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Lost Relations: Fortunes of My Family in Australia's Golden Age
In 1839, Hampshire yeoman John Hewett died prematurely and left his wife and eight children to manage on their own. Times were tough, and after their landlord put their farm up for sale, Jane Hewett emigrated to Australia with all her children in 1850. Graeme Davison traces the lives of two generations of the Hewett family, setting them in their historical context in both the UK and Australia. With scant family records, he draws on the full array of public records available in both the UK and Australia, showing as he works how a master historian weighs the evidence and pulls the story together. Throughout he reflects on the meaning of family history, but with a light touch that doesn't get in the way of the story. Through the Hewett family, he paints a picture of colonial migration of free settlers taking over from the convict period, the work available to men and to women, the gold rush, the rise of the railways, growth of farming. The rise and fall of family fortunes reflects the turbulent growth of the colonies during this period. He writes, "I did not look for skeletons in my family's cupboard, but once the cupboard was open, they simply fell out."
260 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 13, 2016
To me, family history writing is the most difficult writing genre to master. The task is to make mostly quite ordinary people become extraordinary in some way, or at least memorable for something – a characteristic, an unusual action, a physical feature. So the opportunity to read a personal family history written by a professional historian was irresistible.
Some of the historical background in ‘Lost Relations’ was interesting and insightful and the author’s musings on the purpose and benefit of family history, especially in his concluding chapter, were valuable. But in structuring his book, I think Graeme Davison fell into one of this genre’s many traps. The subtitle of his book implied a focus on the family in England, the widow Jane and her children, their voyage to Australia on the Culloden and what happened to that first generation in gold-rush Australia. But then the story line disappeared, because the author strayed into following his own line down the generations, as far as his parents, a completely different story focus.
I met the author at a function recently and he agreed that structure was the most difficult aspect of a family history. Interestingly, he said he wrote the introduction and conclusion of 'Lost Relations' before he wrote everything in between. His structural goal had been to start and finish with Jane Jnr, the person whose stories set him off on the family history trail. She was part of the Culloden group and is the lady pictured at the top of the picture on the cover of his book. So, notwithstanding its genealogical charts, connecting the title of the book and the story line to her might have made it easier to follow the affairs of this family.
He also commented that writing this book taught him about the valuable work done by family historians, especially their mountains of research, and he feels there should be greater collaboration between the two branches of history. Couldn’t agree more.
It ain't easy, structuring and writing family history, let alone an interesting one like this with a readership beyond the family concerned. ‘Lost Relations’ serves as a useful case study for the genre.
Some of the historical background in ‘Lost Relations’ was interesting and insightful and the author’s musings on the purpose and benefit of family history, especially in his concluding chapter, were valuable. But in structuring his book, I think Graeme Davison fell into one of this genre’s many traps. The subtitle of his book implied a focus on the family in England, the widow Jane and her children, their voyage to Australia on the Culloden and what happened to that first generation in gold-rush Australia. But then the story line disappeared, because the author strayed into following his own line down the generations, as far as his parents, a completely different story focus.
I met the author at a function recently and he agreed that structure was the most difficult aspect of a family history. Interestingly, he said he wrote the introduction and conclusion of 'Lost Relations' before he wrote everything in between. His structural goal had been to start and finish with Jane Jnr, the person whose stories set him off on the family history trail. She was part of the Culloden group and is the lady pictured at the top of the picture on the cover of his book. So, notwithstanding its genealogical charts, connecting the title of the book and the story line to her might have made it easier to follow the affairs of this family.
He also commented that writing this book taught him about the valuable work done by family historians, especially their mountains of research, and he feels there should be greater collaboration between the two branches of history. Couldn’t agree more.
It ain't easy, structuring and writing family history, let alone an interesting one like this with a readership beyond the family concerned. ‘Lost Relations’ serves as a useful case study for the genre.
January 17, 2018
I started reading this book because there were some similarities between the family history described in this book and my own. Immigration from the UK, during the 1850s, into the Victorian Goldfields is a central narrative of both my family and Graeme Davison's family history. Given Lost Relations was written by an academic and historian, I was expecting to be provided with a grander and more detailed historical framework than just one families story. While I did receive just that, in the end, what I most appreciated, was Davison's musings on why family history has become so popular - what need is it trying to fill?
