People begin a family tree thinking it's all going to be sunshine, fairies and sugar pops.

One straight, easy to trace line from 'you' right down to Royalty.

In all my years of researching I have never seen it!

Believe it or not people, our grandparents and even great grandparents had affairs, committed crimes and were arrested just like everyone else's grandparents.

We'll begin this site with the list of bigamists from the Monaro area then extend to other crimes.

Chances are if you find a relative who committed bigamy they will also be noted in the 'other crimes' section as research has shown that most people who committed bigamy had or would be committed of other offences at some point.

The most common 'other crime' a male bigamist was charged with was wife and child desertion.

I guess it was hard enough supporting one family let alone trying to maintain and support two.

When people married the first time it was 99.9% of the time using their real name, same as when they committed and were caught for other crimes.

When committing bigamy it was generally under an alias.

Without finding the first marriage and the real name there isn't much hope of finding the correct ancestral line.

Women committed bigamy too.

They also gave birth to children under their husbands name while their husband was nowhere in sight.

The gaol and courts records help define who might be the 'real' father and can tell us who was 'NOT' the father.

These records are not to judge people for their actions but more to find the clues needed to continue their family lines. Some people doing their ancestry only know of one marriage and family so are missing one spouse and a handful of extra children that are biologically the same family line.

As most bigamists lied about their names, age and birth place, their ancestral line gets murky or comes to a complete stop. The police, court and gaol records generally provide the answers needed to find the correct true path and continue with the ancestral line.

This is an ongoing work in progress and will be added to daily.