NEW SOUTH WALES RESEARCH and WRITING

Carol Baxter, the history detective, spent several decades working in the genealogy industry, initially as project officer for the Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record and later as general editor of its new incarnation, the Biographical Database of Australia.

She has also written six popular histories, five of which are set (wholly or partly) in colonial New South Wales.

Thus, she has a wealth of knowledge about the record-keeping systems in New South Wales as well as the political and social context that will help you with your family history research and writing.

BOUND FOR NEW SOUTH WALES

THEY REALLY DIDN'T SWIM lesson

Four groups of people sailed to Australia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: convicts, free passengers, soldiers and sailors. This seminar focuses on the free passengers, those who paid their passages or received free passages under systems like the Bounty Immigrant scheme.

This lesson is prepared but is not yet recorded. If you would like it made available, contact Carol and she will prioritise it.

carol@writingfabulousfamilyhistories.com

For further information about convicts, see the link below.

View CRIMINALS AND CONVICTS topic page

NEW SOUTH WALES COLONIAL RESEARCH

POLLED (Muster and census returns) lesson

This seminar explains how to best use colonial muster and census returns, taking into consideration their many faults and foibles. This includes later returns such as the 1841 and 1891 Australian Census returns.

Carol has an unparalleled knowledge of these returns as she edited all the surviving General Musters from the years 1800 to 1825. She also examined smaller returns for the same period, and she processed the raw data of the 1828 NSW Census/Household Returns and 1837 Convict Return.

This lesson is prepared but is not yet recorded. If you would like it made available, contact Carol and she will prioritise it.

carol@writingfabulousfamilyhistories.com

THE HISTORICAL BACKDROP

One of the reasons that many family history publications are "dry" (if not boring) is because their authors merely list the facts. Dry facts are rarely interesting. However, when those facts sit within their historical context, our family histories start coming to life.

In Carol's popular history books, she explores different periods in New South Wales' colonial history. Understanding this backdrop, and seeing how she writes about the backdrop, will help you "set the scene" in your family history writing.

You can access writing lessons via her Writing Fabulous Family Histories online courses.

View WRITING FABULOUS FAMILY HISTORIES roadmap >>

EARLY NEW SOUTH WALES SETTLEMENT

Shipwrecked

In 1787, when the British authorities sent the First Fleet halfway around the world to establish penal settlements in New South Wales and Norfolk Island, little did they realise that these new outposts of the British empire would soon be plunged into a life-threatening crisis.

This talk was prepared as a cruise ship talk; however, it can also serve as a genealogy infotainment talk. When Carol has memorised it once again for a future cruise, she will record it and make it available as a pay-per-view lesson to help genealogists understand the historical context of the period.

NEW SOUTH WALES IN THE 1820s

An Irresistible Temptation: The true story of Jane New and a colonial scandal (Allen & Unwin, AUS, 2006)

This book tells the tale of a political sex scandal involving English convict Jane New and a member of the prestigious Stephen family, who were prominent in colonial legal and judicial circles.

The story is set against the backdrop of the conservative versus progressive political scene in the rapidly developing New South Wales settlement of the 1820s. The conservatives wanted New South Wales to remain as a place of harsh punishment to deter British and Irish criminals. The progressives demanded a political voice as well as further rights for settlers and emancipated convicts.

Review comments include: "This book is an excellent example of how a good story can illuminate the past" (Australian Literary Review magazine).

Go to BOOK entry

Breaking The Bank: An extraordinary colonial robbery (Allen & Unwin, AUS, 2008)

This book tells the story of Australia's largest bank robbery. Thieves tunnelled through a sewerage drain into the vault of the Bank of Australia and stole the equivalent of $20 million.

The story is set against the backdrop of the authorities-versus-prisoners political scene of the 1820s. Many wealthy free people exploited their convict servants so the broader community used this robbery as a chance to undermine the colonial authorities.

Review comments include "as gripping as any modern true crime story" (Police Association Journal, Australia).

Go to BOOK entry

NEW SOUTH WALES IN THE 1860s

Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady by Carol Baxter

Captain Thunderbolt and His Lady: The true story of bushrangers Frederick Ward and Mary Ann Bugg (Allen & Unwin, AUS, 2011)

This book about rural outlaw, Fred Ward, and his part-Aboriginal lover, Mary Ann Bugg, is set against the backdrop of the "authorities-versus-settlers" issues of the 1860s.

The bushranging epidemic that gripped rural New South Wales for most of the 1860s partly resulted from changes in policing that alienated rural settlers. It ended with Thunderbolt's dramatic death in a shoot-out in 1870.

Thus, the book communicates the historical context for those living in rural New South Wales at that time.

Go to BOOK entry

NEW SOUTH WALES IN THE 1880s

Black Widow: The true story of Australia's first female serial killer (Allen & Unwin, AUS, 2015)

This book about arsenic poisoner Louisa Collins is set against the backdrop of the end of the New South Wales colonial era in the lead-up to Federation in 1901. It also explores the question of women's rights, the demand for female suffrage, and the issues relating to the death penalty in a "civilised" society.

Go to BOOK entry