Great Southern Family History Society covers the Great Southern area of Western Australia with Katanning as the central town.

Some of the other towns included in our membership area are Broomehill, Cranbrook, Dumbleyung, Gnowangerup, Kojonup,

Tambellup, Nyabing, Wagin, and Woodanilling.

We are an independent Society, formed in March 2000, but our members even then, were not new to Genealogy.

We actually began as Katanning Family History Group, way back in 1985. We didn't even have a home then, and the books,

fiche and micro-fiche readers lived in a member’s lounge room, and were carted along to wherever the meeting happened to

be that month.

We were then given a corner of the Old Mill, a historical building in Katanning, but it was a very dark, dusty and damp building,

and turned out not to be the ideal place for our library. We then approached the Katanning Shire, which was most

accommodating, giving us a room upstairs in the Katanning Town Hall. By this time, we had become Great Southern Branch

of the Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc, a title we held until March 2000.

In the meantime, the Katanning Shire began plans for a new Library/Art Gallery Complex, and we successfully applied to have our Genealogical Library included in the

new building. So finally, late in 1999, we moved into our new, permanent home in Austral Terrace.

Due to the impending changes to Australia's taxation laws, namely the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, the Western Australian Genealogical Society Inc

decided that a restructure of the organisation was in order, and as a result, the Branches ceased to exist.

Former members of Great Southern Branch held a meeting to discuss the future of Genealogy in the area, and set up our new organisation, Great Southern Family

History Society to service the genealogical needs of residents of the Great Southern District of Western Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Us