Hi, my name is Warwick Lyons. Welcome to my journey into the world of family history research which I started about 20 years ago. At the time I knew very little about my families past, apart from the various stories and surnames that seemed to pop up from time to time.
When I started my research, I was a member of the Australian Defence Force (Army in particular) and posted RMC Duntroon which is located in the capital of Australia, Canberra. As the Internet was still in its childhood and sites such as Ancestry and find my past were in their infancy, being in Canberra turned out to be a godsend. The National Library of Australia was my home away from home as I spent many a hour searching the microfiche for that allusive relative to take me back that little bit further in time.
I remember, in my earlier childhood, my grandmother speaking of her family being descendent from convicts and thinking at the time “thats cool” but not having the foreknowledge to take it any further than that. How I have kicked my self since as I have spent many a hour tracing her line back to the First Fleet and obtaining information related to those poor soles.
With the proliferation of the Internet over the pursuing years , the rise and rise of Ancestry, Find My Past, Familysearch and many others , along with the digitalisation of the plethera of records which are now available online I have only