Ordinary People, Remarkable Lives

This book is a collection of eight stories from people in Glenn Martin’s family tree. It begins with two of his great great grandparents who were convicts who met in Hobart. He followed the meagre clues in the records to determine how it was that they met. Another great great grandparent was a convict who later established a hotel in Sydney and became the publican. Some of the clues for this story came from a second cousin with connections to the hotel. Another story is about a family member whose death as a soldier at Gallipoli was preceded by a tragedy of family life. Another story is about a notable German sailor who chose Australia as his abode at the start of the second world war, and who fell in love with a cousin of his father’s. One story describes the life of the girl Betsy Balcombe, who befriended Napoleon after his final capture and exile, and the story traces Glenn’s convoluted connection to Betsy. Another story examines the career of Thomas Martin, a great great grandfather from Cornwall, who became the highly respected manager of a goldmine in Victoria. And a story looks at the troubled experiences of a daughter of the manager of a coalmine in Fife, Scotland. Lastly, there is a romance or, the roots of a story of romance that goes back perhaps 150 years, and then nearly 150 years more.