around surveying what they saw. The survey focused on 3 areas: poverty, industry, and religion. It is a pioneering example of social cartography, as each street was coloured to indicate the income and observers’ assumption of social class of its inhabitants. Seven classes identified ranged from the “Lowest class - vicious, semi-criminal’ through to “Poor - a moderate family” to “Upper-middle and upper classes - wealthy.” The London School of Economics website features Booth’s maps, which are searchable by street, parish and area, and can be compared with modern maps of London. Whilst walking around each street, the investigators also compiled very detailed notebooks of observations. Some of the notebooks have been digitised and are grouped into three: police notebooks, inmates of workhouses; and Jewish notebooks. The notebooks include: reports, interviews, letters, statistics, rules. Other useful resources for this period and location will be given. The maps and notebooks can then be combined with census information to provide a more detailed picture of life at that time. This session will be invaluable for those searching for London ancestors during the 1880s - 1900s.

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Australian literary sources for family history context

Presenter: Chris Schuetz

Sometimes a novel can describe a place or situation more vividly than a history. Or some traveller might have written about a place or event where no other handy account exists. Even after photography began, such descriptions can be very useful in placing you in the spirit of personal experience of an earlier age. Typical sources and how you can find others will be described.

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Queensland maps for family history (online)

Presenter: Dr Kerry Raymond

Maps enable us to find where our families were born, baptised,  married, died, and buried. The features shown on maps such as schools, churches, public halls, racecourses, railways  give us clues about how they lived their lives. This hands-on session will help you learn how to find online historic maps of Queensland (and there are thousands of them!) that relate to your family.

This session will work best if you have a desktop or laptop (for the Zoom session) or a laptop (for the in-premises session).  Maps can be very large and are very difficult to view on a small tablet or phone screen.

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Queensland maps for family history (Research Centre)

Presenter: Dr Kerry Raymond

Maps enable us to find where our families were born, baptised,  married, died, and buried. The features shown on maps such as schools, churches, public halls, racecourses, railways  give us clues about how they lived their lives. This hands-on session will help you learn how to find online historic maps of Queensland (and there are thousands of them!) that relate to your family.

This session will work best if you have a desktop or laptop (for the Zoom session) or a laptop (for the in-premises session).  Maps can be very large and are very difficult to view on a small tablet or phone screen.

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A History of Parliament Online

Presenter: Patrice Connelly

This website is a key genealogy resource for anyone with a member of any UK parliament in their family history.  Patrice Connelly will begin by outlining the history of parliament and suffrage.  She will then introduce this very user-friendly website and show you in detail how it works and how to search.  The earliest date you can search on is 1386, so there is plenty of scope for research and thousands of names and pictures.  And if your ancestor was a humble labourer, you may be able to research their employer if he was a parliamentarian.  Don’t miss this comprehensive and interesting talk on a genealogy goldmine.

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When Your Money is Not Your Own: Women, Business & the Law

Presenter: Dr Catherine Bishop

For much of the 19th century Australasian wives were essentially non-people, unable to own property, make contracts or sue in court independently of their husbands. In this talk, award-winning historian Dr Catherine Bishop will explain exactly how the law worked and explore the myriad ways - both respectable and otherwise - that women navigated their way around legal restrictions to make a living. From lady schoolmarms to earthy publicans, from hard-working milliners to charming con-women, our feminine forebears could be surprisingly entrepreneurial

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Finding your family: the fundamentals of research Winter 2026

Presenter: QFHS Tutors

Are you new to family history and wondering how to get started?

Or perhaps you’ve researched before and would like a refresher?

Maybe you’ve tried searching online but found the information overwhelming or scattered?

If any of this sounds like you, our 6-week course, Finding Your Family, is the perfect next step.

Led by experienced tutors, this course will give you practical guidance on:

• Where to look for reliable records (such as birth, marriage, death, census, and immigration documents).
• How to plan your research and stay organised.
• Tips for using libraries, archives, and online resources.
• Understanding newer tools like DNA testing and artificial intelligence (AI)
• How to bring all your findings together into a clear family tree.

By the end of the course, you will:

• Have the skills and confidence to trace your ancestors step by step.
• Know how to find and use different record collections.
• Be aware of the support and services offered by our society.
• Have a strong foundation to continue building your family history.

We’ve designed the course to run over six weeks so you can practise your new skills, reflect on your progress, and ask questions as you go.

To ensure everyone receives individual attention, the number of participants is limited to 10.
(Minimum enrolment - 4 participants)

Presenters: QFHS Tutors (Sue Reid, Geoff Morgan, Charlotte Sale, Alex Daw, and Chris Schuetz.

What our past participants say...

Thank you for a wonderful course and I look forward to joining in on many more in the future.

Please read our cancellation and non-attendance policy

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