Doing ones family history is an exercise which constantly presents you with surprises and you come to expect the unexpected. This week I’ve decided to write about a pleasant surprise fairly early in my family history journey, and one that was close to home in a very real sense.

In the early days of my family history research I was so enthusiastic about my findings and shared them far and wide with my family. I was especially proud of my research on my paternal line, the Starr’s, as we knew only very basic information about my grandfather as he died when my father was still a teenager. In those days, everyone else was excited about my findings as well and my father had been in conversation with a friend of his at our church who was intrigued. The next time I saw the friend, he expressed interest in my family history research and mentioned that his grandmother had the surname Starr and he was pretty sure she was from Molong, NSW which was the same place my Starr family was from.

Well, after that little tidbit I just had to investigate this possible Starr connection. Luckily, I had in my possession a book on the history of our church and I knew his family had been going there for at least two generations and I found his parents names in it. From there I found a record of the marriage of his parents and looking on the Australian Cemeteries Index I found the headstone of his father at Molong cemetery. This was exciting as this was where my ancestor were as well. One thing led to another and I confirmed that the friend’s grandmother was indeed a Starr.

The surprise part was not just that someone I had known for years was in fact related to me, but that it was a fairly close relationship: he and my father were in fact 3rd cousins. We all found this rather hilarious as both men share the same slapstick sense of humour, and we joked that they must have gotten it from the Starr family!! Now, this friend had an older brother who had two sons one of whom was dating my sister at the time. Turned out, they were fourth cousins. Now this was a surprise, because in our church (The Salvation Army) it’s a bit of a standing joke when two young people start dating that you’d better check how closely you’re related to the other person!!

Now, we had always said we were sure we weren’t related to anyone because we were only relative newcomers to the Salvation Army as opposed to being a part of the church for generations unending. So this was a bit of a surprise to us!! I thought it was absolutely hilarious at the time and took great glee in telling my sister that she was related to her boyfriend. Of course, she was mortified and forbade me to tell him. I never did tell him, but perhaps he found out as his uncle and his father both knew.