We welcome a new member to our GSQ Blogging Team. Lilian Magill is a long time blogger with her own site and is taking a rather novel approach when sharing her first two blogs with us. Welcome Lilian!
A Chat with Friends. Part 1
I have decided to ask friends questions about their genealogical journey. I posed seven questions, to friends and also answered them myself. I have promised my friends anonymity, so will only use their initials. (Responses have not been edited, just spelling mistakes corrected.)
Sit back and read about fellow genealogists and their journeys.
When did you start tracing your family history? Why?
B. “I started in the 2020 lockdowns. I had a natural curiosity around my family history. Also, it was kicked off by my discovery that the man that my maternal grandfather had always referred to as his ‘dad’ was not his biological parent.”
R. “I started in the 1980’s with my mum. I was also studying Australian history at school.”
P. “I started in the mid-1980’s. The Australian Bicentenary was making family history popular. I was also interested in my unique maiden name and rumours about a convict on my mother’s line.”
M. “I started recording family history when I was a child. I did this because I had heard so many exciting stories about my ancestors.”
C. “I started researching after my father died, as he had done a lot of research on his own in the pre-internet days. When I retired, I joined Ancestry.com and made connections, with people who had been sharing with my father. It grew to an all-consuming passion.”
F. “I started in 1976 but had been dabbling before then. I was interested in my Scottish grandmother’s life back in Scotland and who her family were.”
P2. “I started in 1968 after my great aunt died and when cleaning out her house we found photos, memorabilia relating to the family who arrived in the 1840’s. I had known about other branches, who had arrived in the 1880’s, so this earlier arrival had me quite interested.”
M2. “I started in 1985, when a friend found some information for me. I didn’t know my father as he had died when I was very young and Mum never spoke of his side.”
Did you have any surprises? (If so, can you tell or not?)
B. “What I hadn’t realised until after I started building the family tree on my paternal side is also missing a biological great-grandfather on my dad’s side too! It’s exciting to know that there is another mystery ahead of me to solve!”
R. “Not really big surprises, more confirming what we already knew and finding some interesting facts about those we did know about.”
P. “I had a few surprises: I found a convict on my husband’s ancestry, which was not expected – but delighted to find. Last year, I had a real surprise: my father had a half-brother!”
M. “The only surprise was a very close DNA match which indicated either my grandfather or his brother had a daughter which no-one knew about. The daughter would be either my mother’s half-sister or her half first cousin.”
C. “I learnt that my paternal grandparents married when she was 17 and he was 16. I also discovered that my 3x great-grandfather was a mulatto, from the USA.”
F. “I had a serious NPE (non-parental event), that I am unable to share, until the remaining aunt passes on.”
P2. “There were a few surprises. Some gratifying, some interesting and some not very welcome. Gratifying was that our original founding father, Alexander Small, was a successful businessman, and a contributor to the church and community, as well as being an alderman. Interesting, was that Alexander’s second wife had arrived in the colony, as a single woman, without any family two years before he did. The not welcome was that one of Alexanders’ sons, from the first marriage, committed rape.”
M2. “I discovered through a DNA match that Dad had had a ‘relationship’ between his first marriage and his second marriage, (to my mum), resulting in a daughter, that he didn’t know about.”
What changes have you noticed from when you started to now?
B. “Having not had anyone around me that was interested in genealogy when I first started, the only resource that I had any knowledge of was ‘Ancestry’ due to their advertising. Once I was paying attention, a lot of genealogical service providers were developing their presence online at the time and, because of that, they were on my radar in a way they would not have been before. Now the world is my oyster!”
R. “Technology and the many more tools and databases that can be searched easily.”
P. “The changes in the methods of searching for records. I started with microfiche and microfilm.”
M. “Libraries e.g. Mitchell/State Library saw genealogy as not being legitimate research and one had to pretend to be doing research for a different purpose e.g. local history in order to access their records. Research was difficult before the advent of the internet and on-line records. One had to visit institutions and local registry offices to access records.”
C. “It has not been so difficult for me, as a lot of the groundwork was done by my father, although I find online sessions are extremely useful. I do a lot of my research on-line as I live in a rural area, assisted by occasional visits to libraries, research centres and museums.”
F. “Newbies to genealogy assume that they can do their whole family history online. Online material is getting better by the day but you still need to visit archives, family history societies and libraries to obtain a fuller and more accurate family history.”
P2. “The difference from when I first started is that the information is so much easier to get and you can now do so much of it from home. The old days when you had to set aside a whole day to travel to the archives, wrestle with the machines and start a search with materials that had not been indexed and often came home with no new information, meant that research was very restricted, especially when you were working.”
M2. “When I started out there were no computers, you had to visit the library of the Society of Australian Genealogists and use a microfiche reader or a microfilm reader. Read through original documents in the archives. Send out letters and order certificates.”
With so much on the internet, what do you miss, from when you started?
B. “As strange as it might seem to some, I miss being in lockdown so I could dedicate all my time to my family history research!”
R.” Nothing really. It was frustrating when everything had to be done manually. One could still choose to do family history like they did when they first started if they choose to.”
P. “I learnt where and why the records were created, but now on the internet they just appear as s fait accompli. I also miss the personal interaction with fellow family historians.”
M. “Relatives who’ve died. Interrogate your family while they’re still around.”
C. “I love looking at old homes, documents, newspapers, books, clothing – basically how people lived. I do not miss microfiche or waiting weeks or months for documents to arrive.”
F. “Researching with others.”
P2.” I suppose what I miss is actually being able to see the original documents – that still involves a trip to the archives which is much harder once you are older – and being out at Kingswood.”
M2. “The thrill of holding original documents. The eureka moment when you are reading a document and you find a person. The friendships developed at archives or genealogy centres.”
From Lilian: I hope you have enjoyed the responses and that the questions have got you taking a trip down memory lane to when you first started. Stay tuned for Part 2 next Monday.
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