A Logan historian is urging residents to tick the “yes” box to share their census information to help future historians.
Logan City Council local heritage specialist Hilda Maclean is encouraging Logan residents to make their personal data available through the census, so future historians can have a complete body of data to record family histories.
“In Australia, we’ve got an unfortunate situation where none of our census records from the 1840s through to now are available – they haven’t survived,” Dr Maclean said.
“The various Australian governments basically extracted all the statistical data and destroyed all the census forms.
“But if you go to the United Kingdom or the United States, you can see the census data; where people were living, who with, what jobs they had, so that’s how you get most of your family history,” she said.
She urged residents to tick “yes” to question 65 when filling out the census household form on Tuesday 11 August to allow their information to be kept by the National Archives of Australia and be made publicly available after 99 years.
Dr Maclean’s job involves recording Logan’s history and helping people research their own family histories.
She and her team collect local publications and help residents from Tuesday to Saturday.
“[We] collect as many locally published items as possible and preserve them,” Dr Maclen said.
“The whole idea is to gather as much as possible to have a catalog described so it can be discoverable for people in the future.
“Even little publications which are almost all advertisements like the Southeast Weekly, that’s useful because then I’ll have people who will ask me: “My grandfather had a butcher shop in George Street, Beenleigh. What was it called?”,” she said.
Contact Dr Maclean for help with research on 3412 4165 or localstudies@logan.qld.gov.au.
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