Meet our Members: Maree Evans

Question

Hi everyone!

It's time to get to know another one of our wonderful WikiTreers. This week's member is Maree Evans. 

Maree became a Wiki Genealogist in September 2018 and loves participating in our Australia Project.

When and how did you get interested in family history?

My nana was the family historian, over the years she sent me family charts and research notes but I didn't appreciate it until I lost her at 17 years old, and I realised how many questions I still wanted to ask. I started to get into it and eventually worked out my grandfather was not my biological grandfather. This led me to doing DNA and I have been hooked ever since.

What are some of your interests outside of genealogy?

When I can peel myself away from genealogy I love to sew and do puzzles. I also love travelling and finding waterfalls.

What is your genealogical research focus?

My focus changes all the time, I blame it on my ADHD, I just can't stay on one topic. Currently, my main focus is trying to solve the maternal mysteries DNA has thrown up.

Do you have a favorite ancestor?

I have a few favourite ancestors, one is my 5th Great Grandmother, Sarah Beckley. She was a convict transported to Australia. She had a hard life but she was defiant and didn't play by the rules.

My favourite brickwall breakthrough story is that of finding the parents of my 3x Great Grandmother, Jessie Robertson. It had been a mystery for over 30 years, I know it frustrated my nana. Two years ago I found a death certificate for her oldest son, the informant was his uncle. I then found a census record for the uncle and his mother was living with him, this led me to find so much more information on the family. It was a good reminder to always check all the family records, you just never know when one little piece of information can open a world of new records.

What is your toughest brick wall?

My toughest brick wall currently is finding my unknown maternal great-grandfather. I am reliant on DNA so I just have to wait for more matches to come up at the moment.

What brought you to WikiTree?

I first joined WT in 2018, but just uploaded a GEDCOM and never really did much. I came back in 2021 as during lockdown (I live in Victoria, Australia so we were locked down A LOT) I was looking for some social connection and I found G2G and the Australian and Netherlands Projects. It was a great way for me to connect with like-minded people and talk about something I love.

(interview continues in comments)

Comments

What do you spend the most time doing on WikiTree?

It really depends on the month. I am still adding a lot of my own extended tree and going back to profiles I added during Connect-a-Thons to fully source them and write bios up, that is probably what I am doing the most.

Which project or projects are you most involved in?

I am mainly involved with the Australia Project. Recently I have done a bit of work with the categories team to add CIB's to all the Victoria, Australia places. I am a bit of a spreadsheet geek and I love automation so I have created a few citation generators for the most common BDM indexes in Australia and shared them with the project as who doesn't want to make the citation process easier. I am always happy to help out with tasks as they are needed.

What is your favorite feature on WikiTree?

I think my favourite feature has to be the connection finder. It's such a great way to find common interests with other members and it is just fun to see how you are connected to people. I also love seeing my connections get shorter as I add more of my extended family to the tree.

What feature would you most like to see added or improved?

I would love to see more work done on the DNA connections tool, it would be great if the connection finder could help find potential DNA matches.

Do you have a story about how you were helped through the work of others on WikiTree?

I have been helped by so many people in so many ways, from just learning about new places to finding sources, new tools to help improve efficiency, and just double-checking my work. The most help has come from the Netherlands project and some of the Dutch members, they have translated so many documents and gone above and beyond researching my family for me and finding so many extra documents. I honestly wouldn't have been able to find and understand what I have without them.

Do you have any tips for someone who wants to get more involved in our community?

I would suggest joining some projects that are in your interest areas, joining Discord, and participating in the challenges. I have made some great friends this way.

What could we do to inspire more people to participate in our mission?

I would love to see WT doing some more events and challenges that focus on historic events all over the world. I think it would help people to get involved if events were focused on something close to home for them and hopefully inspire them to teach others about their areas of expertise.

Answer 1

Love your work Maree. Thank you!

Answer 2

Congratulations, Maree, and thank you for all you do for our tree.  It's interesting to hear about your work.  Thank you, Eowyn, for another great interview.

Answer 3

"It would be great if the connection finder could help find potential DNA matches"

Are you using your DNA Confirmation page? Example, yours would have your wikitreeid: https://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Crawford-7109/899 It suggests cousins that have tests which can potentially confirm the different branches. 

Or if you were thinking about something else, can you describe it more?

Comments

Great question, Jonathan. I'd like to hear this idea explored more as well.

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Hey Jonathan,

The confirmation page is great for my known family, but I have quite a few unknowns.

For me I have 3 very large clusters of DNA Matches to certain couples, but I do not know how I fit into the cluster yet. It would be really helpful if I could use a tool that I put a person or couple into and it gives me a list of all the potential DNA matches to that person/couple AND their ancestors/descendants. That would help me find people actively working on their DNA that are connected to the couple and their extended family.

I know I can go to each individual profile and see potential matches but it is slow and cumbersome. It would just be great to have it automated in a tool.

Answer 4

Hi Maree,

What a great interview. I'm so glad you're a member of our community.

I really like your idea of doing events or challenges that focus on local historical events. Would you want to lead one, maybe for the Australia Project? I'd love to see what you'd do with it.

Chris

Comments

Hey Chris,

I would be happy to do something with the Australia Project but will need to wait til next year when I move to part time work and will have the time. I'll chat with the project and brainstorm some idea's on what local historic events we could focus on.

Answer 5

Congratulations on being nominated as member of the week, Maree. You are doing a great job on WikiTree.

Answer 6

Hi Maree, I have enjoyed your profile responses very much. We are very distant cousins (29th). I enjoy seeing these connections so much (current and ancestors). I do love the idea of history and what we can learn of history via genealogy. Thank you so much for sharing!

Comments

Hey Cousin!!! Yes, it is hard not to develop a love of history through genealogy. I have learnt so much about the world through my ancestors and finding their stories.

Answer 7

Nice to read a little more about you - thank you for sharing

Answer 8

Maree - I love your idea about doing WT events centered around historic events!

Comments

Hi Maree and Sarah I agree. Maree we are 13 steps from each other via my great aunt Carrie's husband.

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Hey Sarah and Elsie,

I think it is a great way to expand our knowledge of the world and learn research techniques in other locations.

Elsie, I can always rely on my Berrell family to connect me up... LOL

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So Berkeley's also married Osborne/ Quinces? Yes they seem very well connected Mary

Answer 9

Great interview Maree and thank's a lot for the fact that you are referring to the help of the former members of the Netherlands Project. That's really appreciated by them and they loved to help you and if needed you know where to find us.

Comments

I am forever grateful for all of the help I have received, hopefully one day I can return the favour. Still trying to teach myself Dutch... but not sure I will ever be able to make sense of the old handwriting.

Answer 10

Great to get to know you Maree.  It's always nice to meet someone who cherished their Nana, like me.

She was also my start in Genealogy and is missed a lot.  Loved the stories she had.

Maree, thanks for all that you do at WT and your Australian and Netherlands Projects (not to mention the Connect a Thons).

BTW we're 26C1R through Yolande (Coucy) de Dreux (1164-abt.1222)