Introduction

How we started

The idea for this website arose over coffee. Two cousins, Peter and Tony Liston were discussing a shared interest in family history. Both were aware that there were other relatives, uncles, aunts and cousins of varying degree with a similar interest. The discussion turned to the desirability of having a place to store and share all this information being gathered by different people in different places in Australia. The Internet seemed an obvious choice for the sharing of such information. We had the idea but were uncertain about how it should be implemented. We discussed this with John Cummings who is the husband of our aunt, Margaret Burmeister (nee Liston).ย  John has set us up with a web site and is helping us gain the skills to develop and maintain this site.

Why Many Branches

When you come to name a site such as this you realise that the choice of an appropriate name is not as simple as it first seems. We are both Listons, but our shared maternal grandmother was a Sullivan and our own mothers were Windsors and McKinnons.ย  Every time a family member marries, or forms a permanent relationship, we become part of their family history and they ours. Every marriage and every relationship adds a new branch to our family and it is not long before there are many branches.

Where to next

In April 2012 we are at the very beginning of the creation of this website. Over the coming months we hope to be able to organise all the information we have gleaned over time so that it can be included on this site. Our hope is that among the many branches of this family out there, there will be some who are similarly interested in the history of the family and who are able to add to and correct if necessary the story of the family we hope will be told herein.