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FamilyHistoryWA (FHWA) is the largest family history society in Western Australia. We assist family historians to research family history in Western Australia, as well as all corners of the world.

Life Membership citations 2024

LIFE MEMBERS 2024

Ian Barnes
Ian Barnes (9003) joined the Society in 2001 and has been an exceptional volunteer in many roles. He served on the Management and Enrolled Pensioner Guards Committees for several years. He became the Society’s Projects Officer and then Property Officer from 2007 until he resigned this role to take on the position of Research Officer in 2022. In the absence of anyone fulfilling the role of Property Officer, Ian has continued to maintain the property of FHWA. He steadfastly manages carpet cleaning, electrical wiring, plumbing and pest control. To that end, he has been at the Society after hours, on weekends, Easters, Christmas, and New Year celebrations doing extra jobs that couldn’t be done during the Society’s opening hours. As well as the tasks of the Property Officer, he designed and built new storage for Unit 6 Christmas 2023. Some years earlier he was part of a small team that built a dividing wall in Unit 6 that stopped the noise of the computer servers disturbing the concentration of Researchers. Ian’s current job as Research Officer has helped many people, which largely goes unnoticed, because of his calm and caring approach. A notable response received by the Management Committee, from New Zealand, highlights Ian’s dedication to this role.

Hello and greetings from New Zealand,
For about a year now I have been pestering your organization with my family research queries, particularly Mr. Barnes, the research Officer. Mainly due to all the help I received I have found my relations and can now start pestering them. I just want to say thanks very much for the service seeing as I am not a society member.
Sincerely David Rowling

He led the 2029 Bicentennial Committee from 2022 to 2023 that identified a suitable project for the WA State Bicentennial. This project became the People of Western Australia’s Ghost Town.  In 2024, Ian continues his work in the library, and is a member of the People of Western Australia’s Ghost Towns Project Board.  Ian is a highly respected member of FHWA. He is calm and unfailingly kind to everyone and can immediately put a newcomer at ease. He takes the time to help people and has the knack of cheering anyone who might be feeling down. He will always lend a helping hand when it is most needed in such a calm, gracious, kind way, and with such good humour.  FamilyHistoryWA wishes to acknowledge the service and dedication Ian has given by awarding him a Life Membership Award.

Nigel Tyson
Nigel Tyson (9637) has been a member of the Society since 2002 and a volunteer in the role of IT support for at least fifteen years. In the role of IT support, Nigel contributed to the development of the Electronic Document Repository (EDR) to provide data access for members to over 2000 CD/DVDs previously not available by any other means.  Nigel’s approach was to make the data easily accessible through a Windows environment and this entailed many hours behind the scenes uploading data and liaising with the computer programmer. He also assisted members and other users to use the software.

When the Member Jungle website was created, Nigel was involved in assisting with the upload of data and relevant links to different aspects of the website to provide easy access for users.  Nigel’s knowledge of LINUX was instrumental in the successful upgrades of the library’s computers to the new version of the software, and he helped to ensure all computers in the Research Centre were maintained in maximum operational status through regular software updates and security upgrades.  Due to his efforts and commitment to the EDR project and IT support FamilyHistoryWA awards him Life Membership.