One Question, Three Continents, One Family
Opera House and Harbour Bridge at sunset Mike and I spent the last few days in Sydney, and I keep thinking about how we got here. As a genealogist and family historian, my goal is never just names and dates. It is discovering the stories that connect families across generations and build relationships. Two years ago, I reached out to a DNA match while trying to solve a mystery: Why did my great-aunt die in a country I could not connect her to? Ancestry confirmed that Mandy and I shared my paternal grandmother’s line. Mandy turned out to be the granddaughter of my great-aunt, and she filled in the missing pieces. Two sisters left England and built lives on opposite sides of the world. Lisle Sisters (left to right): Jean, Pippen, Mary, Olga, and Betty Mary immigrated to North America and Olga immigrated to Australia My grandmother immigrated to Canada in 1949 and later to the United States. Her sister sailed for Australia in 1961 as one of the Ten Pound Poms, British immigrants who ...