January 26 is Australia Day. A day which is celebrated with a public holiday, and spent watching sport, or cooling down at the beach or local pool with family or friends, and of course partaking of the traditional Aussie meal – the barbecue.

However, it actually marks the date the British colonists first arrived in Australia. Captain Arthur Phillip, first arrived in Australia in Sydney Harbour in 1788. In the past Australia Day was celebrated with dinners, horse races and other small events.

The genealogy blogging community is a great bunch of people, and many join in on topics suggested by others, allowing people to write about their own experiences or thoughts relating to that topic.

Shelly from the Twigs of Yore blog has come up with a great one for Aussie genealogy bloggers as a way to celebrate your Australian heritage on Australia Day, 26 January 2011.

The task that she has set for herself and anyone who wishes to join in is:

Find the earliest piece of documentation you have about an ancestor in Australia. If you don’t have an Australian ancestor, then choose the earliest piece of documentation you have for a relative in Australia.

On Wednesday 26 January 2011 post your answers to these questions:

1. What is the document?
2. Do you remember the research process that lead you to it? How and where did you find it?
3. Tell us the story(ies) of the document. You may like to consider the nature of the document, the people mentioned, the place and the time. Be as long or short, broad or narrow in your story telling as you like!

Would anyone like to join me?

I know there are many Australian genealogy bloggers out there, there’s a large list (but no doubt not all) listed on the Unlock the Past website.

If you do join in, please email Shelly at Twigs of Yore with the URL of your blogpost and a short paragraph describing your post. She’ll compile a post that collates and links to all the submissions.

I look forward to sharing a little piece of my Australian heritage with you all, and hope others will do the same.