Finding answers to my childhood question, “Where did our family come from?” has been a lifetime quest for me. The older members of both branches my father’s family seemed unable to tell me much. There are many possible reasons why the stories that together form our ‘family history’ had either not been passed down, or were not shared in turn. Within this website I have drawn upon my own research, and the research and generous contributions of many others, in an attempt to create an accessible source of ‘stories of my family’. This collection is primarily intended as a gift to all my family members, present and future, however I hope that many others will also enjoy some of the content.

    I have designed the site to be a ‘scrapbook’ of materials that are grouped into 4 slightly overlapping topics. There are collections of short stories, images, and information, related to the lives of my paternal grandparents: Alexander (‘Sonny’) Frazer and Bernadine Monica Grant, and to their ancestors. There is a small section on the Ships that their ancestors emigrated to Australia on, and also a section that contains the story of My Research Journey. I have created each page to ’stand alone’ so that a reader can randomly ‘dip in’, however the sequence of the pages within each section is roughly chronological. Starting with the Dedication and Preface and then the section My Research Journey may provide a helpful overview to the content of this site.

    I’d like this ‘project’ to provide encouragement for, and assistance with, further research on any of my paternal ancestors. In particular it is important to me to ensure the preservation of the information I have collated on my 4th great-grandparents Thomas Peters and Mary Ann Peters (nee Hews) who were Hobart first settlers. A sub-section, Research Part B., which follows immediately after the story of ‘My Research Journey’, contains my research findings on them.

“Where did they all come from before then? I don’t know! They probably left Scotland or Ireland because of the famines.

 They would have come out to Australia on one of those old sailing ships. “