As a child I loved to hear my Mother's family talk about their memories of their days  in the Charters Tower's gold fields.
 As a child I was not told of many instances in my Father's family but in later years  I was told of the sadness of my grandparents losing children in the diphtheria  epidemic. My Father was a mischievous child, very adventurous and one of eight. My  remaining Aunts and Uncles of that family, along with my parents, I hold very dear  because they nurtured me as a child and helped teach me the good values I have today. I loved to hear about the close connections some of them had with their extended  family which was in the days before television, two parents working and our busy life  styles.
 My interest in genealogy started later in life and I have now developed an addiction  for the search for people in our extended family.