Six generations unite











Members of the Russ Family from all corners of Australia came together in Cairns to trace their bloodlines.



When Edward Russ came out to Australia from England in 1889 he would never have never dreamed that his descendents would congregate in such large numbers to celebrate and rejoice in their family name. That's what the Russ, Lavis, Reed, McLaughlin and Kerr families did on April 7.
More than 160 of them from all over the nation, came to Cairns, tracing their bloodlines and to be enveloped in a sea of love and laughter.


Organised so perfectly with 80 family tree books of each of the original members of the Russ family, hand made with a photograph of the family member colour-coded so the descendents name tags matched, so everyone knew where they were coming from! Cousins discovered relatives they never knew they had.
What began for Cathy Marino as a way of "bringing all my rellies together and passing on to them the history I have found out about our grandparents, aunts and uncles " came to fruition at The RSL on the Cairns Esplanade. She also wanted them to know about the research going on at Concord Hospital on Motor Neurone Disease.


Carolyn Cecere was a special guest at the Russ reunion. The families flew her up from Sydney to be part of this joyous, exceptionally emotional coming together of so many clans and generations.
Carolyn is a research assistant at the Molecular Medicine Laboratory in Concord Hospital where Professor Garth Nicholson and his research team are trying to locate genes causing Motor Neurone Disease. They are studying how known gene mutations cause the disease. There is no known cause for the majority of motor neurone disease cases which are isolated or sporadic. Alternatively 10 per cent to 15 per cent of families with MND has more than one affected person," Carolyn said.


Carolyn explained that participation in the project would benefit future generations rather than provide any immediate benefit to any family member currently affected.
She said participation is voluntary and involves donation of blood sample to be stored indefinitely and included in current and future DNA research into MND.
http://www.cairnsnewspapers.com.au:8...il.asp?aid=552