Annette Delaney is a volunteer with the Bendigo Family History group that meets on Wednesday and Saturdays, 10am to 2pm, at the library and she said delving into your past can be quite exciting.

So exciting in fact that one of Ms Delaney's ancestors convict Ludlow Tedder, who has many other local descendants, has not only featured in the book The Tin Ticket by Deborah J. Swiss, but will star in the upcoming television series the book has inspired.

Ludlow Tedder was a widow with five children when she was transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1839. She had stolen spoons from her workplace, presumably to pawn them to feed her family. Her youngest child Arabella, then nine years old, was transported with her but was put into an orphanage on her arrival in Australia before the pair were eventually reunited.

"You think, I'm going to do my family tree and it's going to be done and dusted," Ms Delaney said.

"And it never is because you just always find out something different and something new.

"We've actually been able to go back to Devon and Yorkshire and to Kilkenny and County Clare, all different places where we have had ancestors."

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The team run sessions at the Bendigo Library for people who are similarly interested in tracing their past, with the dedicated group continuing an incredible 40-year history itself.

"They don't know where to start to find resources and all the rest of it so we help them with that," Ms Delaney said.

"People have actually done family trees and they'll tell you they've done it right back to 1500 and whatever and I just kind of listen when I hear that because you know quite well, that some of it's probably not correct.

"Because there were things that have happened in the past and they might be different dads or different mums, and they might have been brought up by grandparents and so people really don't know - they need to verify by doing DNA.

"What they say is DNA doesn't lie, but people do."

The upcoming DNA session will give people a chance to get an introduction to the groundbreaking tool that is within all of us, with a team of history sleuths also meeting frequently at the library to help people unearth their results.

"The group meets on a monthly basis and [we're] trying to teach people how to track their matches down and use that information they get back," Ms Delaney said.

"So we get 50 per cent of DNA from our mother and 50 per cent from our father - and that's random.

"So you might have got more of the Irish side or more of the Scottish side when it comes out.

"If you've got siblings, it's important that all the siblings test as well because they'll all have different matches."

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Ms Delaney said for many people this process can also uncover family secrets or skeletons.

"That's one of the things that people have to be aware of that you never know what you're going to find out," she said.

"My husband found out that he had a half sister that he didn't know about and she was actually born before his mum and dad were married."

Once people have had their DNA tested, the library also offers an impressive array of resources for people to back up their newly acquired knowledge with access to programs such as Ancestry.com, and Find My Past that can be accessed through a library membership.

There are old newspapers and old maps of Bendigo as well as the Bendigo Regional Archives Centre who have plenty of original documents and records.

Those who are keen to learn more about their past and family can register their interest in the upcoming DNA session on August 25, 5.30-6.30pm, through the library on 5449 2700, or can attend one of the Bendigo Family History group's Wednesday and Saturday catch-up sessions.

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