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Leader: John McGlinn
Venue:  Parramatta Leisure and Learning Centre

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John, the course leader, has written about how he first became interested in the subject.

Some years ago, after our eldest son married, he found that his New Zealand born wife had a mother who was a descendant of two First Fleeters. The mother, who had been born in Australia, had married at Parramatta and, although a resident of New Zealand, had undertaken a considerable amount of research into her family history. As well as being married in Parramatta prior to settling in New Zealand she had considerable Parramatta heritage.

The foregoing caused our son to raise the question ‘Where did we come from?' He passed the question on to us, his mother and father, probably on the assumption that we had little to do in our retirement, but no doubt because we were nearer to our origin than he was both in years and geography!

This was then an added reason for us to commence a journey into the past which appears to grow not only in persons but also inspires an interest in history and how people have lived in times past.

Some years into our investigation we are yet to leave the shores of Australia. The volume of information that is available locally increases at a rapid rate - more than we can keep up with! The verification of information by checking against original sources has created a need for what has become an annual excursion into the far flung regions of this state.

One occasionally hits a brick wall where it appears that information sources have been exhausted. We are lucky in this country in the records that have been collected and maintained regarding arrivals in the country. The records in respect of those transported are extremely detailed even down to distinguishing marks that the person may have possessed, for example a scar on the little finger of the left hand. Unfortunately the records for later years are not nearly as detailed and details regarding persons who came as free men are sometimes poor and a large number are in the category of searching for relatives who apparently 'swam' here!

A major source of inspiration is a U3A group which meets fortnightly, although membership is not always consistent, being subject to the varying demands which beset our age group. It enables the exchange of experiences and knowledge which is freely shared. One often finds that fellow members have experienced similar frustrations in their research but often they are able to offer suggestions for alternative approaches which restart the trail.

There are also those lighter moments which no one will forget. Such as the reaction of one member who was dismayed to discover that she had an English ancestor breaking what had been pure Scottish ancestry.

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