Fast BooksPreviews - Family History
The Flying Cosgroves

Author: Jenny Rudd O'Neill
ISBN: 0 646 27751 0
Publisher: Jenny Rudd O'Neill
Address: 4 Battle Blvd, Seaforth, NSW, 2092

The story of a family - actors, silent film producers, horse trainers, auctioneers, publicans and miners - "The Flying Cosgroves" is a family history that tells some of the story of the development of Australia from Shellharbour and nearby Moss Vale, Sutton Forest and Joadja, to Echuca, Broken Hill, Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie.


The first Thomas Cosgrove fought in the British Army before settling in Wollongong. His son married the daughter of James Condon, a convict transported under the British Insurrection Acts.

Their grandsons became well known actor-managers in the nineteenth centurey, travelling vast distances taking everything from Shakespeare to Victorian melodrama all over the country.

Energetic people living energetic lives they left their mark on the development of the Australian racing, theatre, film and mining industries.

John Cosgrove was to act and produce some of Australia's earliest silent films including "Sunshine Sally" and "Silks and Saddles". His life was as much a melodrama as the ones in which he starred. Living his life to extremes, he was at times wealthy, destitute, a star and down-and-out. His contant borrowings earned him the nickname "The Great Australian Bite" but his borrowings were matched by his generosity.

Unpredictable as an actor, embarrassing as a friend, he was to prove impossible as a husband. Like many actors before and since, while his career thrived his personal life disintegrated. On leaving him his second wife, Mildred, was to say, "I love John dearly but I just can't live with him."

Tragedy was never far away. His first daughter died when a few days old. His beautiful daughter from his first marriage, Noel, played Little Willie in his production of "East Lynne" dying of tuberculosis without his mother. In just a few years, Noel was to lose her own mother and then, at the age of nineteen she died of TB, cutting short a promising future as an actress.

Cosgrove's son, Bill, was to inherit his carefree, devil-may-care slant on life, character traits that were to prove invaluable for a boy whose mother died during the depression when he was 14 and his brother 17. An all-round sportsman and a fine baritone he became a skilled pilot. As an actor he was expected to outshine his father, but his mother had other ideas and had her mind set on the law. But she was to die and fate intervened in the shape of World War II. Surviving five weeks at sea in a lifeboat escape from Singapore to Java ahead of the advancing Japanese forces, he was nonetheless not to see the war out. Tragically he was killed when his Beaufighter crashed into the sea in 1943. It was Flight Lt. Chips Rafferty who discovered the wrecked plane.

The author's background as an English and History teacher and as a librarian are evident in this well researched history. With an easy writing style, it is an engaging insight into many aspects of Australia's past. Not often does one family offer a glimpse into the development of so many varied industries. Not often does one family offer so many larger than life characters whose stories can so dramatically and sometimes melodramatically enlighten our understanding of Australia's social and industrial history.

From the refined social life of the well-to-do of Randwick to the mines of Joadja, Hill End, Broken Hill and Coolgardie, this family made its mark across the continent.

A veritable treasure trove for family members, "The Flying Cosgroves" will be of interest to anyone fascinated by social history and in particular by the history of theatre and film in Australia.

Always

Author: Deb Michels
ISBN: 0 646 28448 7
Publisher: Deb Michels
Address: 5 Ramsay Street, Haberfield, NSW, 2045

The recollections of the family of Theodore Joseph Michels and Nany Cecilia Quinn Michels was published to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. The title of these memoirs is taken from the song and the lyrics, for them, describe their relationship and their love for all their family - and goodness knows it's big enough now!


It's very much a story of ordinary people doing ordinary things and living ordinary lives in America. There was never much money, there were certainly more than enough kids - twelve in all - and there was a surfeit of love and affection and fun - and their own dose of tragedy.

For anyone related to the Michels and there must be many, this is fascinating reading and a wonderful way to discover more about part of your family.

What distinguishes "Always" from so many other memoirs written to celebrate and record a relationship and a family for the benefit of those involved, those too young to know some of its members and for those yet to come, is the writing style.

TJ Michels I am sure would not describe himself as a writer, and yet he has achieved a work that is delightfully easy to read. Its success lies in that the author chose not to do what he possibly could not do - write his story. Instead he chose to tell it. The book has been transcribed from audio tapes. As a result, reading it brings back those memories of when you might have asked a grandfather to tell you yet again about the time when . . .

This reader has never met the author and yet I feel I have talked with him often. It is an approach that other non-writers who wish to record their story might do well to consider. It is, effectively, published oral history.

It is the story of the ordinary things that go to make up life: the funny, the silly, the bickering and squabbling, the misadventures, the learning, the making do, the love, the warmth and the tragedy.

