Surprise! I'm Related!

In over 40 years of family history research, some of the best surprises I have had is when I discover that someone, who I already know, is related to me.

The year 2000 was when I set off, back-packing alone, on my first overseas trip, to visit and experience the places of my ancestors, Scotland, England, & Germany. I had a wonderful time, and when I returned home, a lovely friend caught up with me for a coffee. She asked what surnames I was looking for in Germany, as her husband also had German ancestors. I reeled off the main surnames: WEINHEIMER, WEIBLER, MELCHERT... She said "hold on! I've got Melchert relations!" I really thought it was unlikely, as every MELCHERT in Australia seems to be a descendant of one William Frederick Martin MELCHERT, who came to Australia some time before 1877, and we have a pretty good handle on all his descendants. I even thought that she had misheard what I said, but it turns out that my great-uncle William Frederick Martin MELCHERT, Junior, is married to Lee's great-aunt, Elsie Beatrice ROBERTSON! How exciting to be linked, (even by marriage), to someone as lovely as my friend Lee.

In the early days of research, I was mostly trying to locate my father's biological parents, given that his announcement of his adoption, (see this post), was what started me on my journey. Once he was able to legally receive his Birth Certificate, it stated that his mother was Doris BRAY. Doris had been born to Abdiel BRAY and Lily May KESSELL in 1916 in Charters Towers. I made contact with another family historian from that family, Bill BRAY, and it turned out that his son is married to the twin sister of my best friend from High School, both of whom I went to school with.

DNA has also played a part. There was no match to me, but matches to 2 cousins and to my brother of a lady who had the surname of someone I had also attended High School with, in my class. I 'had' often wondered if there was a connection, and eventually linked up with my school friend on Facebook. She confirmed that the match was her sister, and it turns out that I am a 4th cousin to their father. Our shared ancestors are Alexander Dun SMITH and Helen TURNER, from Scotland, but who emigrated to Australia in 1853. We have since caught up in person, and are both amazed to find out we are related.

I am sure there will be plenty more of these wonderful surprises yet to come, as I locate more descendants of my ancestors.

(Graphic generated by Microsoft Copilot)

Close to Home - my genealogical journey

I thought I might tell you about how I became interested, (although my husband says it is an addiction), in family history. Over the Christmas holidays of 1983, (I was 23), my parents came to visit us. They 'had' been visiting my maternal grandmother, and there was an argument, so they left and came to us.

Xmas 1983

I don't know if it was because he was feeling emotional due to the argument, but suddenly Dad blurted out that he had been adopted! It was a total shock, and I really felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach, (so, I can only imagine how much more of a shock it must be for adoptees to learn it about themselves in later life).

Jack Smith (brother), Barrie Smith (baby), Jean Exell (baby cousin), & Arthur Smith (father) Ross River, c 1934/5

Bill Smith (borther), Maud Butler (aunty), Jean Excell (baby cousin), Barrie Smith (baby), Aitkenvale, c 1935

Dad had always known and, apparently, my mother knew, but my brothers and I had never been told. It suddenly made sense why Dad had kept us away from his family in Townsville, (as much as he could), as I think he was worried that someone might say something to one of us. We grew up really only knowing our mother's side of the family. I later wondered if it also had something to do with Dad relocating our family every few years. Perhaps as people got to know us they started asking prying questions...

Dad 'was' interested in family history himself, and had a folder with certificates and charts, which he showed me, but as a teenager I wasn't 'grabbed' by it. It had never occurred to me that when he said his mother was 46 that she really was getting a bit too old to be having a baby. And when he told me that he had been raised on goats milk it really didn't hit home. 

Dad said that he had been adopted by his paternal grandparents, (Arthur & Clara Smith), but had been told his biological mother didn't want him and knew nothing about her. I determined that I was going to find his biological mother.

Clara (nee Melchert) and Arthur Smith, Aitkenvale, 1930s

Over the years Dad had written to the Department of Children's Services many times requesting information on his adoption, but what they sent back was very high level and if there was anything original it was heavily redacted. 

It wasn't until the Queensland Government allowed adoptees to receive their original birth certificates what we found out the name of his biological mother, Doris Bray. Unfortunately, the certificate was completely blank of information in the area where information on the father 'should' be. 

Doris Bray

I made contact with the Bray side of the family and, unfortunately, discovered that Doris had died in 1969. I met her youngest sister, Flo, who welcomed us warmly into the family. Flo would have been 7 years old when Dad was born, so she knew nothing of Dad, but I guess stories had gone around the family, and she said she wouldn't be surprised if there were others 'out there'. She had also been present when one of the other sisters had been tricked by their mother into signing adoption papers. 

Flo Nye nee Bray, me, Shane, and Marc in the background

The trouble was the Smith side of the family. 'Was' Dad really adopted by his paternal grandparents? There seemed no way to prove it one way or the other until DNA testing became popular. I was then able to persuade a cousin on that side to test, along with Dad, and the result came back that there was 100% match, confirming that 'Pop' who adopted Dad, was his grandfather. That really made Dad very happy. 

DNA Test Result

Subsequent DNA testing has proven over and over that we have the correct family. We were also then able to get a copy of the papers from the Department of Children's Services without any redactions, by sending them the DNA proof, along with a family tree of what we 'knew'. 

Of course, I also researched my husband's family as well. During my high school years we lived in Charters Towers. As a 13-year-old I really resented moving there, as I had left behind all my friends in Mt Isa, and I couldn't wait to leave once I finished school, although I subsequently made lots of wonderful friends. Imagine my surprise to find that both of my husband's grandparents were born there, AND Doris was born there too! Now I can't wait to go back to meet cousins and do research. This journey has been really close to home!

A Long Line of Miners...

Mining goes back a long way in my family.

The first miner I was aware of was my own father, Barrie Robert SMITH. In 1966 we shifted to Mt Isa in Northwest Queensland, as he had found a job working underground in Mt Isa Mines. Dad was a fitter and turner so would have worked on the machinery underground. He really hated working underground and re-trained in 1968 to leave and become a teacher.

Barrie Robert SMITH

Dad's adoptive father, (and biological grandfather), Arthur Douglas SMITH had many occupations, but one of them was as a miner. The electoral rolls don't say where he was working as a miner in his early life, but Dad did say that after he retired he went North regularly to do tin-scratching. I don't know how he got up there, as he never had a car or a driver's licence.

Arthur Douglas SMITH

Dad's biological mother, Doris Hamilton BRAY, applied for gold mining licences with her husband, Norbert SMANS, in 1938.

Doris BRAY

Doris was only following in her Cornish ancestral footsteps. Her father Abdiel was a miner at Moonta in South Australia, before relocating to Charters Towers to work in the gold mines. His father, Thomas BRAY, grandfather William BRAY, great-grandfather John BRAY, on and on back in the family were all miners. 

Abdiel BRAY

On Doris' mother's side there were also miners with grandfather William Henry Harris KESSELL being a miner, in Cornwall, Kadina in South Australia, and Charters Towers in Queensland. His father-in-law, Edward VIVIAN was a miner in Cornwall and South Australia, and his wife's grandfather John LAWN was a copper miner in Cornwall. 

An engraving of Cornish miners form the St Ives area in 1866, Source=French publication Date=1866 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cornish_miners_-_1866.png