I volunteer on Fridays at Rosny Library on the eastern shore of Hobart. I help library clients with their family history. Tomorrow, I am running sessions about using the Libraries Tasmania website. This website has both the Tasmanian Library and Archives records. Here is a basic summary of what I will be using with the participants of the sessions especially as it relates to family history.

1. Looking at front page – remember to scroll down – explore, discover and popular
2. Check out portals – especially explore Tasmanian archives, discover family history and popular Flickr
3. Open Tasmanian Archives portal – find guide to records, historic newspapers not on Trove, how to cite records on blogs etc, also images, audio and film
4. Open guides to records – some of these are online but not necessarily in the Names Index
5. Go back to Homepage
6. Open Family History portal – lots of new portals to check out – some with online resources, some you need to visit State Library in Hobart – second floor reference library
7. Check out the getting started portal
8. The website portal for popular Flickr shows the images saved by the archives and library that are then available for use in blogs etc.

Using the navigation bar at the top

1. Chat service under get help then research and finding information – also has other info about researching – this might be disappearing soon though
2. Search – mainly Names Index and Archives or books about families
3. Start now using search button – click on names index then put in name
4. Various ways to search – hints for using the Tasmanian Archives, hints for Names Index searching
5. Remember spelling variations
6. When you have results start filtering – on right, sort first from oldest to newest as will be in chronological order of events
7. On left side, filter by type of record or years or name – sometimes place registered if family were in the same area for many years
8. Research files- found in archives in State Library but you can submit an inquiry on form linked from name

Various searching results – all fields 

• Francis Colgrave – 69 results
• francis colgrave – 69 results
• Colgrave Francis – 69 results
• Colgrave, Francis – 69 results
• “Colgrave, Francis” – 40 results
• “Colgrave Francis” – 40 results

You can limit to a certain field if required

Other resources at Rosny library

1. Remember there are also many family history related books etc available outside the main family history room at Rosny library. These are generally reference books only and not available for borrowing.
2. You can book one to one sessions with Sue on Fridays where she can start you on your journey, provide you with resources like charts to use or help you with further family history questions. Sue also helps with online trees on Ancestry, Family Search, My Heritage and Wikitree. She can also help with basic DNA results and matching.

Hope these hints have helped you use the Tasmanian Library website more efficiently for your family history research.