Eddie and Bobby swept in their boat to the middle of the lake and Mom, on shore, waved and read on - their rescuers came only to deliver an order to come in for lunch. The girls' Easter dresses made out of table cloth material, discovering magic horses can't fly but can get legs decorated with plaster, travelling thousands of miles with Mom, Pop and 12 kids piled in the station wagon and the generous good looking and much loved eldest Tommy dying from cancer not long after everyone celebrated his return from Vietnam, his marriage and his first-born child.

But for all the Michels who might be reading: spaghetti with tuna is not so bad - the Greta Anna cookbook has a great recipe for pasta salad . . . with tuna . . . but the black olives, walnuts, capsicum and dressing no doubt help considerably. Maybe Mom was just ahead of her time. Her recipe for Deborah Ruth's birthday cake was certainly an example of thinking on your feet. Then again, the corned beef hash and chilli are probably best consigned to memoirs and not recreated for any more relatives. Greg remembers chilli thus:
1 can chilli powder
1 can black pepper
1 can red pepper
1 lb jalapeno peppers
3 lbs diced onions
6 large cans red chilli beans

Place chilli beans in a large Dutch oven. Forget other ingredients. Cook until beans have the consistency of tar.

I'll leave it to the family to rediscover the ingredients of Mom's Chow Mien and whether it really was chicken. As Pop said, "Hey, nobody died."

New Worlds Beckoned

Author: Richard W Hinde
ISBN: 0 646 27314 0
Publisher: Richard W Hinde
Address: 98 Dartford Road, Thornleigh, NSW, 2120

The history of the Broome, Humphrey and Skinner families this work tells of the everyday history of how Australia was settled in the 19th and 20th centuries.


Of course the work will be of greatest interest to the family members and this family history, unlike many many others, has a comprehensive index running fifteen pages.

"New Worlds Beckoned" sets out clear and easily followed family lineages which will be of immense interest to family but less so to other readers. What will be of interest to others is the way in which the author stands aside as author to become the editor of numerous contributions from other family members. Some are short biographies of relatives no longer living, others are personal memoirs.

This approach offers a freshness and a personal quality to the work - as though the reader is meeting the different family members individually rather than hearing all their stories recounted in one voice and from one perspective. For instance, the story of Frances Charlotte Petterson who was born in Bullarook near Ballarat in 1865, is lovingly recounted by her granddaughter. It tells not only of her grandmother's life but of her own and that of her husband and children. (And also includes an excellent recipe for damper or soda bread!)

Some stories are quiet ones of struggle in farming areas without electricity, running water, access to medical attention.

Others are tragedies, like that of Alwyn "Boy" Broome, who, after serving in the Syrian campaign in the Middle East, arrived in Singapore in time for the capitulation to the Japanese. Surviving the horrors and brutality of the Thai-Burma Railway, he was shipped first to Formosa and then to Japan on the Tamahoka Maru. The ship was torpedoed by the Us Submarine Tang and Army records note his death as "drowned as a result of torpedoing". His story is retold by a surviving relative and ends with a plea: "If we can shape the future in the light of a knowledge of the past, then Boy and the 8,000 of his fellow will not have suffered and died in vain."

Others stories might well be told differently if they were to occur today. Spending your honeymoon with with your husband and his cousin and her husband, three year old and small baby and your husband's sister is not everyone's idea of fun. Add to it travelling with two drays laden with everything you need to set up a new home through rain and floods and the honeymoon becomes much less attractive.

Forced to camp in a barn for several days until flood waters receded at a river crossing, waiting was not the answer at the next bridge. It had been washed several miles down river. Felling trees and constructing a makeshift crossing, and walking the horses across was the only way. Other bridges needed repairing. Three weeks to travel 180 miles. To call this a honeymoon and recount it with affection and no bitterness required resilience, adaptability, optimism and an unshakeable sense of humour.

And thus the author/editor creates a patchwork quilt of the lives of his relatives, all the ordinary little pieces making up an extraordinary whole. Another valuable contribution to the writing of colonial Australia's social history.

The Johnsons of Castle Hill

Authors: Edith Calvert & Lois Calvert
ISBN: 0 646 27348 5
Publisher: Lois Calvert
Address: 20 Salmond Street, Chifley, ACT, 2606

This story of a pioneering Tasmanian family is a saga of adaptation and survival that spans two hundred years with a liberal sprinkling of successes, disasters, tragedy, much humanity and more than a little scandal. The fact that so much of the history can be told in the first person through letters written from one family member to another gives this family history a compelling freshness. This work is more than family history, it is a contribution to the colonial history of Tasmania.

There is a second reason for the freshness of this particular history. Unusually, it has been compiled by three generations of the Johnson family.

"The Tasmanian history of our family commences with the arrival in Van Diemen's Land of Joseph Johnson . . ." and so begins Edith Calvert's account of he convict ancestor, one of the first settlers in Hobart Town.

