I wrote a few months back in the hope that I might find a few clues on my father’s birth and his parents – without going too much into detail again – I have never been able to find anything whatsoever on them as he was an orphan in Palmerston North and simple did not exist anywhere in records and has no birth certificate.
After more than 25 years of research and finding nothing but brick walls, I was kindly advised to get one of my brothers to do a DNA test. To date we have been inundated with family trees that so far could be 3rd – 4th cousins of the Gray/Robertson families in New Zealand. This has been exciting as up to then for all we knew he may not even have been a Gray but just given this name for whatever reason.
Robertson was not a name that I had researched as there was no one of that name that was involved with his upbringing however of course there are hundreds who immigrated from Scotland and Canada to NZ, particularly to Dunedin and the results are so compelling with the Gray/Robertson connection.
The reason I am writing this is to say that if you are contemplating DNA testing – do it. I cannot believe the amount of research that has already been done by families that could provide you with unbelievable ancestry information if you did a test. The costs may seem prohibitive at first but when you consider the money that can be spent on ordering certificates etc. and finding them to be worthless, and the time spent researching particularly overseas, it is well worth the cost.
Unfortunately NZ has not participated in DNA testing as much as overseas researchers and so therefore the results are not in the 1st – 2nd cousin grouping but in time we hope that will change. In the meantime for the first time I have real possibilities of families to research in the hope that although we may be distant cousins, at least we may now have a chance of belonging to someone!
Sue
GRAY/HOSKING/SEWARD/CLARK/CLARKE/ROBERTSON
