New discoveries just keep on coming, just when you think you have learnt all there is to know about the people in your family one or two individuals will suddenly give up new information, that will delight you. January 2022 and the new family research year started off with two such discoveries, from people that I have been researching one from the very beginning; my grandmother Kate and the other a cousin found through DNA matching some years back 4th cousin 1x recovered Reginald Albert Gorman.
In the case of my grandmother, I received an automated email from a family tree building and research site that I subscribe to, informing me that a new Christening record had been found for my grandmother, and inviting me to come and see the record. After a day or so, I clicked on the record link and behold. I discover indeed more detailed information than in other past records.
Name Kate Elizabeth Wise
Sex Female
Christening date 28 Mar 1875
Christening Place Wareham, Dorset, England UK
Christening Place (original) St Mary's Wareham, Dorset England
Fathers name William
Mothers name Julia
The new fact I see for the first time in this record is St Mary's Wareham Dorset England, I had never known that Kate was Christened at St May's Wareham so I went Googling and found that St Mary's is still active today.
Exploring St Mary's history online I discovered an interesting fact about the Christening font, it is apparently the only 12th-century Hexagonal lead font in existence.
Grandmother Kate is a twin sister to my aunt Louisa so this discovery of the font is an interesting new fact to add to the family story.
Reginald Albert Gorman, an Australian actor who has been in the tree since 2019 was only discovered for being the so well-known actor on Australian TV that we know him for, while I was exploring my DNA match to his daughter Kate Gorman, who is also an accomplished Australian TV actress. Appearing in Neighbours and many other productions. Cousin Kate Gorman and her father Reg are related through William Bond and Sarah Bond/Acton and their daughter Sarah Jane Bond.
DNA conformation of my research is an exciting new tool that has become available in recent years. However, I have become aware that it is very rare for a person who has submitted and registered a DNA test to Ancestry to have an actual active interest in their family history Do'nt expect an engaging exchange of correspondence. We are not all jumping up and down with enthusiastic excitement about our family history. Having said this there is no reason why we should not give recognition to our discoveries.
A third new discovery was while watching the program Who Do You Think You Are, Australian journalist and television presenter Jennifer Victoria Byrne was being presented with her family history and in the course of the program it became clear that her ancestral line had similarities to my own Paternal family line, I have since learnt that we are 19th cousins.
As the old saying goes you don’t know what you don’t know, and researching ancestry brings this fact to the surface in many ways time and again.
I look forward to every new discovery that I find along the way in my journey, a new discovery can emerge many years after I have completed documenting any family member.
Therefore I remain open-minded and ready to accept new information that hopefully enhances my research of a family member.
Access to our DNA and comparison to others is a relatively new tool in ancestry research that we are able to use to back up most of our paper trail research.
If we have researched our ancestry in any great depth we may be able to call on
TV programs such as Who Do You Think You Are confirm a relationship.
Copyright © Noel Bond. Researched and written by Noel Bond, No written part of this Blog may be reproduced in any form, by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author.
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