My interest in who went before me was sparked after the 1995 death of my mother. Amongst her papers was a copy of a small Whelan family history document compiled by my father's cousin Eileen for the occasion of my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary in 1976. It seems likely that the material she gathered was by word of mouth; Eileen and most of those who contributed to that material have passed away, and their memories gone forever.

During 1996-1999 I focused my research on my father's parents' names (Whelan and Hildebrand). There are of course many other names recorded, the most common of which are Williams (in the USA), Notman and Kelpe (in New Zealand),  and Davis (Australia), all being related to the Hildebrand line. On the Whelan side, the Clancy, McAlister and Tully families which I have yet to spend much time on because of pressure of other activities, not through lack of interest.

In 2006 I started investigating the family of my father's maternal grandmother, Ellen Ballantyne and in 2007 made contact with a number of the descendants. The spelling of the surname changed in the mid 19th century for some family branches, and is now often spelled Ballintyne. The Ballantyne family research has overwhelmed me somewhat but in 2010 I plan to put it all together in a document which will be available on CD to family members. 

This website contains a summary of our family history. For each of the families there is a little history summary and a link to a PDF file showing the descendants of the earliest ancestor. Births, deaths and marriages that are less than about 50 years old are not shown for privacy reasons. Genuine family history researchers wishing to know more about a family group should email me. (see the "Welcome" page for email address).

For most of 2008-2009 I have been immensely busy with other matters and have done very little family history. However if you have a query I will respond to your email promptly. You may like to include a phone number so I can call and have a chat if that seems appropriate.

If you are a relative, I am happy to provide specific descendant charts in PDF format for any family branch relevant to your research, and am also keen to get more information from you to fill in the "gaps" that inevitably exist.

I can also give relatives password-restricted online access to the birth, death and marriage certificates (and some other documents) that I have collected to date.

In particular I dearly want to get more photographs of the older generations of ancestors. If you have photos of our ancestors, please get in touch with me; we may be able to help each other. Before too much longer I will put the photo collections online for restricted access as well.