The Morning Show

How to trace your ancestry

Golden rule - start with yourself and work backwards. Even if the family story is that you're descended from Ned Kelly’s brother you still need to start with yourself and see if it leads you back to his family
Begin by talking to family members and see what they have - certificates, letters, photos, memories
Be careful with spelling of names - like the name Fraser being indexed as kraser, for example.

More info
Society of Australian Genealogists
Ancestry.com

6 Comments

1. newzealandpinkcat - Apr 22 09:17am

My mother married a man, whom they divorced when i was 4 yrs old, then my Dad remarried to a women named Janneen Hunter whom had to 2 daughters, Rachel Hunter and Jackie Hunter.. Rachel hunter was a model then until she married Rod stweart, the singer, i was then related to both of them..

2. newzealandpinkcat - Apr 22 09:24am

3. nicolejarends - Apr 22 10:05am

I have been trying to trace my family tree. Locating Aboriginal documentation has proven to be hard to come by. This difficulty has also been compounded by living relatives not willing to discuss the traumatic past. Is there an area which can help with tracing Indigenous peoples? Nicole. VIC

4. eve5872 - Apr 22 10:11am

My son Shane is tracing our family tree and although we have found no one famous we have discovered that we (my 2 sisters &I)have 5 more sisters.3 of wich have passed on so we'll never get to know them but we are in contact with the other 2 by email.What a surpriseit has been for us.

5. princessgg85 - Apr 22 12:00pm

I have been tacing my family history for about 6mths now. I started my tree with my 10mth old son and it has rown to include over 1800 relatives on both mine and my partners sides. Along the wayi have found some ineresting facts and stories. It has becme quite an a addiction of mine :) Tara, NSW

6. ra3s66 - Apr 22 09:58pm

Have been tracing my family history off and on for the past 10yrs and have found out that I am related to Mark Lee the actor of the movie Gallipoli he is my third cousin. Cindy NSW