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.
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.