Recently I started researching my family tree and found a great deal of information through the Internet genealogy message boards.

My father's family came from Liverpool UK, and prior to that the island of Unst in the Shetlands. I have managed to trace back to Mirable Russland who married James Winwick, they had 6 children one of whom was Barbara Jane Winwick b. 1797 in Unst. Barbara married John Thomason in 1826, they 5 children one of whom was my g.g.grandfather Magnus Winwick Thomason, it was he who ended up in Liverpool where he married Jane Sillitoe in 1863. My great gradfaterh George james Thomson was one of their children, her married Emma Smith, and one of their children, Ernest Thomson was my grandfather. I find it fascinating that my father came to Australia and it wasn't until I began to take an interest in his family history that he became aware of the connection to the Shetland Isles. We are more aware these days of our past and have the means to contact others with the same interests through the Internet.