In 1962, the "Journals of the Land Commissioners for Van Diemen's Land 1826-1828" were published for the first time, suggesting to many Tasmanian families the skeleton in the closet of a convict ancestor. Edith Calvert was so intrigued by what she read that she continued her reading in the Tasmanian State Archives. As she worked, facts which had never been mentioned, or had been grossly distorted, emerged, family mysteries clarified.

In time, Edith Calvert's extensive knowledge became a valuable resource to others working in colonial history.

Lamenting her own lack of formal education, Edith preferred the role of raconteur. However, at the age of 77 she enrolled in a course of writing family history at the Australian University's Centre for Continuing Education. Encouraged, she consolidated her years of notes and embarked on the writing of a continuous narrative.

Collated and edited together with family trees and photographs, Edith's granddaughter, Lynn Marie Pittard, printed the first section of what is now this book for Edith's last Christmas in 1991.

Edith's daughter, Lois Calvert, has since completed the work originally started by her mother. Exhaustive research supported by extant letters make this family history an important contribution to the writing of social and colonial history.

Tried and sentenced for horse stealing in 1802, Joseph Johnson's death sentence was commuted to transportation for life. In 1804 he arrived in the expedition that founded Hobart.

By 1826, he had established himself so successfully he was able to send for his nephews to share in his prosperity. Unfortunately a disastrous second marriage resulted in a family rift the repercussions of which were felt for generations.

For me the centre of the book is the story of Fred and Minnie Johnson and their children of whom Edith, the last generation of Johnsons to live at Castle Hill. Fred and Minnie's was a true love story - in love at the time they married they remained that way throughout their lives, Fred the centre of Minnie's life and Minnie the centre of Fred's.

Unfortunately, this was somewhat to the exclusion of their children. Indeed, having had first a son and then a daughter, the third child, Edith, was not particularly welcome. Minnie travelled to Hobart for the birth of her fourth child, Linda. But the trip was equally motivated by trying to persuade some of the aunts to adopt her, unsuccessfully as it transpired. Having sought medical advice that she would be able to have no further children, the arrival of the fifth, another daughter, did not bring the disquiet that had been prompted by Linda's birth.

One of the saddest moments in the story is the death of the eldest daughter, Loie. The aunt after whom she had been lovingly named died at twenty three. Loie was thirty. She had been the backbone of the family providing the love attention and care that their mother often neglected to provide. The unresolved grief at her death echoes through the years.

Basil was also to die relatively young in his thirties, the result of illness caused by war injuries. The other sisters were all to live till their nineties, lives that can be relived in this work, telling of a century of dramatic change.

The career options for women outside of the war years were constrained by lack of education and social expectations. Whilst making irreplaceable contributions to their families and the societies in which they lived, their contribution could have been even greater had they been allowed the opportunities now available to their grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.

For those interested in learning how to write family history this is an example well worth reading. Those in the Johnson family owe a debt of gratitude to three of the Johnson women for bringing to them their history. For those interested in colonial and social history "The Johnsons of Castle Hill" is informative and thoroughly enjoyable.

Terrills of Rutherglen

Author: Margaret Terrill Chalmers
ISBN: 0 646 27514 3
Publisher: Margaret Chalmers
Address: C/- PO Staghorn Flat, Vic, 3691

The history of five generation of the Terrill family of Rutherglen, Victoria, this family account as with many others, sees the achievements of current generations eclipsed by the tenacity and courage of their immigrant forebears.


Maybe it is the passage of time that makes the recounting of "unremarkable" lives lived over a hundred years ago remarkable. But maybe not. It is difficult to see how the story of Elizabeth Ann Browne who married John Terrill in 1861 could have ever been viewed as anything but remarkable.

Arriving from Ireland alone at the age of twenty in 1860 in search of a husband and relief from poverty, she married the following year. During the 15 years of their marriage, she was to follow her husband around the goldfields, raising their children and tragically burying two. At the time of his death in a mining accident, she was pregnant, raising two of her nephews and five of her own children, the eldest only twelve.

That she struggled to buy the land her husband had leased and raise her children was a feat that many men with the support of their wives could not achieve. Her humbly written understated letters writtento various authorities tell much of her struggle. A delay in forwarding documents to settle probate was accompanied by the words: "I would have sent them before but we had a heavy flood. It swept the bridge away and we could not get to the Post Office. It destroyed nearly all our crop."

The story of her son, Albert, is almost as remarkable. With the death of his father when he was eight, his schooling came to an abrupt end. His is the story of a man of genius in his ability to value land and stock, to read the times, a man willing to take a risk and to hold on to what he had achieved. By the time of his death, he was one of the largest landowners in the district.

But theirs are not the only stories of interest in this history. It is a history lovingly researched and written with a simplicity that allows the characters to emerge strongly. The story of a pioneering family remarkable for their courage in adversity, their tenacity and determination.

