First Post

The purpose of this blog is to document some of the findings of my geneaological research into my family history: the Bradys and the O'Briens.

My interest began after I traveled to Australia and New Zealand for

a cruise in January, 2016. My cousin, Bernadette DeAngelis, asked me if I were going to visit the town in Australia where my paternal grandfather, William Henry Brady, was from. I was only in Australia for a day to get on the boat and another to return home, but the next year when my mother, Elizabeth Brady died and I took possesion of her family photo scrapbook, I thought that I should try to look into our history.

Several other family members, Michelle Brady and Erin Henry, had already done the foundational research and I'm greatful for their work.

I've only been doing this reasearch for only a few months and I have a few "lessons learned."

• The Bradys and O'Briens are prolific. Ours are very common names. We come from clans which are everywhere around the world. My grandfather was born the small town of Wangaratta in the southwest of Australia, I found at least three separate Brady families. I don't know if they were closely related, but it was not unusual for immigrants to settle near family or former neighbors. On my 2016 cruise, I met a woman whose maiden name was Brady and she was from Wangaratta. To quote Disney, "It's a small world after all."
• The internet has been an unbelievable resource for the study of genealogy. From my computer I can search and look at records from all around the world from hundreds of years ago. Millions of records are being added each day. The internet allows us to read newspapers, look at photographs, open records and talk with people around the world. 
• By combning historical research with DNA testing, we can map even more of our history. 
• That history shows how much we owe our ancestors (both related and not so closely related). They led led difficult lives. Many infants didn't survive to childhood. Many children never live to adulthood. They worked hard, traveled and fought to build better lives for us. We should remember them.