MATTAPOISETT – Some Old Rochester Regional High School students are finding their roots. 

Students in a genealogy elective presented their final projects – research into their families’ backgrounds that was then compiled in digital books – to family members at an event in the school library Wednesday, Jan. 17.

The celebratory gathering was the culmination of a semester spent researching genealogies, records and family histories.

Senior Traeh Carrington, for example, discovered that the grandparents of his adoptive mother, Patricia Carrington, came to the United States on the same boat from the Azores prior to knowing each other. They also worked in the same mill in New Bedford.

“It’s amazing how much you can find,” Patricia Carrington said. “It really is.”

The elective class was taught by Kathleen Brunelle, who circulated through the library as students presented the information they found to family.

“I want them to be able to share this with their families,” Brunelle said. “It's just a lot of work, and so I want their families to be able to take part in it.”

Senior Kelly Quinlan explored her mother Maureen Quinlan’s side of the family. She reached her great-great-great-great grandparents through the research.

“I learned that we’re from Ireland and a lot of other different facts, but it was really cool learning about my heritage,” Quinlan said. 

Maureen Quinlan said she was surprised by the detail of her daughter’s research and the records she was able to get. 

“I guess I was a little surprised that you’re able to find that, but she did a great job combining the history with a little bit of information about our family,” she said.

Brunelle has a background in genealogy. Her master’s thesis at UMass Dartmouth covered using genealogy in the English classroom. And through the New England Historical Society, she also worked with other teachers to create a national genealogy school curriculum.

Originally from Cape Cod, Brunelle became “hooked” on genealogy while researching the parents of her grandmother, who was from New Bedford. Her grandmother’s parents had died young, and Brunelle wanted to learn more.

But Brunelle was “the only person under 75” in the room when she first went to the library to look into her family’s history, she said.

“It wasn't a big thing at the time,” Brunelle said. “Now it kind of is, I think, so it's really cool to see a lot of young people interested in it.”

During the class celebration event, freshman Reis DeMello presented to her parents Raegan and Scott DeMello and maternal grandmother Lyne Santos. DeMello researched her mother’s French Canadian side of the family, going all the way back to the 17th century.

“It was hard,” DeMello said. “We had to get records and research. We had to make phone calls. It was four months of work.”

While reading through DeMello’s genealogy book, Santos cried.