Genealogy

I've just had a crazy ride in the last few days.

It actually started as a result of a forumite who started a site a few years back, schoolfriends.com.au or similar. I enrolled in it back then, but hardly had a peep back.

I gather it was taken over by friendsreunited.com.au . Still hardly any reaction. I had used a rarely accessed hotmail account I had used until I loaded it into my iPhone email contacts a few days ago.

I found an old email, checked out a contact, and found it was just spam.

But when I logged on to check, I saw another site called GenesReunited.com.au - I thought I'd just check out what it was.

It is a genealogy site, strongly UK based but lots of Australian content.

I checked my name and date of birth- and much to my surprise, I found my name listed in two separate family trees.

I contacted both tree owners.

One was a long lost cousin who I had not even heard from for over 20 years. I hadn't even known her married surname. She had done heaps of research and had traced back some branches 900 years.

That was based on the research of another dedicated geanologist who had the same genealogical information- but he gave me a report which also included historical records. Like what ships people came to Australia, content of wills etc.

One ancestor on my mother's side was born in 1090. 23 generations ago. That many generations, you're just about guaranteed to be related to somebody. So yes, a common ancestor to Prince Charles, Winston Churchill, and one of the recent presidents (I hope it's not ...).

A quick call around to my siblings- and I'm told there is information on the web- this time on my father's side.

Yep. It's all there. On his father's side- only about 300 years :-(

Except no nobility.

My Irish Great great grandmother was transported to Australia for sheep stealing.

Yay. I have convict blood! And Irish to boot. Great stuff.

I've heard stories about some of my predecessors over the years- but to get corroborating evidence of the stories, on top of all the wealth of information all in one go was superb.

It was well worth it for me. I've been spending a lot of time now in collating my own family tree for my children.

MrsW is more problematic. Records in Mexico are not especially reliable. But at least we have a tool for recording her family and their descendants. She comes from a large family, with parents who also have large families. So it will be good to have a record of who's who. As well as having a way to record some of the stories from her side of the family. Which sometimes reflect a way of life we literally find foreign.
 
awesome Geoff - just awesome...thanks for sharing!

I have scottish blood right through and struggle to find anything past about 1700, so will check it out.

cheers
UC
 
Sorry, I forgot to say.

There is a cost. Six months basic access to GenesReunited costs $20. I thimk that was AUD bt I'm not quite sure.

I got awesome value out of that, but that is obviously not guaranteed.
 
impressive stuff Geoff!!!

i can trace my genes back to mid 1700s, but i can trace my last name back to 1170AD in ....wait for it....CHINA.

gold.
 
Mum and Dad have done a lot of research on some lines of our name, as well. I think there's one that goes back to around 1000AD and a few quite close to it, as well. Fascinating stuff.

Dad's father, though, we know very, very little about - let alone the rest of that part of the tree - as he was adopted out as a child and also ran away from our family about forty years ago. Hence my odd surname.

We then discovered about 15 years ago that Dad has half-sisters in Queensland, who we now keep in regular contact with. A few months ago, we found another half-sister just down the coast here in Melbourne. So my grandfather has had children to at least three different partners, and we think there may be one or two more.

I'm meeting up with one of my newfound cousins next week. Should be interesting :)
 
wow geoff that is amazing to go back nearly 1000 years. I have my dad's lot back to mid 1800s and Mum's to late 1700s as we are first fleeters (not in chains though :p). It is fascinating isn't it......your highness:D hehe
 
Thanks for that Geoff.

I have just found 2 branches of the family that I have been searching for 8 years! Very happy!
 
Thanks for that Geoff.

I have just found 2 branches of the family that I have been searching for 8 years! Very happy!
Hey wow! Excellent Ani.

The few people I've contacted so far on the site have been very helpful and respond quickly. Youv obviously had the same experience.
 
The website www.familysearch.org is really international. I've just been in Stendal, Germany to trace (unsuccessfully) a great, great, great grandfather who was born there. The city archives were unable to find anything but they did give me the above website to try and trace him further.

Anyone know of a website in Victoria giving the names of people arriving there by ship in the 1850's?

Ciao for now

annE:):):)
 
that one is run by the Mormon church - it is really good if you have US relatives and can trace back through to Europe that way - but it is lousy for trying to track ancestry where there has been no US connection...
Not necessarily. I have no US connection but found plenty of Scottish and English ancestors via familysearch. :)
 
really??

hmmm - i am all scottish and haven't found a bleeding thing on that site!!!!:mad:

will have to try again - prepared to concede at this point it may be operator error...keep you posted!:D
 
On a side note...

what software are people using??? are you using the free sections of the above sites for your trees or do you have software to track all your discoveries???
 
really??

hmmm - i am all scottish and haven't found a bleeding thing on that site!!!!:mad:

will have to try again - prepared to concede at this point it may be operator error...keep you posted!:D
UC, it'd definitely be worthwhile paying for a subscription to Scotland's People if you're interested in genealogy. They have much better records, and better search ability, than any other genealogical site that I've used. You're fortunate to have Scottish ancestry - I'd say it's the nation with the most comprehensive historical records, by quite a distance.

I've traced my family way, way back to before Christ on the Scottish line. :eek: I ran into Scottish royalty (way, way back), which is the only reason this was possible. The line runs through a sibling of King Duncan I of Scotland (the king whose murder is fictionalised in Macbeth) all the way back through Kings of the Picts to Cassivellaunus, the earliest known historical British figure. :)
 
On a side note...

what software are people using??? are you using the free sections of the above sites for your trees or do you have software to track all your discoveries???
I keep my online tree on www.ancestry.com.au because I like the way it looks for matches with other trees and allows you to combine others' data into your own, in a controlled way.

But I also keep my own "cleaner" version offline, and manipulate the data, using Family Historian.
 
thanks for that...

must admit I am a bit averse to paying - must be the scot in me:p

It annoys me a bit that scotlands people charge you for the same records that the BDM sites in Australia give you for free...but i'll get over it!!

you never know - we may be related!! we have nobility through the Fraser line in Lovat and Fraser Castle - beautiful place!! though have a lot of gaps and not sure who is who etc.

very keen to find out but!

I just downloaded the mormons software to have a look and see if it is any good, but will suss out that one of yours too!

thanks mate!:)
 
I started out with the GenesReunited online stuff, which gives a fair tree. But the good thing about that site is that the people I've asked questions have responded quickly and helpfully when they are able. That's probably the same at ancestry.com.au but I think it's cheaper. GR.com is $20 for 6 months, and you can search before you join. You just can't ask anybody any questions.

I've just found another treasure trove- the National Archives (www.naa.gov.au). I've found the complete war service record- photos of the original handwritten documents- for an uncle (WW2) and a great uncle (WW1). Some fascinating stuff- where they went, when and where they were injured, etc. Not all of it is favourable. There's even a handwritten letter from my great grandmother. Though to find one of those records I had to drop the middle name (he didn't enrol using that name)- and I'm sure that many birth dates are wildly inaccurate.

I've just bought a copy of Family Tree Maker platinum ($99 at Harvey Normal). The standard versions are cheaper.

Legacy Family Tree has a free version, which only displays up to four generations- as I started with 23 generations it didn't do all I wanted.
 
It annoys me a bit that scotlands people charge you for the same records that the BDM sites in Australia give you for free...but i'll get over it!!
Vic BDM charge you; I thought the other states did, too.
urban cowboy said:
you never know - we may be related!! we have nobility through the Fraser line in Lovat and Fraser Castle - beautiful place!!
:eek: Me too! The Frasers of Lovat! We'll have to compare family trees. :D
 
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