Cirrus@Austlit

'This book is the second volume of Graeme Davison’s family history that began with his Lost Relations: Fortunes of my Family in Australia’s Golden Age (2015), following his mother’s line. This book traces Davison’s paternal line. The title comes from a bequest left to Davison by his great aunt Cissie Davison who bequeathed the clock to his father and then to Davison on his death. I will always remember this clock because in late 2017, I had the pleasure of listening to Davison deliver a keynote lecture on his family history research at the National Library of Australia during a conference on family history. He ended his talk in song, encouraging the audience to join him in a rendition of My Grandfather’s Clock, which they did, enthusiastically. As one of my students said, it was a ‘moving moment for all involved’.' (Introduction)

'In late 2014 I co-organised a workshop at Macquarie University on ‘The Self and History’ with my former colleague Kate Fullagar. This was linked to another workshop I co-organised as Director of the Centre for Applied History with Australian Dictionary of Biography (hereafter ADB) colleagues on family history. We planned a masterclass with higher degree research students and early career researchers as part of the proceedings and asked participants to prepare an ADB entry about themselves in advance to share with others at the workshop. We hoped this task would encourage people to think carefully about how we construct life-stories, what sources are available to us when we do this work, as well as the limits and possibilities of what authors can and might reveal about their lives, given the opportunity to do so. It was one of the most enjoyable projects I have shared with friends, colleagues, peers, and students. We all learned much about the construction of historical knowledge as well as ourselves and each other in the process. I have reflected many times on the activity since, when writing up life-stories in different formats and for varied audiences. I also draw upon the task when I talk to my students about historical significance. Scholars agree that examining the construction of life-stories can provide us with unprecedented insight into how history is undertaken, imagined, and discussed by ‘ordinary people’.' (Introduction)

'Caroline’s Dilemma is an excellent example of compelling women’s history. It is a carefully crafted piece of detective work, expanding our knowledge of the history of marriage and family life in the nineteenth-century settler colonial world. The book charts the detailed plight of Caroline Kearney, aged 31 and mother of six children, following her husband Edward’s death in Melbourne in 1865. In his will, Edward insisted that Caroline would be granted 200 pounds a year provided she never married again and moved to the other side of the world to live with her children in Ireland under the watchful eye of his Catholic family. Edward ordered his widow to live in a house chosen by Edward’s brother, where their children would be reared as Catholics. Caroline was left with scant legal rights to her home or children following her husband’s death after he came under the influence of his Irish Catholic brother William, who was determined to wrest his brother’s children away from their Protestant mother’s influence, as his brother sickened and then died. The will suggested that when her children reached adulthood, Caroline would receive a portion of her husband’s sizeable estate – accumulated with her contributions on marriage and their dual labour. The Victorian farm that the family had nurtured, and the children hoped to remain living upon, was ordered to be sold to fund the large family’s passage to Ireland.' (Introduction)