From Places Now Forgotten

Author: Marie Jones
ISBN: 0 646 24765 4
Publisher: Marie Jones
Address: 48 Lowny Street, Cardiff, NSW, 2285

An index of those convicts transported to Australia whose places of trial were outside the United Kingdom and Ireland, it provides an alphabetical listing of the convicts' names, giving place and date of conviction, length of sentence and ship of transportation.


In January 1788 the first fleet arrived at Port Jackson and established the penal colony. The last convicts arrived at the Swan River in Western Australia in 1868. During those eighty years, just over 160,000 male and female prisoners were landed. The vast majority were from the British Isles but as this index demonstrates at least 3,200 arrived from elsewhere.

The index is compiled in two parts: Part A covers 1791-1828, Part B 1829-1853. Part A begins with the four Savoy deserters sent with the NSW Corps in 1791 and ends with the year of the 1828 Census. As "The Dictionary of Western Australias. Volume 2 Bond" lists some 400 persons sent to Western Australia whose place of trial was outside the UK during the period 1850-1868, the author has not included those names in this index. Thus this index concludes in 1853 although transportation continued to Western Australia for a further 15 years.

During the 37 years covered by Part A some 500 names were compiled. The 24 year period covered in Part B records some 2,700 convicts. Thus the author assumes that extant records for Part A are still incomplete.

The places of trial demonstrate just how far flung was the British Empire of the 19th century with people tried in, amongst other places, Jamaica, Sierra Leone, Gibraltar, the Cape of Good Hope, Canada, Cawnpore, the Punjab, Falkland Island and New Zealand.

A valuable contribution to the history of Australia's colonial past, it is meticulously researched.

The author has worked in genealogy for many years and assisted in the Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record (ABGR) project for the Bi-Centenary.


Mamre - Place of Promise

Author: Laura Murray Cree
ISBN: 0 646 26946 1
Publisher: Mamre Plains Limited
Address: PO Box 1050, St Marys, NSW< 2760

Mamre, the Reverend Samuel Marsden's favourite farm, has always been a place for dreamers and pioneers, from Aboriginal Dreaming, to dreams of a nation riding on the sheep's back to dreams of a new deal for the unemployed. This one place holds a mirror to Australia's past and offers hope for its future.


When the Sisters of Mercy embraced the vision of Sister Mary-Louise Petro to negotiate a lease for the historic property of Mamre, homestead of the Reverend Samuel Marsden, to use it as the location for training programs for the unemployed, they were conscious of its historical significance. And the irony that it would be a Catholic congregation that would take responsibility for the property that had been developed by Marsden, who had little affection for Catholocism, did not escape them.

This publication is a celebration of ten years of challenge and struggle as the Sisters of Mercy restored Mamre to its former glory and estabished a vibrant enterprise that reaches out and embraces the surrounding community.

An approach to the training of the unemployed that stresses the worth of the individual, the importance of self-esteem and the development of skills and self-confidence has resulted in hundreds and hundreds of people finding a new future.

In writing of this achievement, the author has explored not only the recent past but the entire history of the property starting with the Gomerrigal-Tongarra people who lived in open camp sites along the South Creek which was to become in Marsden's time one of the boundaries of the property of Mamre.

Marsden, a clergyman, arrived in the Colony in 1794 with his 21 year old wife and their first child, born in heavy storms nine days out from Port Jackson. By 1804 Governor King was to describe Marsden in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks as "the best practical farmer in the Colony". By the time of his death in 1838, his work in the Colony was to bear fruit that would leave an enduring legacy.

It was his work in developing the flock that will be longest remembered. His initial efforts were directed at producing a dual purpose mutton-wool sheep. Cross breeding quickly resulted in sheep that were wool rather than hair producing and Marsden, like John Macarthur, became convinced of the prospects of fine wool for the Colony. His pioneering work in cross breeding merinos continues to this day with the CSIRO exploring low mortality multiple litter merino cross breeds still following the blood line of Marsden's flock.

It was from Mamre that the colony's first commercial export of wool to England occurred in 1811.

The author makes clear that what set Marsden apart from other farmers of the time was his brilliance as a manager. That talent was not inherited by his son. The properties estabished by his father were to be whittled away by his son, Charles, who died a bankrupt.

The property has been silent witness to the cries of convicts and those born to freedom. It has been filled with laughter and material wealth, and stripped to become a shelter for cattle.

Drawing from many original sources, the history of the property is a fascinating one, the more so as it has had such an effect on the history of colonial New South Wales.

Now restored in keeping with its Georgian past, Mamre Homestead stands among rose and herb gardens in the midst of eighty hectares of undulating farmland. It offers light meals and facilities for special functions and most importantly is the heart of an innovative job cretaion and training program for the disadvantaged that extends into the business centre of nearby St Marys.

Mamre is again a place of promise of which all Australians can be proud. Today it continues to be a dynamic pioneering venture, where the land is treasured as a gift and people are seen to the nation's most precious resource.

