Contact Details
Two years ago I went in search of some of my ancestors. In the process I came across an association that came out of the work done by the late Donald Whiteside of Ontario, Canada; The Whiteside Family Association. At the time I was of the opinion that the group of dedicated people who had picked up the mantle of Don Whiteside, were essentially focussed on their own region. The upshot of this was that being a member of the relatively obscure down-under family, I felt that we could also contribute and to foster the continuation of the work started by Don all those years ago.
To that end I set out to build a website where the families down-under could contribute to the Whiteside's of Oceania. After considerable trial and error the site was established. I then contacted at considerable cost to myself many families of Whiteside's in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. In the interim I discovered two distant cousins who helped with the website, Bruce Allan Whiteside. in New Zealand and Kerry Patterson, in Melbourne. I thank them for their efforts.
Having contacted many families on three separate occasions, I came to the conclusion that they simply did not want to know. It would have been a courtesy had they replied but they did not. However in following up some of the New Zealand family histories I actually rang a couple of families and one or two responded; their help is found in the files.
I am not a fervent adherent of genealogy, but the lack of interest in our site came from this region. It was my intention to remove the whole box and dice, however the Whiteside Family Association, through one of their own ask that it be left in place.
Had the response been there this would have remained a 'live' site, with contributions being recorded and investigated further. It will continue to be monitored by myself and if any family wishes to contribute they can contact me personally by phone: (07) 5535 6252. However I do not intend to go begging for participation when this facility is free for the family of Whiteside's to take a pride in.
Bruce Whiteside
Miami, AUSTRALIA