Who do I think I am.....well up until recently I was just plain Souheil Khoury. But now I know I am Souheil Sami Najib Boulos Geryas Boulos Rizk Khoury.

I grew up in Australia not really knowing my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Was it hard.....you bet it was. At school people talked about their weekends at Nan and Pops or that they had sleep overs at their cousins. Was I jealous you bet I was because I didn't know my extended family, but soon enough you become a little numb to it and it doesn't affect you anymore. But having said that I did grow up in a loving family environment.

I had to wait till 1982 when I visited Lebanon with my Mum and sister for my Aunts wedding before I got to meet any of the extended family. It was an experience I will treasure forever; I reckon if it wasn't for the fact the country was a war zone I wouldn't have come back.

Through my teens I never really longed to know my family history even though I would sit with the olds when they visited listening to my father and the others gathered talk of the old days in the village and all the characters they had encountered. Some stories I remembered when I started my journey and others I completely forgot about.

I have always wanted to know about my family history but like a lot of people you don't want to trouble your parents with silly questions and my grandparents had since long passed. Eventually around seven years ago I thought I would have a red hot go at compiling my family tree. I think I was naive enough to think I can knock this over in no time at all....how wrong I was, 2600 names and I'm only just scratching the surface.