Family History Book Award Applications

Past Winners

About the Family History Book Award

This award is made annually by the South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society Inc. to the person or persons producing, in the opinion of the Society, the best family history in a given calendar year. The book must be published by a South Australian or be of a substantially South Australian family.

The Award

The T.T.Reed Family History Award is for a book published by a South Australian and/or details the times and lives of a predominately SA family. For the purposes of this Award, where the history is by other than a resident of South Australia, a South Australian family shall be taken to mean a family of three or more generations that is or was substantially resident in this State.

Inquiries and Entries

The deadline for applications is 4.00 pm Friday 31 January 2025

Inquiries should be made to the Society at the address below, by phone on (08) 8272 4222 or by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Written applications on the prescribed form and entries should be sent to :
South Australian Family History Award
c/- South Australian Genealogy & Heraldry Society lnc.
PO Box 3114, Unley SA 5061

A copy of the application form can be downloaded here

Terms and Conditions

The Award is governed by the following Terms and Conditions:

The Award (if any) will be determined by a Selection Committee appointed each year by the Council of the Society.

No member of the Selection Committee may be a member of the family of any of the authors or their agents.

The decision of the Selection Committee shall be final but subject to endorsement of the Council of the Society.

Where there is doubt regarding eligibility, the Selection Committee’s decision shall be final.

Entries for the Award must be published in the calendar years in question.

The Award will be made to the author.

The author or their agent will be responsible for the delivery of the entry to the Secretary of the Society by the due date.

All books submitted for the Award remain the property of the Society. Each book will be appropriately labelled indicating it was submitted and accepted for the Award judging.

Authors will consent to the Society publicising their entry and permit a review to be published by the Society.

The Society reserves the right to make no Award if, in the opinion of the Selection Committee, no entry achieved a standard worthy of the award.

All entries for the Award must be accompanied by a completed and signed application form.

Entries must be with the Society by 4:00pm on the last Friday in January in the year following publication.
The Award is presented to the winner in the year following at an event in July, with Certificates of thanks presented to the other authors.

Family History Book Award Guidelines

Advice to candidates:

Essential features for entries

The subject matter is about a family resident in SA for at least three generations.
The author has complied with legal deposit requirements.
The book bears a publication date for the appropriate year.

Important features of a family history book

A title page is present
An ISBN is present.
A Table of Contents is present.
General historical backgrounds of countries, migration schemes etc that do not relate directly to the family have been avoided.
No use of material regarding heraldic devices associated with the name rather than the family.
There has been no use of large amounts of material from previously published books.
No inclusion of large numbers of reproduced BDM documents, certificates, published maps, newspaper clippings etc.

The presentation of a family history book

Consistent print styles and an easy-to-read layout is evident.
Balanced use of images in relation to text and tables is evident.
The introduction reveals the process undertaken by the author, introduces the material.
Footnotes/Endnotes are appropriate and allow for the textual flow of the story.
Full acknowledgment is made of all sources
Clear understandable family charts/tables and pedigrees are included.
Photographs are captioned with date, place and sources acknowledged.
The book content is appropriate for the subject/title of the publication.
The text follows in a logical manner.
Factual data complement anecdotal material.
Measurement units are appropriate to the time frame.
The indexing is comprehensive and cross-referenced.
The bibliography is appropriate for the publication listing references used in research.

Overall qualities of a family history book

The book is well crafted and easy to read

TT Reed Book Award