The Reids of Willoughby

Author: June R Maitland
ISBN: 0 646 24861 8
Publisher: June Maitland
Address: 22/43 Oxford Street, Epping, NSW, 2121

The history of James Reid and Mary Barker from County Derry, Ireland and their descendants, some of whom are scattered around the world but many of whom contributed to the development of the lower North Shore Sydney suburb of Willoughby.


The result of ten years' research, "The Reids of Willoughby" has been published as a celebration of the 155th anniversary of the arrival in New South Wales of James Reid and Mary Barker on 3 October 1840.

Giving birth to their first child on board ship near the Cape of Good Hope, Mary arrived in Sydney in good health as did James and their newborn daughter Sarah. Migrating under the bounty system, the main form of assisted immigration between 1836 and 1845, were to settle at Northwood, then part of what was known as Lane Cove. At the time Lane Cove covered an area from Greenwich, Northwood and Longueville to Gordon in what is now the upper North Shore.

For those with an interest in this area of Sydney, "The Reids of Willoughby" throws an interesting light on the development of the lower and upper North Shore, from a time of farms and water transport to densely populated suburbs.

This family history covers some family members who settled in the Castlereagh area, but it concentrates on Willoughby. In this aspect it is an unusual family history as not many, when tracing a family over a 155 year period, can retain such a geographically tight focus.

As the family continued to grow, and more members settled in the area around Willoughby, the impact they made on the development of that suburb with various members contributing to the local community in a variety of ways - from service on the volunteer fire brigade, to serving on the Council to fighting and lobbying for and then working on the building of roads and bridges and the provision of social services. In many small ways the efforts of individuals incrementally tallied saw the transformation of the bush to farming and orchard lands to the suburbs of today.

For those connected to the Reid family, the interest in this history will be obvious. For those with no personal interest in the lives of those covered, interest will most likely be ignited by the fascination provided by its tight geographical focus and the way in which it tells the story over 155 years of the development of a suburb.

Gwen Saves Russia . . . And Raises Four Kids

Author: Bob Breen
ISBN: 0 646 27107 5
Publisher: Mavor Pty Limited
Address: PO Box 35, St Pauls, NSW, 2031


A story of schizophrenia and solo parenthood, this book is not a story of female victimhood, rather it is the story of how one woman turned a battle with mental illness, guilt and shame into a life of compassion and service to others.


In the 1960s Gwen Breen's husband left Gwen and their four children under the age of six to fend for themselves. Facing a workplace where sexual discrimination and sexual harrassment went unchallenged, Gwen, like many other women, punished herself with guilt and shame for what had been done to her.

The traumas of desertion, discrimination and harrassment awakened a genetic sleeping dog called schizophrenia.

Gwen feels she has never fully recovered from being sexually abused as a seven year old, from being deserted by her husband when he fathered a child with a teenage girl, nor from the anguish caused by the priest from whom she sought counsel, the solicitor who sexually harrassed her, the real estate agent whose negligence led to her financial ruin and the boss who emotionally abused her.

Yet despite all this, she has led a life devoted to the service of her family, sustained largely by her commitment to her Catholic faith. Inspired by her own experience, she has been able to devote herself to the support of others, to other deserted mothers, to the Church, the Boy Scout movement and a number of charitable institutions.

Her children suffered, survived and thrived. Through their mother's love and compassion, they were able to find the courage to beat the odds growing up without a fatuerh and with a mother burdened with mental illness.

It is a tribute to Gwen that all her four children are married and settled in their own homes, all have careers and have accumulated between three graduate and two post graduate degrees and have produced another generation of ten children.

In addition to her work in establishing and supporting organisations that assist single mothers, Gwen shares what she has learned the hard way with other fighting to manage schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

Gwen Breen's story is both fascinating and deeply moving. It is a story of courage and hope. On her journey towards mental wellness, Gwen has learned and shared what she has learned.

"I learned that thoughts come before feelings, you can control your thoughts, therefore you can control your feelings. My thoughts help me to get in touch with myself. They let me know what is going on in me. They alert me to the need to 'depth' the feeling (if it feels good), or to arrest or redirect the feeling (if it feels negative). I found thinking of a pleasant experience which made me feel good helped. This is called transmuting. Feelings are neither right nor wrong - just feelings. It is what you do with those feelings that counts. Negative feelings feed on negative thoughts.

"An exercise I found helpful was:

1. NAME - Recognise the feeling.
2. CLAIM - Own up to the feelings.
3. TAME - Control the feeling. This may entail sharing my trial with a trusted person.
4. AIM - to be content.
5. BLAME - Do not blame anyone else for our feelings".

Advice that is pertinent for those of us who are lucky enough to have never been afflicted with a mental illness as it is for those who are journeying towards mental wellness.

