When I started on this fascinating journey in February of 2007, I had no concept of the addictive nature of Genealogy. Of course I also had no concept of the frustrations that go with the never ending search for your roots. But when you finally knock down that brick wall, every frustration is forgotten.

My side of the Family Tree, Meiers-Edwards-Fidani, has been the most frustrating. The Edwards branch not so bad, but the Meiers' and Fidani's only go back to my Great Great Grandparents where the families disappear into Germany and Italy respectively. The Edwards family traces its roots back to England. My first breakthrough came after a long period of frustration and I was basically playing around on Google. I googled Meiers+Genealogy and found a reference to a book written by an Allan Meiers called "Fisher Folk of Fishermans Bend". The book was published in conjunction with the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society. I contacted the Society and secured a copy of the book. After flipping through just three pages, there was my ancestry, there was my Father. The author, Allan Meiers, was of course, a first cousin whom I'd never met. In fact he didn't even know of my existence.

My wife's side, Haines-Watson, is a different matter. Whilst I'm yet to be totally convinced of the veracity of it all, I have traced her back to Adam & Eve. Whoa! Hang on I hear you say. Yes I know, hard to believe. The information has come to light through the resources of Family Search or LDS. Not being a particularly religious person, I have been rather sceptical of this information, but after reading the book of Genesis and doing a lot of research, I have accepted the information but still with reservations. At least it is an interesting talking point. One thing is for sure though, my wife is related to the likes of William the Conqueror and various other blue bloods of the English and European nobility. Of course there were still brickwalls before I found Adam & Eve. Again after much banging of head on desk, I discovered that I had the incorrect spelling of an ancestors name. Once I keyed in the correct spelling, the world just opened up.

So whilst you will suffer frustrations along the way, don't give up. Step back, take a break, and then start looking again, perhaps now with a clearer mind. Sometimes I think you can get too close to what you are investigating, and then you can't see the trees for the forest.

I hope that like minded people will get some pleasure from exploring my tree. Maybe a relative, or maybe just an interesting story here and there. This is still very much an ongoing work, so I will continually update the site with new information as it becomes available, and as I have time to put fingers to the keyboard.

And a big thanks to Tribal Pages for the opportunity to put my family on the web.

Also, don't miss going to the menu item > PEOPLE > STORIES where you will find stories about various members of our families, including Convict & Bushrangers. come back from time to time as I will continue writing as I can.