The Paper Chase

I have always been interested in history, and I love a good mystery story. I first became interested in my family history when planning a trip to Europe in 1991. It would be interesting, I thought, to visit the birthplaces of my German and Irish ancestors. I knew little about them, apart from stories told by my parents, and made enquiries from relatives who were known to be interested in these matters.

Lautenthal, Germany

The Irish information was sketchy, but allowed me to locate one family in Co. Clare, Ireland.

The German information was a revelation. It seemed my father had come from a large family, already well-documented by several researchers.

So I visited Ireland and Germany in my travels, took some photos, even did a little research of my own. On my return, I passed on the information I’d found, and got on with my life, thinking that some day I might pick up the trail again.

‘Some day’ arrived in 1999, when I had to give up work due to a severe back complaint. I had time on my hands, and the old interest resurfaced.

My initial aim was merely to produce some decorative Pedigree charts for my grandchildren, but as I delved into forgotten folders and attempted to verify names and dates, I discovered that more research had been done, and there was a wealth of new information.

I quickly became intrigued by still-unanswered questions, and began to follow the trail in earnest – I was well and truly hooked! I even planned to write a full family history, but I got over it in the end, and the now much larger collection of files was packed away.

Recently, my daughters have been suggesting that it’s about time I recorded all the information I have - “while you can still remember it all” was the suggestion.

The decision to create a blog and a website grew out of my attempts to assemble in coherent form all the documents and scraps of information I have collected, and to preserve and pass on my own life story, and the stories of my ancestors, for future generations.

Few of the people in these pages rate a mention in the history books, but all of them left a paper trail of some kind. From the arrival of the First Fleet, officials have been recording the activities and movements of people. In legal documents and parish registers, in careful copperplate and semi-literate scrawls, lives and events were documented.

The task of the family historian is to locate these elusive scraps of history. Works of pen and paper are fragile and vulnerable. Records may be burnt, water stained, buried on dusty shelves in far-off archives, or just lost. Written records rely on the accuracy of the informant, and the ability of the scribe to understand a thick regional accent. Mistakes abound – the historian must be sceptical, inquisitive, deductive, and above all, persistent.

Researchers have numerous sources to draw upon. The Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages are now available to the public as microfiche indexes, and more recently on CDs. These indexes give the names (often misspelled or incomplete, because they are sourced from hand-written records) the year and place of the event, and a reference number. You can then buy a copy of the original document, which often gives more information. Copies are expensive, and most of us don’t buy too many of them, just enough to follow the trail. Early church records are also a valuable source of information.

Once the basic facts are established, the search widens – ‘putting flesh on the bones’ as it were. The paper chase now ranges through shipping lists, old newspapers, school rolls, army records, land transactions, wills, inquests, convict records, and thankfully, the Internet.

For more recent events, one must rely on contacting descendants and asking them for information, because the marriage and birth records for recent years are only available to the people concerned, to protect their privacy. Death records have similar limitations.

In the course of my research, I have written numerous letters and emails, interviewed relatives, traced and copied photos, checked out family legends, and made hundreds of phone calls. I discovered and met ‘lost’ relatives, and enjoyed long discussions with fellow researchers. As tracing family history has become very popular, many people are researching their own branches of a family, and most are generous in sharing their discoveries.

This will always be a ‘work in progress’ and despite all possible care, there are bound to be errors and omission. I welcome any suggestions for improvement.

Recording one’s family history is a big responsibility - I hope to achieve an objective account, without too much praise or criticism, and doubtless I will fail at times.

Inevitably there are some sensitive issues, and judgments to be made on what to include or omit. When making such editorial decisions, my concern is always to avoid undue embarrassment or offence to living descendants, and where possible those directly concerned have been consulted.