Where did you say you’re from?

I was looking at the “likes” on a link I had posted to Facebook recently and saw that the two people concerned were related although they probably didn’t realise it! It got me to thinking about my genealogy efforts and the family tree.

I started the research about ten years ago. I’m not sure what prompted me to even think of it – maybe it was the realisation that the years were catching up with me and I needed to know more about my past? It certainly had a little to do with me wanting my grandchildren to know about their background (at least on my side of the family). I’m not really sure, but most of the people I’ve come into contact with throughout those years since I started have been in and around my age bracket so maybe it is a case of realising that we aren’t immortal after all.

I surfed the internet, picking up hints on “how to” and then my local library ran a short course on the subject and I was off…

I bought my first version of “Family Tree Maker” (I’m 3 versions in now!) and duly entered my name. I put all the family that I knew of in, back to my grandparents and started searching the genealogy websites. I uploaded the information I had to a couple of more well known sites and within no time I started getting emails from people who thought they might be related or who had information that might be useful. Two of my earliest contacts were from my grandmother’s side of the family and came from Northumberland and, of all places, New Zealand.

Further delving into the past revealed that my great grandfather’s elder brother had emigrated to New Zealand from Scotland with his two children back in the 1840s (something no one seems to have known about) and we now seem to be related to half the population of the South Island! He moved on to Australia and died in Victoria in the 1890s. He married again in Australia and there are now more Aussie relatives! So much for Mum and I being the first family members to come to Australia!

All in all though, we seemed to be a fairly mundane family. No real skeletons but more than a sprinkling of shot gun weddings (tut tut in Victorian times too!!!). That is until Great Great Grannie Urquhart!

Let me set the picture here. I’ve lived in Australia most of my life, I’m an Aussie citizen and owe no other allegiance. One of THE best things (historically) is if you can find a convict in the closet (preferably BEFORE transportation ended rather than today!) It’s almost Colonial Royalty! Imagine my delight when I stumbled over the information that Great Great Great Grannie, Euphemia Urquhart had been a naughty lady and transported for a term of 7 years from Edinburgh to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania). I paid a researcher to go through the National Archives in Scotland and she sent me over 70 pages of court transcripts, evidence statements and even the list of jurors at her trial. I got more convict records from Tasmania, including her description upon arrival and the date of her eventual freedom. She married again to a fellow convict – I might add, while she was still married to Great Great Great Grandfather, George, and never went back to Scotland. She died in Hobart in 1877.So even great Uncle Peter wasn’t the first ancestor to come here. Mum and I were getting further back in the queue.

I visited Scotland in 2009.I visited some of the villages and towns that my ancestors came from and I found the grave of my great great grandparents and great grandparents in Chirnside churchyard – and I must admit I stood there and shed a quiet tear. I know it sounds corny but I felt I’d come home. It was so much a part of what I’d been doing all the research for. I stood outside the house that my mother was born in and passed the church that my grandparents were married in.

I’ve managed to go back to about the mid 1700s and we have family scattered all over. From Scotland they’ve spread to Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England and Spain. I just hope that another family member will keep this research going for the future generations. Not everyone is going to be interested but every now and again there will be one who wants to know who they are and where they came from.

Have you traced your family history? How far back? What interesting things did you find out? Tell us in the comments below…