New member introducing myself

Question

My Surname now is Garthwaite. My Great Grandfather was named Robert Garthwaite. He came to Australia by ship in about 1880. From thereon, he alternated between Gay and Garthwaite until he died.

In 1903, we apparently changed our name from Garthwaite to Gay and have continued to use it until 1988 or so when I changed our surname back to Garthwaite, and so did my father.

I have tracked my ancestors back to the UK and have a few names going back a generation or two  further, but no further details like birth death and wedding dates,

Assuming I continue with WikiTree, what should I do next please.

Ian Garthwaite

Who used to be Gay.

Answer 1

Welcome to the WikiTree community and G2G Forum as a guest, Ian!

If you want to communicate with cousins or others about genealogy (whether or not you want to add profiles on our single family tree, you can upgrade at no cost to the Family Member level at any time by adding your genealogy communication preferences.

Help:Membership

To do this, click on the upgrade link on either your navigation or profile page.

I would suggest you upgrade and start adding your family and Ancestors.

Answer 2

Welcome aboard, Ian!

Interesting story. Your next step is to upgrade to family member. It's free. Then you can start adding your family branches and digging into the research. Keep in mind that last name at birth is, as the name implies, the first surname the person was known as. If they changed their name, the other name goes in the current name field (unless there's more than two names).

Have a look around and come back here to the forum if you have any questions.