Describe how the idea for your book first came to you. Where
were you? Who was the first person you told? How did they respond?
The idea for my first book, well the first book I completed,
came to me when my husband and I were dabbling in family history. A great
aunt had raised his father after his mother’s early death, his surname was
changed and it was as if his parents had never existed. As his original surname had been Risk, The
Hidden Risks seemed the obvious title choice. We were living in Launceston,
Tasmania, at the time and fortunate in being able to access the reference
section of the local library and liaise directly with the cemetery trust.
Tasmania, originally Van Diemen’s Land, was founded as a penal
settlement 1803 with the last convicts
arriving 1853. During this period approximately 67,000 men, women and children
were transported from Britain to alleviate the crowded and unsanitary prison conditions there.
Most convicts, once pardoned, worked conscientiously in their new land. They raised
families and began the process of obliterating the past. It wasn’t until the
last part of the 20th century that Tasmanian families began throwing
open the closet doors to display the obligatory convict ancestor. Meticulous early
record keeping offered a wealth of information for the family historian and in
no time we uncovered our own convict ancestor, my husband’s great great grandfather,
and began working through the generations until we found his grandmother. This
is when the skeletons began to rattle with more gusto and them, learning she had been
married to a Syrian hawker, William Risk, really set those bones ashaking.
Once we had gathered enough information of substance we proceeded
to speak with other family members, to involve them emotionally if they wished,
and to invite the sharing of anecdotal memories. Each contact led to another, in a flow-on
effect, until we had made personal contact with dozens of people from all branches
of the tree, adding colour, depth and volume. All responded with interest,
offering what they knew or had been told by family members now passed and were willing
to assist and support the project.
If I have piqued your interest I can tell you the search for his grandmother ended at a pauper's grave where she had been buried under the wrong name. William Risk appears to have disappeared off the face of the earth and is indeed, still missing.
~ Merlene Fawdry
~ Merlene Fawdry
Loved the read Merlene
ReplyDeleteThank Terry. It's always good to know someone has read and enjoyed. With these challenges, I never know from day to day what I will write - or even what I will write about until I see the prompt. It's a great exercise for all writers I think.
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