Where we come from

I am in some ways the product of my ancestry and yet I have no idea what that ancestry is. To me, they are essentially all interesting strangers.Jack Thompson, Australian actor, 2007

A family album. Full of faces, memories, forgotten experiences.

Sometimes photos are missing. For some there are no photos at all — only questions.

Why are we so fascinated by our family trees? What is it that we hope to discover? What does it mean if we can’t complete the family picture?

Family relationships are complex — children are adopted, families blend, friends become family. We may rebel against family authority, or deny our family heritage.

Some questions may never be answered.

Stories about where we come from

Jean on her wedding day, wearing the family wedding veil.The wedding veil was imported from Ireland and worn by Janet Scrimgeour at her wedding in Bendigo in 1865 to Peter Brackelmann.

Claire Wieser French at Selb, home form college at Bozen, catching bugs. Photograph taken by her aunt Maria near family home at Selb, 1938.

Dominic Golding with his adopted brothers and sisters, Mount Gambier, 1976

Jean on her wedding day, wearing the family wedding veil.
Source: Jean Billington

A family heirloom

Janet Scrimgeour imported this Limerick lace wedding veil from Ireland and wore it at her wedding in Bendigo in 1865 to Peter Brackelmann. For over 130 years the veil was passed down through the women in each generation to be worn at their weddings.

This veil originally belonged to my great great grandmother Janet Scrimgeour, who migrated to Victoria from Scotland in 1854. It connects me to her, such a special person during my early childhood years, and to many of the women in my family. I wore the veil at my own wedding in 1958 so I too am part of its long tradition. Jean Billington, 2010

Claire Wieser French at Selb, home from college at Bozen, catching bugs. Photograph taken by her aunt Maria near family home at Selb, 1938.
Source: Claire French

A family legacy

Claire Wieser French and her family migrated to Australia in 1951. The 'Passport of Ancestors' (Der Ahnenpass) on display was a standard booklet issued in Nazi Germany. In it people were required to record at least four generations of Aryan ancestry.

This object reminds me of a traumatic time in my family's past. We had to prove our non-Jewish ancestry in order to avoid persecution. My mother's religion and my father's political and humanitarian sympathies made them suspicious to the ruling regime. By the end of the war, we ourselves were stateless — but we were still together.Claire French, 2010

Dominic Golding with his adopted brothers and sisters, Mount Gambier, 1976
Image: Donald Golding
Source: Dominic Golding

A family lost, a family found

Nguyen Hong Duc was one of 200 children airlifted from Vietnam to Australia during Operation Babylift in 1975. Renamed Dominic, he was raised on a farm in South Australia by the Golding family and has since visited Vietnam in order to trace his ancestry. The Australian entry permit on display was issued to him in 1975.

I was a four month old orphan when I was given this permit in 1975. Bundled up, I was handed to strangers in Melbourne. This new family gave me a new home, name and a better future. But I’ll never find my first mother and father. It’s as though the passport erased a family to create a family.Dominic Hong Duc Golding, 2010