1983 was a great year for family history.

This Saturday, September 30, Cowra Family History Group will be celebrating its 40th anniversary with a luncheon in the Alfresco Room at Cowra Bowling Club for present and past members.

Cowra joins Family History Groups in Dubbo, Newcastle, Orange and Young who all were established in 1983 and are celebrating their 40th anniversaries this year. The guest speaker at the luncheon will be Father Allen Crowe from Young who will speak about his 25 years of research culminating in his recent publication titled "Fairview Murringo (Marengo), The Ancestral Lands of the Crowe Family".

In early 1983, Kerry Smith, Vicki Williamson, Marina Bennett, Lorna Spackman and the late Joan Lynch met to share their interest in family history. After placing an advertisement in the Cowra Guardian, a public meeting was held in September 1983, and Cowra Family History Group was formed. For the first 17 years, the group had various 'homes' in Cowra until it found a permanent site in 2000, inside the Cowra Library, rented from Cowra Council, where it happily remains today.

The inaugural president of Cowra Family History Group was Doug Beer, followed by other presidents Jeannine Bryant, Lorna Spackman, Laurel Williams, Madeline Forgie, Olwyn Barnes, Helen Stendell, Jarrod Johnson-Smith, Marie Singho, Ruth Green, Cheryl Ianson, Margaret Stent, Lindsay Swadling, Brian Wright and current president since 2016 being John Poole.

Over its 40 years, the group has amassed a large collection of family history related research material such as books, magazines, microfilms, microfiche, newspaper files, cemetery records, photographs, CD's and computer programs, such as Ancestry.

Many books have also been researched and published including two volumes of 'They Shaped a Town Called Cowra', 'Cowra's Military Training Camp', 'Tragedies in the Cowra Shire', Transcriptions of 'Baptism, Marriage & Burial Registers of St Johns Anglican Church Cowra' and Cemetery Records for Cowra, Boorowa, Lyndhurst, Morongla and Woodstock.

Perhaps best known is the Pardey Photographic Collection, the 27,000 images developed by Cowra Family History Group from the negatives purchased by Cowra Council, taken by the Pardey family of photographers in Cowra from 1940 to 1971.

Today the group averages 65 to 70 members from across NSW and a few from other states, holds monthly meetings, publishes monthly Eagle Tales members newsletters and publishes two Eagle Eye journals per year.

Research officers assist members and visitors to undertake their own family history research or will carry out research for a fee. This year, a workshop was held during the Senior's Festival, as well as hosting a visit by the Cowra Probus Club on its Mystery Bus tour, plus special displays are mounted in the Cowra Library from time to time. Visitors are always welcome at meetings or to view the group's room and resources.