Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to Gould Genealogy & Histooooorrrrry (breathe), Happy Birthday to us … that’s right folks, Gould Genealogy & History has hit the big 3-5! October is our birthday month, and we are celebrating by offering you specials throughout the month!! So keep your eyes on your inbox for our next email newsletter, or keep a look out on Facebook or Twitter for the latest – it all starts next week.

There’s several things that I wanted to say into post, and I’ve already done the Happy Birthday bit, I also wanted to thank our customers, and tell you a bit about the history of our company.

So firstly the thank you … Very seriously I wish to send out a big thankyou to everyone that has bought from us by mail, email, on our website, at an event, and at our shop over the many years. It’s pretty obvious, but if we didn’t have customers, we wouldn’t have a business, and I’m pleased that we’ve been able to help so many with products and advice along the way.

Now for the history part (and I promise to keep it brief – but hey it is 35 years!). The business that is now Gould Genealogy & History started as a hobby business by Alan and Anthea Phillips from their home in 1976. After the closure of History House Bookshop in Melbourne in 1977, an Australia wide market opened up.

In 1982 Alan left his former employment to manage the business full time, which coincided with the remarkable expansion of interest in family and local history in the 1980s. During the 1980s Alan and Anthea’s son, Stephen, and daughter Alona (that’s me just in case you didn’t know), joined the business and are still involved today.

Our business has had several names changes over the years. We started with Gould Books, then changed to Gould Genealogy, and more recently have changed to Gould Genealogy & History. We also are affectionately known to many as ‘Goulds’. But even with names changes, we are still the same company.

While Gould Genealogy & History was busy selling products, we also developed other sister companies to meet various related needs.

  • Gould Publishing Services in 1990-1996: producing books (mostly family histories) for self publishers
  • Archive CD Books Australia 2003-present: publishing rare books on CD (renamed to Archive Digital Books Australasia)
  • Gould Digital 2003-present: providing digitising services and products to our own companies and others
  • Unlock the Past  2009-present: We began a joint venture with Shauna Hicks History Enterprises to promote Australasia genealogy and history events (ours, as well as others), provide speakers, and create up to date information in the form of research guides.

I am proud to have been a part of Gould Genealogy & History for over 20 years (woah, that makes me sound old!) … but hey I started young, and very literally grew up with this business. So I can say for sure that it has been a part of my whole life.

It started as a family business, and it still is an family business, but we couldn’t have done it all without the help of our staff over the years, so I must say a big shout-out thanks to them too.

We’ve been able to provide products to many thousands of customers over the years, and I must say we’re looking forward to helping out many more in the years to come.

Now where’s that cake ….