He writes in the introduction ...."For most of my life I have avoided family history. The crowds of chattering genealogists in public libraries and archives are one of the daily hazards of the academic researcher [nice bit of mild elitist snark]....As a young man, eager to be 'captain of my soul and architect of my fate', I probably minimised the influence of inheritance and kin on my own life......Australia, not England, the future, not the past, was what he [the author's father] cared about - or so he said. Only as I grew older and my parents passed on did I begin to recognize how much of my life had been shaped by family tradition and expectation, not to mention genetics; although even now, when temptations to reminiscence and nostalgia grow stronger, I resist them, conscious of their distortions."
In this family history, which covers around 6 generations of Graeme Davison's family tree, we move from rural England as Yeoman farmers and Cornish miners to the Australian colonies of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. Much of the economic, cultural and religious values brought with them are replicated in the occupations, marriages and lifestyles chosen in the new world. As with any family, he describes how some individuals managed the upheaval of economic and psychological stresses with success and how other members of his family were lost to prison, unmarked graves and estrangement from the family. Like any family he found both the good and the bad. He devotes a very interesting 2-3 pages to the history of ideas - in a section titled 'Bad Blood'.
"Lurking in the shadows of this story is the ghost of an ancient superstition: the dread of bad blood. Family historians may no longer hunt for noble or famous ancestors, but they remain nervous of the discovery of bad ones, especially if they fear that their moral or biological failings could be passed on." As someone whose own ancestral research had uncovered prisoners, scoundrels and bounders I was interested to read how an academically trained historian processed these same revelations. My own family history had been one of a family who 'masked' or 'forgot' the bad stories, ostensibly with a view to acquiring middle-class status and respectability. He reflects on his discoveries and his recounting of family secrets as a potential betrayal of family trust, but comes down on the side of curiosity and errs on the side of sharing for the sake of knowledge and truth.
He goes on to reflect that "our continuing fear of bad blood is evidence of a surprising turn in contemporary culture. Democratic societies like Australia were strongly shaped by the struggle against the idea of inheritance. Since convict times, Australians believed that individuals could shape their lives, free from whatever disabilities they suffered because of their parentage.....In rejecting the influence of heredity, Australians were convinced history was on their side...[we took up the] ideas of philsopher John Stuart Mill, a strong critic of hereditary institutions. Radicals fought for inheritance taxes to limit the perpetuation of inherited privilege. ....In the early twentieth century it looked as though the democratic principle, in its liberal or socialist forms, would overtake outmoded notions of blood and inheritance. Yet in a way that would have surprised democrats of an earlier generation, ancestry has made a comeback. Inheritance taxes have been repealed. The attempt to redress inherited disadvantage through education has faltered as religious and ethnic communities, and the principle of parental 'choice', have prevailed over the secular state schools. Aboriginal children and others separated from their mothers for adoption have fought and won campaigns to be reunited with their natural parents. In all these ways, ancestry has re-emerged as the basis for new political and social rights and as a core component of personal identity."
I too had noticed these changes in national philosophy. He goes on to say that "as our attachment to larger civic, class or national identities has shrunk, so we cling to the more intimate and enduring world of family. We take refuge from a world dominated by impersonal market forces in our families, 'havens in a heartless world'. The confidence that democratic ideals would prevail over ethnic and family loyalities, has receded, along with the grand narratives of liberation that propelled them." He then quotes from British historian Peter Claus 'The whole enterprise of genealogy has arguably emerged from a reduced confidence in the ability to reduce the past to a simple universal story'.
He ends this section on the role of family history by saying "By situating our families in the throes of history, and viewing their individual experiences against the background of their times, we take a first step towards making family history something more than a private hobby. It is here that genealogy, memory and history may become partners in a shared civic endeavour." As a slogan it may read something like "the personal is political, the family is political".
I recommend this book to anyone interested in family history, or Australian history. Graeme Davison's personal story of inquiry into identity and history is well formulated with the wider history of Australia and the local history of Melbourne and Victoria. I was particularly interested in reading about the strength, endurance and continuity of this Protestant family history. Somewhat similiar but also quite different to my own family.
He writes in the introduction ...."For most of my life I have avoided family history. The crowds of chattering genealogists in public libraries and archives are one of the daily hazards of the academic researcher [nice bit of mild elitist snark]....As a young man, eager to be 'captain of my soul and architect of my fate', I probably minimised the influence of inheritance and kin on my own life......Australia, not England, the future, not the past, was what he [the author's father] cared about - or so he said. Only as I grew older and my parents passed on did I begin to recognize how much of my life had been shaped by family tradition and expectation, not to mention genetics; although even now, when temptations to reminiscence and nostalgia grow stronger, I resist them, conscious of their distortions."