Bob Breen's story of his mother's life will be valuable reading for anyone who is suffering from a mental illness or who shares their life with someone who is. For everyone else it is a sobering insight into just how challenging life can be for many many people.


Wars Whales & Wool

Author: George Wilson
ISBN: 0 646 26580 6
Publisher: George Wilson
Address: RMB 833, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2650

Family histories are often intriguing because of the intimacy with which they imbue the understanding of history. But not many family histories canvass the more significant events of history - the ones we all learn about at school. "Wars Whales and Wool" does just that. It starts with James Lindsay who served under Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and from there dances across the heyday of the whaling industry in Australia, the gold rushes, the development of the pastoral industry in New South Wales and Victoria, the sugar industry in Fiji, the establishment of various banks, the development of towns such as Arrarat and Wagga Wagga and wanders in and out of Victorian politics and the Victorian Legislative Assembly.


"Wars Whales and Wool" is not just family history it is social history seen through the stories of three families - the Lindsay, Facy and Wilson families.

An enormous undertaking in terms of research, this book provides an illuminating insight into the history of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania through last century.

The author's forebears were obviously people of determination and spirit, living life to the fullest and taking on tasks and businesses that seem completely daunting, carving out lives with fortunes won and sometimes lost on the seas and on the land.

Where some family histories are dry and provide little context for the reader, the work undertaken by Wilson allows the reader to become familiar with the society at the time.

He has been aided considerably by the amount of letters and journals that he has been able to recover. In particular, the letters come to the reader as fresh as the day they were written conjuring up a society and a life that has long since past.

The diary of Betsy Fremantle for instance offers insights into the wars between France and England. In 1796, Betsy and her family were trapped along with many British families in Florence and Leghorn unable to escape in the face of the French advance. Writing of her rescue by the captain and crew of the Inconstant, she writes "A most terrible bustle and noise - All packing up and getting on board the ships." Not quite the description one might expect of a family caught up in a war-torn country fleeing the enemy. Of a dinner party she was to write: "Very noisy. Old Nelson very cilvil and good natured, but does not say much."

Only seventeen at the time, she was a girl of some considerable pluck, living aboard her husband's ship through many of the major encounters between French and Spanish and British ships including the rout at Santa Cruz, during which Nelson was injured.

From her diaries, George Wilson was able to learn much of his forebear's life as Boatswain for Captain Fremantle on several ships, including the Seahorse and Inconstant, serving under Nelson, up to and incuding the Battle of the Nile. Her diaries confirmed the record
of events set out by his son, Samuel, who fortunately documented his father's life in the navy and subsequently as the master of a number of whalers.

After seeking discharge from the navy, James Lindsay returned to what he knew best, whaling. And it was whaling that was to bring him to Sydney.

His love of the sea was shared by his son Samuel who followed in his wake in the whaling industry. James Lindsay's life and that of his children and their children is a fascinating story.

They were lives that were lived in the formation and development of white Australia. Their involvement in business and industry allows a close and personal view of the development of the pastoral industry, real estate, small business, whaling, sugar, politics and banking.

The personal approach enables issues of history that are otherwise dry and practically inaccessible to become the grist for entertaining stories.

Anthony Trollope wrote of his time in Sydney: "Border duties were so much in the ascendant, both when I first visited Sydney and when I returned thither, that I hardly heard other matters of much importance discussed in the New South Wales Parliament." It was George P. Wilson's purchase of a coach in Victoria that became a "cause celebre". In the telling of this tale, the issues of trade barriers between states, duties and import taxes suddenly become clear. This storm in a teacup was to lead to court cases and much newspaper coverage in the Sydney Morning Herald and across the country papers of New South Wales in addition to the time occupied on the issue of duties in the state parliament referred to by Trollope.

A fascinating read, "Wars, Whales and Wool" offers the reader a new approach to the history of much of New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania.

The author promises that the Lindsay and Wilson families will be the subject of a further history. Fanny, George, their daughter and seven spirited sons will be the major protagonists and he will cover the end of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century. He promises more wars and wool, but no more whales.

If they are anywhere nearly as spirited as the relatives covered in this publication it will make interesting reading.

Whitmee - A Name to Remember

Author: Harold and Dorothy Balcomb and Don McDonald
ISBN: 0 646 26237 8
Publisher: HN & DM Balcomb
Address: Tekoona, Toogong Via Cudal, NSW, 2864

Compiled for the 1995 reunion of Australian born descendants of Samuel Whitmee and Ann Collins who were married in England on March 18, 1800, this book is the story of Samuel and Ann and their family, the 500 or so who followed.


From the small Northamptonshire village of Gretton, two of Samuel and Ann's children, Mary and Charles, were, after their mother's death, to migrate to New South Wales. When Mary Chapman migrated she was already widowed and, accompanied by her three daughters, she joined her three sons who had left England ahead of her.

