Female genealoogical researcher searching through card catalogue in wooden drawers.

Kathryn Le Gay Brereton

Genealogical Researcher

I am a genealogical researcher and family historian. I also have more than twenty years experience in records management, researching and archives work.

I am a descendant of Polish Jewish ancestors and I understand the 'need to know' that drives people to search for evidence of their lost ancestors or disrupted families. I have worked with the descendants of concentration camp survivors and understand the delicacy of uncovering family secrets and barriers to getting information from family members who have kept secrets or those who have suffered from the impacts of intergenerational trauma.

I have worked with clients in Australia seeking redress following childhood abuse in institutions and with adults disrupted from their families as children through forced adoption, forced child migration, institutionalisation, and placement into childhood institutions such as foster care, missions, cottage homes and boarding schools.

My own search for ancestors started with a fragment of an original Polish birth certificate from 1888. This became a twenty year search to find physical evidence of my great, great grandmother’s gravestone in Poland and led to understanding about what had most likely happened to her children in the years just prior to the Holocaust.

My obsession with genealogy has only increased over the years and I love to help others find their family and to break down their research brick walls. Not finding the answer you were seeking does not always mean the end of the story.

Qualifications:

  • Certificate in Genealogical Research - Society of Australian Genealogists

  • Diploma Family History, University of Tasmania (Recipient of 2022 Society of Australian Genealogists Scholarship)

  • Bachelor of Applied Science (Health Information Management)

  • Statement in Accidental Counselling

  • Graduate Certificate in Business Administration

  • Experience in records searching and family history tracing for clients placed into childhood institutions or removed from family, including care leavers, former child migrants and the Stolen Generation.

  • Experience in trauma-informed practice principles.

  • Mentor on Jewish Genealogy Portal

  • JewishGen Family Finder listee & contributer to JewishGen Donation Portal

  • Current subscriptions/credits with Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com, Fold3.com, Findmypast.co.uk, FamilySearch.org, ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, the British Newspaper Archive and Newspapers.com

  • Active user with the National Library of Australia & Trove, State Library of NSW, National Archives of Australia, NSW State Archives, The Arolsen Archives, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, ScotlandsPeople

  • Experience in finding, analysis and transcription of records from Australia, England, Ireland, America, and Eastern Europe, including census records, electoral rolls, naturalisation and immigration documents, military records, birth, marriage, divorce, and death records

  • Experience in interpretation of DNA ancestry results

Memberships:

  • Society of Australian Genealogists

  • Association of Professional Genealogists

  • Genealogy SA

  • Sydney Jewish Museum

  • Israel Genealogy Research Association