How I Started My Genealogy Story

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 Daniel on Twitter has challenged us to write how we started our Genealogy journey and as I'm now a day late, thought I'd better finish this post.


When I was three, my Dad died and apart from some paternal cousins, I had no contact with his side. My Mum's side, no problem, we saw each other frequently. 

Fast forward to when I needed my birth certificate to get my learners permit and for work purposes and Mum only got an Extract of Birth, not my full certificate. Her excuse was that an extract would be fine.

Many more years passed and once I was married I obtained my full birth certificate and with that the chance to finally find out more about my Dad's side. More certificates were purchased and I finally had his parents' names, or so I thought.

Then my 30th birthday arrived and a friend was going to look at the New South Wales, Birth, Death and Marriage micro fiche, was there anything I needed checked? YES! What she found, had me spending two hours at my local library, that night copying all the information I could find on that surname, (It started with A, so I was lucky there). On arrival back home I worked out the family groups and at last had my grandparents names. Not the ones that were on his death certificate.

I asked Mum what she knew about Dad's side and she would say that they weren't married long enough to discuss it and change the subject.

Now decades later I'm still enthused about this 'crazy' journey I started all those years ago. I've meet or had contact with more of my paternal side and have filled in lots of gaps. I found my grandparents' unmarked grave and had a plaque placed on it.

My searching for ancestors of both my husband's side and mine is far from over.



Dad and I.


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