Thanks to our friends at Wakefield Press, here is a sneak peek into: When Tina Met Will – Clementina Goldfinch and William Staker and the life journeys of their forebears, written by Cheryl Williss.
Back in the 1960s, when I was about nine or ten, my mother’s cousin Dorothy – we called her Auntie Dot – began tracing our family tree. As, one by one, each ancestor was revealed, Mum would relay the information back to me. Apparently, we were related to one of bushranger Ned Kelly’s gang. Not true, as I discovered years later. And there was someone who made lace. He married a Frenchwoman who gave birth at sea on the way out here. The first part was correct, but the baby, I discovered, was born three months after their arrival. Then there was Eli. No problem with that one. Regardless, it was enough to arouse interest in my curious young mind.
Mum had her own book of knowledge, metaphorically speaking. Her mother, my Nan, Clementina Goldfinch, was the eldest of fifteen. I remember some of them. Aunties Mavis and Violet spring to mind, and Uncles Cyril and Bert. There was another brother, William Henry, known to all as Henry, whom Nan had spoken fondly of to my mother, but not enough for Mum to find out exactly what had happened to him. When Henry was a young man, he died. According to Mum, he probably fought in the First World War and then came home ill. But many years later I found that Henry has joined the Australian Imperial Force, but the South Australian Police Force. Perhaps he has tried to enlist but was rejected under the stricter specifications earlier on in the war.
Ironically, it was the war that killed Henry.
To continue reading, head into your local bookstore of visit Wakefield Press to secure your own copy!