the first post

I've been playing at granny hunting - on and off - for quite a few years. Recently I bit the bullet, committed some dollars and some regular time to have a proper look into my past.

In some respects it's about who am I and where am I really, really from. In others it's just an excuse to muck about with dead people - cartoon bits and pieces and the occasional image from their lives or, most likely, the headstone shot marking their death and burial.

Still, there are already some interesting finds and a couple of mysteries to unravel. Did great- great- great- granny Herriot really die in a Melbourne lunatic asylum? Is there a link to the Channel Islands through William Jeyes Moore? I'm keen on that possibility - a great excuse to visit.

Geoff's Gaudion rellies all appear to have sprung from there, so he might be keen to have a look there one day as well.

Also, Riwaka is assuming far more interest that its size might suggest. My Clark and Fowler relations landed up there in the early 1840s, long before heading south to Ashburton. There is the slenderest chance that I might be related to my hairdresser. That would be cool.

The more I muck around in ancestry.com, papers past, and the like, the more New Zealand feels like the tiniest place...