My research into the Green family tree started around 1990, after my father William Vincent Green (1915-1982) died. My mother's side, the Sykes, had an extensive family tree (descended from English convicts), but where did the Greens come from? Mum told me that my great grandfather came from Ireland and was buried in the Beaufort cemetery (east of Ballarat). There I found the headstone of William Green, his wife Bridget, both "Native of Co. Clare Ireland", along with their son, William John Green. Clare is on the west coast of Ireland, between Galway bay and the river Shannon.

1996
I contacted the Beaufort Historical Society, and found that William was a miner. He had come from Ireland to avoid the potato famine, and was obviously attracted by the goldrushes. I contacted relatives of my grandmother, Isabella Cahir, and her mother's family, the Mulqiny's. Pat Cahir, who, I found, lived in Preston, (two miles away from me!) and Peter Mulquiney had done extensive research into their family trees. Both the Cahirs and the Mulquineys came from County Clare as well. My father was a pure Clare descendant, although he never mentioned his Irish heritage.
I also found that a Michael Green, a miner from Clare, was a witness to William's (my great grandfather's) wedding. Michael and William witnessed each other's marriages, but their marriage and death certificates showed they had different fathers - Luke Greene and William Greene senior respectively - back in County Clare. It is most likely, I concluded, that they were cousins.

William (snr ­ Co.Clare) married Bridget Nagle	Luke Greene (Co.Clare) married Anne Healy
William (jnr - emigrated) married Bridget Duggan	Michael (Lk - emigrated)
Michael (Wm - my grandfather) married Isabella Cahir	James, Luke and other descendants moved to Kalgoorlie, WA.
William Vincent (my dad) married Joan Sykes	Ted Green and others

Both Michael (Lk) and William Junior had dropped the 'e' from the end of their name when they came to Australia. The two families either lived in the same house, or moved at about the same time to properties in the same area, around Beaufort.

I searched the shipping records to find when William jnr and/or Bridget Duggan (my great grandmother's maiden name) arrived in Australia, but found nothing (a later search by the Genealogical society also found nothing).
I wrote to the Corofin Heritage Centre in County Clare, asking them for more information on William jnr or Bridget Duggan (birth, marriage or death). They took over six months to tell me they found nothing.

1997
I joined the Victorian Genealogical Society, and contacted the Beaufort Historical Society. My grandfather, Michael (Wm), had paid rates on land around 1900.
I looked up all the email addresses in County Clare, and wrote a summary of what I had found (including a reference to Isabella Cahir, my grandmother, daughter of Bartholomew Cahir and Mary Mulquiny, both from County Clare). One of the seven people on email in Clare put my letter in the County Clare newspaper, in response to which I got an email from an Albert Greene, originally from County Clare, who had married a Cahir, also from County Clare, and who was researching his family tree. He quickly established that his family was not directly connected to my family, but, by coincidence, lived a mile or two from other Greenes in Ballycotton. After speaking to some of them, he concluded that I was related to this family.

1998
Albert Greene sent me a lot of material about Ballycotton, and a photo of Thomas Greene from near Ballycotton. He looked remarkably like my father, William Vincent Green.
I wrote back to the Corofin Heritage Centre, and they located the marriage of Luke Greene and Ann healy, parents of Michael (Lk), in Ennistimon (in Co. Clare) and noted that it was very likely we were related to this Luke. Albert Greene located the death notice of Luke, who died in Ballycotton in 1885. Present at his death was a William Greene.
The Genealogical Society found that three of Michael (Lk)'s children left Victoria during the depression in the 1890s and went to WA to look for gold, around Kalgoorlie. They also found that Michael (Lk) arrived in Adelaide in 1854 with his sister Ann, and that Michael (Lk) also had a brother Thomas who emigrated to Australia (all three moved to Victoria but neither Ann nor Thomas had descendants).
The Genealogical Society was able to provide me with death dates of some of Michael (Lk)'s grandchildren in Western Australia, some as late as 1970, and, on their suggestion, I checked death notices in the West Australian newspapers. There were many Greens, and the phone book gave only initials, but one death notice for James Luke Green (son of Luke Ernest) was from Fred and Olive Perrie. I found one F. Perrie in the WA phone book, and yes, he had known a James Luke Green who had died twenty years ago. And yes, he has a phone number for James Luke's son, Ted. I rang Ted, and he was just as surprised as me with what I had found. Ted wrote to me with extensive details about the tree descended from James Luke.
Albert Greene also gave me the address of Mary Greene, currently living in Ballycotton, a relative of Thomas, and I sent her my efforts to date. She replied with a comprehensive tree, the top branches of which are speculative.
I obtained more information about land owned by William Green in Beaufort, and my sister Wendy and I visited Beaufort to look for those lots. Residents of the only building on the land owned by William suggested we talk to Gladys Lester, a neighbour down the road. To our amazement, she remembered Bridget Duggan, our great grandmother, who came from County Clare around 1860.

1999
Albert devised a tree, based partly on my research, and partly from talking to the Greene's in Ballycotton, showing us descended from one William Greene, born about 1770.
My sister Wendy visited Ballycotton in June and met Mary and Thomas, and was warmly welcomed. I am going there in January 2000 to further our research efforts, and will report on my trip on this site.

Further Research
Apart from the trip to Ireland, I will continue researching all aspects of the trees listed here. In particular, I want to find the missing Green families descended from Luke and Michael, that moved to Western Australia - in particular, descendants of Patrick Green and Agnes Fleming

Peter Green 66 Raleigh st Thornbury 3071 Victoria Australia email: macadv@netspace.net.au