In this family history, which covers around 6 generations of Graeme Davison's family tree, we move from rural England as Yeoman farmers and Cornish miners to the Australian colonies of Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales. Much of the economic, cultural and religious values brought with them are replicated in the occupations, marriages and lifestyles chosen in the new world. As with any family, he describes how some individuals managed the upheaval of economic and psychological stresses with success and how other members of his family were lost to prison, unmarked graves and estrangement from the family. Like any family he found both the good and the bad. He devotes a very interesting 2-3 pages to the history of ideas - in a section titled 'Bad Blood'.
"Lurking in the shadows of this story is the ghost of an ancient superstition: the dread of bad blood. Family historians may no longer hunt for noble or famous ancestors, but they remain nervous of the discovery of bad ones, especially if they fear that their moral or biological failings could be passed on." As someone whose own ancestral research had uncovered prisoners, scoundrels and bounders I was interested to read how an academically trained historian processed these same revelations. My own family history had been one of a family who 'masked' or 'forgot' the bad stories, ostensibly with a view to acquiring middle-class status and respectability. He reflects on his discoveries and his recounting of family secrets as a potential betrayal of family trust, but comes down on the side of curiosity and errs on the side of sharing for the sake of knowledge and truth.
He goes on to reflect that "our continuing fear of bad blood is evidence of a surprising turn in contemporary culture. Democratic societies like Australia were strongly shaped by the struggle against the idea of inheritance. Since convict times, Australians believed that individuals could shape their lives, free from whatever disabilities they suffered because of their parentage.....In rejecting the influence of heredity, Australians were convinced history was on their side...[we took up the] ideas of philsopher John Stuart Mill, a strong critic of hereditary institutions. Radicals fought for inheritance taxes to limit the perpetuation of inherited privilege. ....In the early twentieth century it looked as though the democratic principle, in its liberal or socialist forms, would overtake outmoded notions of blood and inheritance. Yet in a way that would have surprised democrats of an earlier generation, ancestry has made a comeback. Inheritance taxes have been repealed. The attempt to redress inherited disadvantage through education has faltered as religious and ethnic communities, and the principle of parental 'choice', have prevailed over the secular state schools. Aboriginal children and others separated from their mothers for adoption have fought and won campaigns to be reunited with their natural parents. In all these ways, ancestry has re-emerged as the basis for new political and social rights and as a core component of personal identity."
I too had noticed these changes in national philosophy. He goes on to say that "as our attachment to larger civic, class or national identities has shrunk, so we cling to the more intimate and enduring world of family. We take refuge from a world dominated by impersonal market forces in our families, 'havens in a heartless world'. The confidence that democratic ideals would prevail over ethnic and family loyalities, has receded, along with the grand narratives of liberation that propelled them." He then quotes from British historian Peter Claus 'The whole enterprise of genealogy has arguably emerged from a reduced confidence in the ability to reduce the past to a simple universal story'.
He ends this section on the role of family history by saying "By situating our families in the throes of history, and viewing their individual experiences against the background of their times, we take a first step towards making family history something more than a private hobby. It is here that genealogy, memory and history may become partners in a shared civic endeavour." As a slogan it may read something like "the personal is political, the family is political".
I recommend this book to anyone interested in family history, or Australian history. Graeme Davison's personal story of inquiry into identity and history is well formulated with the wider history of Australia and the local history of Melbourne and Victoria. I was particularly interested in reading about the strength, endurance and continuity of this Protestant family history. Somewhat similiar but also quite different to my own family.
May 31, 2017
Exceptionally well written family history because the writer can write and is an academic historian. As the history is mainly set in early Victoria this book may appeal to those with ancestry in the same state.
April 23, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. It was a lovely journey, I felt that Davison beautifully brought his ancestors to life. There are probably two reasons I can't give this book five stars. Firstly, I found it very annoying to read as an e-book. I lost sight of the 'family trees' and it wasn't easy to flip back and forth as you would in a hard copy. That is not the fault of Davison, and I was happy to be able to access the book so easily. I'm not sure how you get around that short of having additional notes at the start of each chapter. Secondly, I sometimes felt that there was too much emotion written about people. Or perhaps more than I expected from a historian. Certainly these people had difficult lives, but so did most people at that time, especially when compared to our own lives (and Davison mentioned that at the end). I just felt that he was trying to elicit an emotional response from the reader, and that didn't appeal to me. But I recommend this book to anyone interested in good family history. To me it is very similar to Alison Light's book, which I also really enjoyed.
October 22, 2019
Remarkably well written family history story of migration from Uk to Australia. Covers a lot of general history while telling the family tale and it was a really interesting read - especially if you are interested at all in family history and genealogy.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews