About

About the website host

Jim Fleming has been researching his family history since 1983. He likes to collaborate with fellow-researchers with the aim of furthering mutual understanding of our forebears. To that end, this website is a key tool in making his research outcomes available to other researchers, thus facilitating contact and sharing.

Through this website he has published many family biographies, short stories and detailed research reports. As a researcher, he has successfully overcome several difficult genealogical roadblocks (Baker, Poulton, Fleming, Lahy, Ballantyne, Waples, Tobin) and has debunked a few furphies (Murphy, Carlisle, Kessey) about his family tree. He has also published catalogues of Fleming and Kessey family photographs and a facsimile copy of the 1883 emigration diary of his great-great grandfather as well as several journal articles. His book "All our tracks and ways" (about the Reed family of Bourke) will be published in October 2024 and he is well advanced with plans for the next book, "The Entwistle Convicts" (about the Entwistle family that had sixteen members sentenced to convict transportation).

Jim was born and raised in Bourke (NSW), as were his mother, grandmother and great-grandfather. The earlier generations of his family in Australia had coalesced around Bathurst, Mudgee and Coonamble after originating in England, Ireland and Scotland. He is also pleased to boast some Aboriginal ancestry through his 3G-grandfather William Kemp whose mother was "Mary" of the Mowgee clan of the Wiradjuri nation. He obtained a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney before enjoying a 33-year career with the Australian Customs Service, culminating in several years as a Customs Director. In retirement he lives on Sydney’s lower north shore where (apart from genealogy) he enjoys travelling and sings baritone in two choirs. He is a member of the Society of Australian Genealogists, the Bathurst Family History Group, the Entwistle Family History Association and the Turton Local History Society.

To contact Jim

To contact Jim by email simply click this link.