Nicholas John Vine-Hall

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Nicholas John Vine-Hall (August 17, 1944-October 31, 2006), also known as Nick Vine-Hall, was a recognized Australian authority in the fields of family history, genealogy and heraldry, and an enthusiastic champion of family history research in Australia.

Hall was born in Darlinghurst, Sydney, and educated at Sydney Grammar School, before working for CSR Limited in sales and marketing for 16 years, where he became the Australia Sugar sales manager in 1972.

As a young man, Hall had been told he was a descendant of Captain James Cook, which provoked an interest in his family history. When he eventually made his first trip abroad, he visited his English relatives, and traced the family history, that showed that he was eighth cousin to that famed navigator, and also descended from Edmund Blacket, the third colonial architect of NSW. He also discovered a couple of skeletons in the family cupboard - a drunkard and an ancestor hanged for high treason.

That trip to England led Hall to leave Australia Sugar, and adopt genealogy as his lifetime's work and passion. He joined the Society of Australian Genealogists in 1971, and, in 1978, was appointed a director, a position he held for a decade.

Hall had a considerable flair for public relations and marketing skills, which he used to popularise family history research, and make social history a matter of serious pursuit in Australia.

In 1979, Hall became the ABC Radio's resident genealogist, answering listeners' questions and giving advice. He also contributed many articles to rural newspapers such as The Land, and was an invited guest speaker at many national and international genealogical and family history conferences, as well as at local societies throughout Australia, and on several Pacific cruise vessels.

Tracing Your Family History in Australia (3rd ed)

In 1985, Hall published Tracing Your Family History in Australia: A National Guide to Sources, which is still recognized as the most complete authorative publication of genealogical sources in Australia, and is now in its 3rd edition. He also self-published many of the other 35 books, CDs, charts and articles acredited to him.

In 1987, the Australian Federation of Family History Organisations (AFFHO) bestowed on him the N.T. Hansen Award for Significant Contribution to Family History.

In July 1988, Hall joined the Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra (HAGSOC), and was an occasional member over subsequent years.

In 1988, Hall met Patricia Barth on a blind date at a bicentennial ball in Melbourne, and they married in 1991. He subsequently moved to Melbourne where she ran her business, Family Tree Scriptorium.

In 1991, Hall initiated the British Isles Directories Project, 1769-1936, which is transferring some 20 million names from printed trade directories onto microfiche. In 1995, he also initiated the Ships Picture Research Service generating an index of more than 160,000 images.

Hall was the chairman of the Australian Federation of Family History Organisations Census Working Party, which persuaded the Australian government to trial the voluntary retention of the 2001 national census. In February 2006, legislative changes made this trial a permanent feature of all future Australian censuses.

Hall was a founding member of the Huguenot Society of Australia established in 2003. His last published work was The Happy Huguenots - Parts 1, 2 & 3, a family history which was Highly Commended when entered in the Alexander Henderson Award for 2006.

In 2006, Hall was made a Life Member of the Society of Australian Genealogists.

After a long battle with cancer, Hall died at the age of 62 at the Bethlehem Hospital, South Caulfield, and was survived by his wife Patricia, his ex-wife, Trish, and their children, John and Katy, as well as five grandchildren. His funeral service was held at the St Thomas’ Anglican Church in North Sydney on November 9, 2006.