{"id":5404,"date":"2015-06-25T11:58:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T01:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.wordpress.com\/?p=5404"},"modified":"2022-08-04T00:23:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T00:23:39","slug":"fracturedfamilies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingpast.com\/2015\/06\/25\/fracturedfamilies\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGenealogists are becoming the new social historians\u201d says professional historian"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"three<\/a>
Lisa Murray (City of Sydney Historian), Jo Toohey\u00a0(CEO of the Benevolent Society), Tanya Evans (author of Fractured Families<\/em>) and Max Carrick (family historian mentioned in Fractured Families<\/em>). Photo courtesy of the Benevolent Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAustralian history has been transformed by the contributions of family historians\u201d, says Dr Tanya Evans, historian at Sydney\u2019s Macquarie University. Her new book Fractured Families: Life on the Margins in Colonial New South Wales, <\/em>is the result of collaboration between Tanya Evans and some of the many family historians who have worked with the archives of Sydney\u2019s oldest non-religious charity, The Benevolent Society.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 genealogists are becoming the new social historians\u2026\u201d, remarks Evans in the prologue. She points to the painstaking research conducted by family historians which has revealed the lives of those of their forebears who were numbered among the poor and the outcast. \u00a0Fractured Families <\/em>\u00a0is about those forgotten people of history and their descendants who cared enough to learn more about\u00a0the difficult lives of their forebears.<\/p>\n

The interest Evans has about the lives of poor people bubbles through the book as does her admiration of the work done by family historians. She sees great value in the work of family historians noting that, \u201c\u2026 the more people who become involved in the endeavour, the richer and more democratic our knowledge will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>
Fractured Families: Life on the Margins in Colonial New South Wales, by Tanya Evans (UNSW Press, 2015).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fractured Families<\/em> is an easy book to pick up and put down. Each chapter has a new set of stories about the lives of those who sought assistance from The Benevolent Society during the long nineteenth century and the wealthier people who contributed to the care of the impoverished. The narrative meanders around the\u00a0events\u00a0of an eclectic group of lives. It is effectively a series of cameos. Sometimes the reader can engage with the people of the past, at other times the information conveyed is too fragmentary for the reader to feel moved by their stories.<\/p>\n

The impact of these stories may have been greater if the photos that are bunched onto photo pages in the middle of the book had instead been inserted at the relevant places in the text. When dealing with fragmentary history, photos are a rich\u00a0historical source which convey the story more powerfully if\u00a0there are not enough\u00a0words in the archives. Fractured Families<\/em>\u00a0includes two disturbing photos of emaciated babies which would have made the telling of the cold statistics of starvation and infant mortality in Sydney more potent if they had accompanied the relevant text. Unfortunately the high cost of producing books with photos scattered through the text is a serious limit in the effective use of photographs in the telling of histories such as this one.<\/p>\n

This book does not have literary pretensions – there are too many \u201cas described in chapter X\u201d or \u201cthese are explored in chapter X\u201d for that. The language used is very accessible with the occasional use of words\u00a0such as \u2018gendered\u2019 or \u2018power relations\u2019 and a political earnestness which reflect the author\u2019s academic roots. As befitting someone with Tanya Evans experience as a historical consultant for popular television programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em>\u00a0Evans has written a book that any general reader will find easy to read.<\/p>\n

While Evans focuses on bringing out the lives of the poor she also sensitively depicts the difficulties faced by wealthier women who were so constrained in what they could do during the nineteenth century. The story of siblings, Sarah and William White encapsulates the comparison of privilege and interconnection between the wealthy and the most poor that Evans weaves through the book. Their father was an agricultural labourer in England, but William was a trained baker by the time the family arrived in Sydney in 1874. He and his brother went on to establish thriving businesses and become pillars of the Baptist Church. In contrast, Sarah White was a \u2018fallen woman\u2019 who used the services of the Benevolent Asylum to deliver babies as an unmarried mother. It is the \u2018black sheep\u2019 story that so often pops up in family history, yet in this case there is some evidence that the family did provide some support for Sarah. However, like so many families, the Whites wove some stories which their determined descendants had to cut through in order to stitch together the past.<\/p>\n

