STORY - "From Tiny Seeds to Growing Trees"

Genealogy: A search for the greatest treasure - our ancestors. Anon

This quotation is one of Helen Russell’s favourites, and as a genealogist, one she lives by. Oral family history has been passed down through generations; her family cherished their ancestral roots. But Helen has taken this one step further, and has recorded this history for posterity.

Helen lives in the same home in Largs near Maitland where she was raised. At one stage four generations lived together. “In this house, there was my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, two of her (at that stage) unmarried sisters and myself, all women, living here.” Helen was blessed to actually live amongst her family history. She recalls wonderful times from early childhood as they shared reminiscences.

Still in primary school, Helen’s seed of curiosity for genealogy sprouted. “I was given the job of addressing the envelopes for Christmas cards. My grandmother had broken her arm and couldn’t write well.” As Helen wrote on the envelopes, she questioned her grandmother about these people, and the responses sparked what has become an “obsession” that remains strong and fulfilling.

Helen’s probing produced results in the Gresford/Paterson area, but then spread wider to Tipperary in Ireland, the Thames in London and to Germany. “The serious side came when I was travelling overseas.” She wanted to take her explorations further and anticipated great results when, thirty years ago, she armed herself with information gleaned through the years, and headed on a journey of discovery in the hope of tracing her ancestors.

She came home disappointed; parish paperwork was sketchy and a fire in Dublin Castle in the 1920s had destroyed many records. Her earlier investigations were too general, resulting in a multitude of similarly named people of the same generation. Helen offers this advice, “If you are going to travel to places overseas to look up your ancestry, definitely do your homework before you go.”

The cyberspace highway called the internet was yet to be invented, so Helen’s ‘homework’ had to be done the hard way, endless hours spent trawling through microfiche reels and public records, travelling to visit libraries and archives, making contact with various historical groups, long telephone conversations, copious reading and writing and much time with her late mum doing “cemetery crawls”. Helen says, “You can do a lot more now on the internet.” What an understatement!

Helen recommends, “For people starting out, sit down and write what you already know, then start questioning your oldest relatives and add to your data; have a sturdy writing book, mark it into family sections and always record where the information came from.” Helen attended a lecture by the late Janet Reakes, a genealogy guru, who offered invaluable tips on tracing family history. Janet encouraged genealogists to “think laterally”, be constantly alert to the spellings of surnames and places, even small discrepancies can lead to frustration and time wastage. Helen states the obvious, “You must be very patient.”

Another hint from Helen for budding genealogists is to “get the death certificate of the first spouse who dies.” The surviving partner supplies the family details more accurately than others. “The information on the death certificate is more reliable and usually lists the couple’s occupations, their parents, their children, places of birth and death.”

Helen has found several convict family ancestors who were transported for trivial matters including a young girl who stole a coat, and another who took a silk scarf. But there is one family felon who was charged with manslaughter, though never convicted, and transported from Ireland without trial. Through her research, Helen has discovered that he may have rebelled against the English and was punished by having his fingers severed. She has papers describing his “right hand maimed”. This same man was given a ‘conditional pardon’ and become a model citizen.

Helen has drafted family trees of the various branches, though each has gaps. When she retires, she aims to fill in those blank spaces via further travel, taking more accurate information with her; she certainly won’t be returning home disappointed.

Helen is “putting together” the Catholic history of the Largs (Dunmore)/Bolwarra area in preparation for the Centenary of Largs Holy Family Church in 2010. If you have relevant information, please contact Helen at St Mary’s Campus All Saints College 2 Grant Street Maitland 2320.

Finally, another of Helen’s favourite adages, one she finds suits her perfectly:
Old genealogists never die……… They just lose their census.

Trish Bogan

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