Arriving from Bathurst by dray, the Chapman family was to acquire Inglewood at Spring Hill in 1864. Although there have been many changes, there are still members of the Chapman family living on Inglewood today.

Charles Whitmee and his family were to settle as tenant farmers at Mt Pleasant at Bathurst and Charles was to remain there until his death.

The Whitmee family story is intricately entwined with the stories of Bathurst, Spring Hill, Millthorpe and Canowindra.

It is easy to look today at the glorious homesteads built last century and completely misread the lives of those who lived in such seemingly elegant circumstances.

One of the most striking stories of this family history is that of Mary Davis nee Whitmee who lived in the grand homestead, Ingledell. But it was not in the beautiful residence that still stands today that she first lived on this property - rather it was in a primitive slab hut, without power or running water. She was to bear eleven children, three of whom were to die in infancy or childhood and another of wounds during World War I. A beautiful and undoubtedly capable woman, she died aged 71.

The other must surely be Samuel Whitmee, the second in his family to be named after grandfather Samuel; his older brother Samuel had lived just eight months. An impressive career on the land and in local goverment, it was his contribution during the war that stands out. At fifty, he could not bear to see only the young and the fit being expected to carry the burden of the war. And so at his own expense, he went to England and joined the Red Cross contingent. Whilst working there he was to learn of the death of his own son.

This history is full of the stories not only of the men who helped pioneer New South Wales but of the women who bore their children and worked so extraordinarily hard in appalling conditions, and of the women who never married but whose untiring work was fundamental to the successful raising of families and smooth functioning of farming and agricultural businesses.

The Whitmee family story will be of interest not only to the family but to anyone interested in the history of of Bathurst, Spring Hill, Millthorpe and Canowindra and to anyone interested viewing the history of New South Wales through the lives of those who contributed to that history.

Scissors and Saplings

Author: Noreen Cochrane
ISBN: 0 646 26540 7
Publisher: Noreen Cochrane
Address: 1/6 Kooronya Road, Kincumber, NSW, 2251

This is the story of George Rogers who arrived in Western Australia as a convict aboard the "Stag" on May 23, 1855, of his life in England beforehand, his new life in Australia and of his descendants and those who married into the Rogers family. Although the story starts in Western Australia, this is the story of a family that predominantly lived in the Parramatta area of Sydney.


Receiving his ticket of leave the year after his arrival in Western Australia, George Rogers took his wife Jane to Sydney where he established himself in the business he knew best - as a tailor. From locations in the city, he was to move to Westmead and much of the history that follows unfolds in the Westmead/Parramatta area.

It is a family history lovingly told of ordinary people living and dying during ordinary and not so ordinary times, through wars, depression and boom times, making their own contribution to the development of Sydney and Australia in small but important ways. Whilst some were lucky to survive Gallipolli, others were to lose their lives on the battle fields of Europe. From engineers to funeral parlour directors, from mothers and grandmothers and football supporters, the stories in "Scissors and Saplings" are part of Australia's heritage.

For members of the Rogers, Prior and Bresnahan families in particular, this publication will make fascinating reading.

As Noreen Cochrane says of her forebears in her foreward, "They had a difficult and sometimes sad life suffering many hardships to make a living but through their struggles they managed to rear their families and have left behind a legacy of many descendants scattered through Australia. We should all be proud of our family heritage."

A Remarkable Woman Called Carmela

Author: Salvatore Natale
ISBN: 0 646 26658 6
Publisher: Salvatore Natale
Address: 2701/73 Spring Street, Bondi Junction, NSW, 2022

A biography of the author's mother, Carmella, who lived from 1878 to 1949. From a small farm on a tiny island off the coast of Italy, Carmella was to migrate, firstly to the United States and then to Australia, where with the aid of her religion but not her husband, she was to raise her six children.


The story of a so-called "ignorant peasant immigrant", Carmela's story is an insight into the contribution made to Australia by migrants from around the world. Without the benefit of formal schooling and consequently without the benefit of being able to read or write, but with common sense and determination, Carmela became a successful businesswoman establishing and profitably running small businesses wherever she deemed was most appropriate for the raising of her children - from suburban Paddington during World War 1 to Balmain of the 1920s to the country in the thirties.

Her tenacity is mirrored by other migrants around the country and Australia has been the wealthier for the contribution made by women such as Carmela - women whose stories for the large part have not been told.

It is a shame that the author has chosen to tell his story in upper case type face making it uncomfortable to read. It is also, for this reader at least, a shame that he remains so unforgiving of his father.


Southern Highlands Story

Author: John McColgan
ISBN: 0 646 26175 4
Publisher: John McColgan
Address: 49 Leopold Street, Mittagong, NSW, 2575

A comprehensive and easy to read history of the Southern Highlands of New South Wales from 1798 to 1980, it tells the story of early white exploration, settlement and the industry of the area. A reference for residents and visitors alike who wish to learn more of the Highlands.


