This was started out of an interest to discover if there was any truth in my wife's family tale of their ancestors owning tug boats and loosing all their wealth.
I commenced around 1983 with hand written sheets before purchasing my first computer to record, using a simple software program.
Using the Victorian Records Office I traced back from my wife's father,grandfather and ggandfather where I struck a snag, he was born in Hamburg Germany. After trying various methods to learn more about German records without any luck I gave the project away.
Around 1987 I recommenced using Brothers Keeper software as my database. Using the facilities of the Victorian Records office I started filling in the family tree from John Henry Gustave ( Who anglised his surname from WILKENS to WILKINS ).
After locating most of the details required I commenced the location of the burial sites of the children of John Henry Gustave which fortunately where mostly in the Williamstown Cemetery. With the willing help of the cemetery staff I was able to compete this task.
In1989 I gained access to the Internet and started to try to locate sites and newsgroups that could assist me in my research into John Henry's roots. I did not make any real headway until a Jeffrey Wilkens who is a descendent of another branch of the Wilkins family tree contacted me. He had been given my name by the Williamstown Cemetery when he wanted to locate his parents grave site there. I sent him a lot of information on the Wilkins family which aroused a desire in him to help with the research, this resulted in his obtaining a copy of the Baptism certificate of John Henry Gustave from Germany. This gave us details of his parents names and places of birth which were essential for further research.
From the internet I gleaned the names & addresses of all the Wilkens listed in the phone book of Elmshorn, where John Henry's father was born. With the help a friend of German decent who translated into German my letter of enquiry re if they happen to have a Peter Wilkens in their ancestry, in 1999 I posted off seven letters with addressed envelopes for enclosing replies and patiently awaited results.
After three months I gave up on thinking I would get any results, to my surprise after another three months had passed I received an email from a lady from Elmshorn who's maiden name was WILKENS, a Beate Classen telling me one of my letters had been passed onto her. This kind lady did not think she was a direct relative but could be from another branch of the same family.
By good fortune she also was connected to a service that tried to help people locate relatives so was able with the information I had, supply me with details of John Henry's German descendants back to the mid 1700's. I am pleased to say that we have developed a good friendship together since she first contacted me and have talked on the phone.
I trust that other researchers will be as lucky as me, though I believe that if you keep trying, you create your own luck, which can break through the brick walls that we all come up against from time to time.
I will take this opportunity to publicly thank the very many people who have replied to my many queries etc over the years and have assisted me in so many ways. You get to contact so many nice people through genealogy, I hope that some of them will find this site and read this to see the result of their help.
Roy Warren
January 2001
