Our Founder
Deborah, the founder of Your Heritage Quest has been interested in genealogy since she was nine years old and interviewed her grandparents for a school project. She was astounded to find out her maternal grandmother was one of fifteen children, many of whom did not survive to adulthood; and that her paternal great, great grandfather, a plain-clothes detective died in “mysterious circumstances”!
A love for history and a passion for stories, inspired by her high-school History teacher led to her achieving a Diploma of Family History from the University of Tasmania in 2018. Deborah is also a member of the Society of Australian Genealogists.
Deborah started researching her husband’s paternal family back in 2001 in the U.K. Discovering cousins he didn’t know, and a documented paternal line back to 1795 revealed where his love of farming and gardening came from and gave him a sense of ‘place’ and ‘belonging’ that he had not had as his father had died when he was thirteen years old.
The satisfaction at providing answers and uncovering the stories of ancestors who emigrated to Australia, enduring many tribulations along their journeys impelled Deborah to research her mother-in-law’s ‘unknown’ grandfather. This took many years of on/off research, but she successfully uncovered her maternal and paternal lines. A DNA test confirmed the research. This was a very satisfying moment!
