Mount Gambier woman Jean Winterfield has been united with her fourth cousins Annie Dean and Shelia Richards who travelled nearly 17,000km from Bristol, England.

All three women are formerly Medhursts and are related through their great-great grandfathers, brothers James and Mark Medhurst.

The journey started for Mrs Winterfield five years ago in 2015 while she was searching Google for a particular name.

“That lead me to the Surrey Historical Centre in England, and they had an article there and various people had replied,” she said.

“I thought there were other names there that rang a bell and I thought I recognised those in my (family) tree.

“I had a look see and saw they are all related to me so I contacted the Surrey Historical Centre and asked if they could put me in touch with them because they are relatives.

“So they did that and the next thing I got two emails from Annie and Shirley, and we have pretty much kept in touch since.

“They talked about coming to Australia and it was spoken about in the following year.”

Mrs Winterfield said their arrival was originally planned for 2020 but was unfortunately postponed due to COVID-19.

“They rebooked and thought they would come to Australia in 2021 but that did not happen either,” she said.

“Finally, this year in early November, it became a reality, so they came for a visit.

“They sort of knew they had relatives somewhere in Australia, but they really did not know where and they did not know how to sort of find out where until I happened along.

“It was a very fortuitous thing that I was clicking keys.”

Mrs Winterfield said social media had been a big help in discovering her heritage.

“Thanks to social media we have all popped up on Facebook, we can all talk to each other and see what we are all doing,” she said.

“With Ancestry you link up with other people, you see other people’s family trees on the internet and so you can contact them, and it fills in the gaps.

“It is like doing a big jigsaw puzzle.”

Mrs Dean and Mrs Richards arrived in Mount Gambier several weeks ago with their partners Tony and Jeff.

The group embarked on sightseeing led by Mrs Winterfield followed by lunch at the Mount Gambier Community RSL with about 25 cousins.

“That was really good, the getting to know everybody,” she said.

“I started a Facebook group which got a lot of people joining so it was easy enough to get the word out to them.

“On the Sunday we journeyed down to Glencoe where James and his wife Susan settled, most Medhursts are still there in that general area.

“Peter and Leslie Medhurst, they are fourth generation, they still live there, and he was kind enough to do a bit of a tag along tour and then visited the Glencoe Shearing Shed so that was really interesting for everybody.

“We also visited the Glencoe Hall because there is a lot of Medhurst family members and associate families mentioned on the honour roles that are on the wall in there.

“The weather was just perfect; you could not have wished for better.

“It was very worthwhile and it was so good to actually have these cousins come to visit.”

Mrs Winterfield said technology has drastically improved since she first started researching her family history in the 1980s.

“What started off probably back in the 1980s with me doing my husband’s family tree has now turned into a forest with all the branches,” she said.

“I think I have about six, maybe more family trees I work on, it does get confusing but it is interesting.

“Family histories paid dividends in finding relatives and now there are lots of lifelong friendships being made from being related.

“I have always been interested in where we come from and who is related to who and then with the invention of the internet and Ancestry, MyHeritage, other like programs and having DNA done tells you a lot more.

“It has just made it so much easier finding people and really putting the pieces of the jigsaw together.

“This is just an ongoing thing; it will never be finished.”

Mrs Winterfield said before the invention of the internet she would track down potential relatives through an electoral roll or phone book.

“You write a letter hoping it was the right person, and then you just put on stamp on it, posted it, wait for weeks and weeks, and then if you were lucky you got a reply, whereas now it is instant.”