This site focuses on the Hayes and Edwards families of Melbourne, Australia. While it is early days for this site, we have been actively seeking to discover our relatives for more than three decades. We hope that the site might enable family members and our friends to stay better connected through time, if not space. Sadly, circumstances increasingly limit our ability to be together in person.
At first, the site will be pretty basic. We will add new features and functionality through time. We just wanted to get some of the information that we've discovered into the hands of others. We are not getting any younger and a new generation is already rising! We want people to be connected with their past as they live into their futures.
A little about our families
Our families have a rather colourful and complex history. Whose families don't! European ancestors of the Hayes family settled in North America shortly after the Pilgrims landed. In fact, the brother of one of our ancestors was on the Mayflower. But, our ancestors arrived from all over Europe. Our family also has a heritage with the original settlers of North America.
Some ancestors of the Edwards family landed in Australia with the Second and Third Fleets. Yet, our part of the Edwards family includes ancestors from the Philippines, Denmark and Italy, as well as England. Various lines of the Edwards family are related to the original inhabitants of Australia.
As we indicated, our families have a fairly complex history. Australia, North America and the Philippines will each figure prominently in the telling of our stories.
A little about the site's name
What we share will be news to many. We are aware that most of our relatives know little of our family history. That's one aspect of the title. However, there is another aspect as well.
We have discovered much from many sources. They include government and church documents, family stories, newspapers and history books. This information was used for a variety of purposes originally. We will respect that. However, we will seek to pull all of this "news" into a new narrative.
We hope that others will "reuse" this "news" for their own purposes. We will be using a Creative Commons license that allows people to share and share alike with attribution. This will apply to the material that we create. However, some data has been copyrighted by others and used with permission. We'll endeavour to note this. If we fail to get this right, please contact us so that we can correct our mistake.
Respecting and Rejoicing
We pay our respects to the Elders and people of the Nations upon whose land we have lived, learned and worked. We are grateful to have had the chance to raise our immediate family on these lands. We rejoice in the rising generations.