March 5, 2015 By Ellen Bahr
By all outward appearances, Tasman Grant might look like any other 15-year-old boy: tall and thin with a wavy tousle of brown hair and blue-gray eyes. He is soft spoken and gives a shy smile. He carries a backpack and likes football, tennis, surfing, and playing the saxophone. But Tasman also has another hobby, one that is rather uncommon for a boy his age: he is passionate about family history. So passionate, in fact, that he saved up for and paid his own way to come to the RootsTech Conference held this February in Salt Lake City, Utah—all the way from Sydney, Australia. How much, you ask, is a round-trip ticket from Sydney to Salt Lake City? About $5,000.
Tasman first learned about RootsTech three months ago at the mention of a family friend. He had been doing family history for about four years and had become quite proficient in his research, yet living in Australia he had never heard of or knew that . . .
By all outward appearances, Tasman Grant might look like any other 15-year-old boy: tall and thin with a wavy tousle of brown hair and blue-gray eyes. He is soft spoken and gives a shy smile. He carries a backpack and likes football, tennis, surfing, and playing the saxophone. But Tasman also has another hobby, one that is rather uncommon for a boy his age: he is passionate about family history. So passionate, in fact, that he saved up for and paid his own way to come to the RootsTech Conference held this February in Salt Lake City, Utah—all the way from Sydney, Australia. How much, you ask, is a round-trip ticket from Sydney to Salt Lake City? About $5,000.
Tasman first learned about RootsTech three months ago at the mention of a family friend. He had been doing family history for about four years and had become quite proficient in his research, yet living in Australia he had never heard of or knew that . . .
such a comprehensive conference existed. He looked into the schedule, the classes, and the cost, and decided it would be worth his time–and his money. However, the tricky part was convincing his parents that spending $5000 to go to a genealogy conference in Utah would be worthwhile. His father was the hardest sell. Both mum and dad are completely supportive of his pastime, but supporting it is one thing; giving permission to travel halfway around the world for it is another thing entirely. He had to catch his dad in a really good mood (that happened while on a family trip to Hawaii), and then his Aunt Mardi, also an avid family history buff, agreed to chaperone him.
So how did Tasman do it? How did a 15-year-old boy save that much money? He had a paper route, and a few dollars stashed away in the bank, and he “busked.” That is, he took his saxophone with him, stood on street corners, and would play for hours hoping passersby might drop their change into his open sax case. He played in busy shopping centers and open squares in the suburbs of North Sydney where he thought the most people would hear him. He played weekends or weekdays after school, whenever he had the time. He must have been pretty good–he earned every penny of that $5000 airfare all by himself. Just a boy, his saxophone, and a dream—about doing family history.
So how did Tasman do it? How did a 15-year-old boy save that much money? He had a paper route, and a few dollars stashed away in the bank, and he “busked.” That is, he took his saxophone with him, stood on street corners, and would play for hours hoping passersby might drop their change into his open sax case. He played in busy shopping centers and open squares in the suburbs of North Sydney where he thought the most people would hear him. He played weekends or weekdays after school, whenever he had the time. He must have been pretty good–he earned every penny of that $5000 airfare all by himself. Just a boy, his saxophone, and a dream—about doing family history.
Tasman’s fire for family history was first sparked at age 11, when his Aunt Mardi came to him and suggested he help her find out more about a great-grandmother she was having trouble researching. Very little was known about her other than where she was from, New South Wales in Australia. Tasman took on the challenge and was soon immersed in it, and wound up turning his research into a school project on family history. He collected birth and death certificates, created templates, laminated it all, and traced back four generations of his family line in the process. His research project earned him top honors. In fact, his teacher was so impressed that he used Tasman’s project as the gold standard for the other students to emulate. This was all because his aunt asked him to help find somebody on the family tree. After that, Tasman was hooked.
Now he continues to research his family’s history and has traced one of his grandmothers’ lines all the way back to William the Conqueror, King of England in the 11th century. His family line dates back eight or nine generations in Australia, to the era when the country was a penal colony for English criminals. The first ancestor in Tasman’s family to come to Australia was, in fact, sent there for hard labor after stealing sheep in Yorkshire, England in 1803. Tasman has uncovered this fact and so many more in his family history research that he says it’s hard to quit. “It’s quite a demanding pastime, and takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s really rewarding. I’ve always been interested in history, and genealogy is really just a branch of that.”
Besides doing his own family’s research, Tasman has also picked up some clients along the way, mostly family friends, whose genealogy he will gladly research for the meager fee of $1 a year. (But don’t let that tempting price induce you to hire him—he’s quite booked at the moment.) As for his advice to other young people interested in pursuing genealogy, Tasman says to start by interviewing older relatives, like grandparents. “Take the time to interview them about their lives when they were young,” he encourages. This starts a conversation that can lead to fascinating family histories: you never know what sort of facts you’ll uncover. It also bonds the young and the old, which can have a huge impact in their adolescent lives. Studies have shown that children who are aware of their family’s heritage and where they come from are better equipped to deal with conflict and challenges. And in addition to all of these reasons, family history is a lot of fun. Just take it from Tasman, the 15-year-old genealogist.
Now he continues to research his family’s history and has traced one of his grandmothers’ lines all the way back to William the Conqueror, King of England in the 11th century. His family line dates back eight or nine generations in Australia, to the era when the country was a penal colony for English criminals. The first ancestor in Tasman’s family to come to Australia was, in fact, sent there for hard labor after stealing sheep in Yorkshire, England in 1803. Tasman has uncovered this fact and so many more in his family history research that he says it’s hard to quit. “It’s quite a demanding pastime, and takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s really rewarding. I’ve always been interested in history, and genealogy is really just a branch of that.”
Besides doing his own family’s research, Tasman has also picked up some clients along the way, mostly family friends, whose genealogy he will gladly research for the meager fee of $1 a year. (But don’t let that tempting price induce you to hire him—he’s quite booked at the moment.) As for his advice to other young people interested in pursuing genealogy, Tasman says to start by interviewing older relatives, like grandparents. “Take the time to interview them about their lives when they were young,” he encourages. This starts a conversation that can lead to fascinating family histories: you never know what sort of facts you’ll uncover. It also bonds the young and the old, which can have a huge impact in their adolescent lives. Studies have shown that children who are aware of their family’s heritage and where they come from are better equipped to deal with conflict and challenges. And in addition to all of these reasons, family history is a lot of fun. Just take it from Tasman, the 15-year-old genealogist.