sdfamilytree

Welcome to my family tree website. I started to become interested in my family history at about 16 years of age. I remember then asking Mum some questions about the family. This became a hobby in 1979 when pregnant with my first child. I was lucky enough at that point (before the Internet if you can imagine that!) to find some people already researching the family. My father’s aunty Gladys Amey was one of my first contacts given to me by Dad who thought that “Gladys and her daughter Glenys had done some research” and soon after followed the Gorham family researchers that I found via the International Genealogical Index (IGI) which was published annually in book form. I was soon on my way, gathering facts and any information that I could.

One of my best sources was my mother. Her wealth of knowledge of who married who and the names of the children was amazing, including on my father’s side as my father showed little interest his large family of aunts, uncles and cousins. Mum was very interested in my research. She had a love of learning and knowledge so this fit right in to her interests. I didn’t realise how much I relied on her until she passed away in 2010. My family research like most hobbies has had spurts of absolute dedicated research and then it wanes until the next time.

During my time in Canberra in 1990-1995 I was a constant visitor to the reading room at the Australian National Library. I remember one day my husband telling me about the “world wide web” that I could access to assist me and going into his work to do so and being a bit confused about how I could see records that were held in England! Of course, now the internet is a great source of information and I wonder how I ever did without it.

Since my Mother’s passing I have been pretty consistently documenting the history and gathering more information. I have realised how short life is and once someone has passed their story and the stories they have told are also gone. I hope this website will be something that future generations can view and give them an insight into the lives their ancestors lived.

I must also acknowledge my children Angela and Adrian for their dedication in hunting down ancestors in the various cemeteries we visited when they were children. Not forgetting my husband Shane.We have travelled to many parts of the world and searched cemeteries, not something most couples do on overseas holidays. Eventually my passion for researching spilled over to Shane who also now researches his family.

Debra