Even though I have always been interested about our family history, it was something I was going  to do when I had some spare time!  Last November 2010, while talking to my mother, she happened  to mention that it would have been her father's 102nd birthday today, and said "I often wonder  about his family as he was always wanting to go back to Grenfell in NSW where they came from". This conversation then started my interesting and very time consuming (just ask my husband)  journey of travelling back in time and discovering where and when the family were born, lived,  married and died, often in tragic circumstances. The journey has also opened up a whole new world  of early Australian history that I knew existed, but now look at it differently as my family were  part of it.  There has been excitement at finding convicts, amazement at a bushranger, laughter at  some of the stories found and fantastic contact with distant relatives from around the world. I'm sure the discoveries will continue for a long time yet with us soon to set off with camera in  hand to graveyards around the NSW countryside.