I recall that my mother was annoyed at a distant relative who wrote a semi fictional version of the family history in rural New South Wales. She said that the real story was much more interesting. On my father’s side, a cousin wrote two volumes of that family’s history, essentially about dad’s grandfather. He was an historian so these were quite well researched, but the first rather relied on the memories of elderly relatives and some unfortunate events were not mentioned at all. The second was for his Master’s thesis and so relied more on the materials of historians. Dad did make some annotations in his copy correcting errors.
I have a copy of the first book which I occasionally consult for dates of birth or details of relationships. It even has a photograph of me with my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, taken in about 1956.
Maternal grandmother ( who did all the heavy lifting in the upbringing of 2 siblings & meself) was born in the Monaro as 3rd generation of Irish immigrants ( 1 convict & the rest escapees from the famine of 1848. She had a lively contempt of “romancing” and the stories I heard between my childhood & her death in 1990 aged 93 beat any historical novel.
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I have a copy of the first book which I occasionally consult for dates of birth or details of relationships. It even has a photograph of me with my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, taken in about 1956.
Maternal grandmother ( who did all the heavy lifting in the upbringing of 2 siblings & meself) was born in the Monaro as 3rd generation of Irish immigrants ( 1 convict & the rest escapees from the famine of 1848. She had a lively contempt of “romancing” and the stories I heard between my childhood & her death in 1990 aged 93 beat any historical novel.