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Sydney’s Benevolent Asylum was demolished in 1901 to make way for the Central Railway Station. (Photo from State Records NSW)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The complex path the Benevolent Society trod during the nineteenth century is woven through the book. Social mores insisted that the Benevolent Society only give money to the \u2018deserving poor\u2019 and that the organisation should not encourage immorality by supporting unmarried mothers giving birth to illegitimate offspring. Evans shows that while the Benevolent Society made statements that conformed to these moral strictures, behind the scenes they continued to support the poor even if the actions of the seekers of charity transgressed social norms.<\/p>\n

The strength of this book is the focus on the work of family historians. Not only are they\u00a0acknowledged but the stories of their research is an important part of the book. Tanya Evans writes about what motivates family historians to do their research, how they do it and the rigorous way they interrogate the historical sources. The story of family historian, Anne Wilmshurst, is particularly insightful. Evans shares Wilmshurst\u2019s reflections on how the issues in her own life led her to question and discover some surprises about the lives of her ancestors. Evans gives us an intimate insight into her work in this section. \u201cI worried that I might offend Anne with my intrusive questions about her life and that she might think I was misinterpreting her research and reflections on her motivations,\u201d says Evans. The author then explains how she \u201cshared several drafts of this chapter with Anne and asked for and then incorporated all her comments and suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This section made me wonder about how the personal background of the author has influenced her work. She writes about her political motivations, such as her concern for the rights of women and the need to understand the reasons behind the continuing poverty of too many \u2018lone mothers and their children\u2019 in order to fight for changes to help them today. I would have liked Evans to take a risk and expose some of her personal background that led her on the path to researching the poor people of the past.<\/p>\n

It was the family history background of professional historian, Anne Coote which particularly resonated with me. Coote was the person who researched the life of Sarah White, mentioned above. Like Coote, my interest in history and first experiences researching in the archives were in the quest to discover more about my family history. This was encouraged by the families of my mother\u2019s parents who exchanged stories of forebears and did further research ever since I can remember. I accompanied my mother on visits to the archives when I was a teenager and learned about useful indexes and catalogues and how to use microfiche and microfilm readers. Later I used the internet to research some unusual family names and was rewarded by finding the son of my grandfather\u2019s sister. Our families had lost contact in World War II. Sadly, the only remaining family member that would have known this relative had passed away just a few years before.<\/p>\n

When I went back to university to study history I felt I was at a distinct advantage because I was already comfortable and competent at using archives. I wonder why universities don\u2019t teach these skills to first year history students who haven\u2019t had the benefit of a background in family history?<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth academic historians and family historians need to be comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity\u2026\u201d says Evans. \u201cOur knowledge\u2026 always remains provisional, conflicted and in a constant state of flux. This is, in my mind, the strength of family history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Australian<\/a>
This review is a contribution to the 2015 Australian Women Writers Challenge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the premise underlying this blog and why I call it Stumbling Through the Past<\/em>. We cannot know everything that happened in the past and why people behaved in the way they did. We can\u2019t even know everything occurring in the present. Additional records can be discovered or someone can contribute a new interpretation that puts the evidence in a new light. Humility in the face of the ever-shifting knowledge and understanding of evidence has to be the badge of the family historian and the professional historian alike.<\/p>\n

Fractured Families <\/em>reflects the supportive and collaborative way that Tanya Evans works. I want to support generous authors like her, so it was for this reason I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend her book launch. I didn\u2019t expect the book to resonate with me, but I found its family history focus compelling. Family historians should appreciate this acknowledgement and respect for their work.<\/p>\n

Further Information About the History of the Benevolent Society<\/h2>\n