The author is a fourth generation descendant of James McColgan who lived at Bong Bong Village (best known these days for its annual race meet) beside the Wingecarribee River during the 1840s, marrying Catherine Gannon in Berrima in 1850.

The work starts with a chronology of events from 1798 for easy reference.

"People and History" is an easy to read collection of short pieces that includes such stories as the explorer of the area, Barracks, known as the man who wasn't there, for the simple reason that he wasn't. Not only did the Barracks of the records not participate in the exploration of the area, he almost certainly never existed.

It covers the tragedies of the day from the arrest and hanging of mass murderer Jack Lynch in 1842, the Alpine Tunnel Disaster of 1917 when a roof fall in the tunnel excavation caused the death of three men, to the murder/suicide of the Woods family in 1936.

The irony of reformer Governor Sir Richard Bourke being the one to open Berrima Gaol is covered in the telling of the building of that notorious institution. Interestingly, it was its use as prisoner-of-war camp for German prisoners during World War I that led to the establishment of a cement works. One of the inmates, an industrial chemist, recognised that the shale at Berrima, the coal at Medway and limestone at Marulan made it an ideal location for such a venture. What started as Southern Portland Cement at the suggestion of a German prisoner-of war is today the thriving Blue Circle Cement Works.

The expeditions of Hume and Hovell are detailed and the work covers the granting and purchasing and construction of significant properties in the area. It also details the decline and decimation of the Indigenous population.

The town of Joadja with its shale oil mining is covered and the book includes interesting histories of the significant businesses and industries in the area - shale mining, the iron works, the dairy industry, the Fresh Food and Ice Company, coal mining and the Box Vale Colliery and the cordial works.

These histories provide a fascinating insight into the people who established thriving enterprises often under extremely hard circumstances. The success of Thomas Mort in everything from dairying, to dry docks to refridgeration is legendary. His importance to the community is covered in the section detailing the history of his company The Fresh Food and Ice Co., and the beginning of the local dairy industry.

A fascinating and easy read for anyone interested in the history of the area or the history of New South Wales.

Dweller By Stone -

The Hone Family of Binda, NSW, 1854-1995

Author: Mark Grady
ISBN: 0 646 26248 3
Publisher: Mark Grady
Address: 20 Hopetoun Street, Camperdown, NSW, 2050

If anyone in your family has the name Hone, or was related to someone of that name, and you would like to know more of your family history, then this is the book for you. And one look at the book and you will see that you have more relations than you ever dreamed in your wildest imaginings.


A huge undertaking, this family tree was researched and compiled by the author. It comprehensively sets out a factual record of the Hone family in the Binda district of New South Wales, Australia, from 1854, to the present day.

It also includes geneological details of the Australian Hone family's English forebears from the time of the marriage of John Hone to Ann at Brailes in England on April 9, 1692 and traces John Hone's ancestry back to the marriage of Thomas Hone to Agenta Ward on November 13, 1592.

Not intended as a social history, this is a comprehensive family tree. For anyone related to the Hone family it will provide fascinating information and an excellent starting point for further research on their own particular branch of this enormous and spreading tree.

They Came As Strangers

Author: Loftus Dun
ISBN: 0 646 25135 X
Address: 7/24 Wonoona Parade, East Oatley, NSW, 2223

A history of the Dun family and its relationships with the Bedwell, Ward and Cork families in early Australia (and with some of the many other families related by marriage) up to the time of the First World War, "They Came As Strangers" will be fascinating reading for any of the estimated forty thousand living descendants of Frederick Bedwell and William and Susannah Ward.


However, it is an fascinating story for anyone interested in Australia's colonial history. Built on a massive amount of detailed research, Loftus Dun has traced his family back through the past couple of centuries and has chosen to start the story with the first of his relatives to arrive in Australia.

Through the examination of the lives of these people the wider fabric of white migration to Australia is woven.

Frederick Bedwell arrived as a single man and as second in command to Lieutenant Phillip Parker King (son of the earlier Governor of New South Wales) was part of the crew that was to continue the navigational exploration work of Matthew Flinders.

Susannah Ward, arriving with her husband and six children, was soon to find herself widowed and needing to work to support her family. To say she was made of stern stuff is a major understatement. Her tenacity and her ability was astonishing. She brought up her family and went on to run a small property and live a long life, able to care for not only her children but when necessary many of her children's children.

And so the story unfolds and tells of ordinary people living extraordinary lives that spread out from Sydney to far northern Queensland, part of the story of colonial Australia.

The author hopes that by providing an insight into some of the adventures and the difficulties faced by so many of Australia's early migrants, it will inspire others to add to this history. In any event, the work undertaken by Loftus Dun in "They Came as Strangers" is an impressive contribution to recording of the history of this country.

Back to Previews index
Fast Books Home Page

| Who Are We? | Self Publishing | Design and Production Courses | Previews |