Wednesday Wanderings with ARR authors.

MY OBSESSION - FAMILY HISTORY
by Kaye Dobbie

I do love researching my family tree. If you’ve read my latest book, Sweet Wattle Creek, you might have noticed in the biography that Family History is my hobby, but really, it is more of an obsession.

For someone who loves history and research, genealogy is a dream come true. Often when I’m stuck for a plot, a family story will give me the spark of an idea, and I’m away. I also find myself using family surnames in my stories, although I try not to use those of living relatives. That can get tricky, especially if the character isn’t a nice one and the relative takes offence!

I’ve been researching my ancestors for many years now, and lately I’ve taken to DNA testing, which gives me a whole new area to investigate. It’s also given me a whole load of new cousins and potential relatives to add to my family tree. I’m always amazed by which genes different family members inherit and which ones they don’t. It seems so random. I have a big chunk of the Scottish Hebrides in me, as well ancestors who farmed on the Devon and Cornish border as far back as the 1500s.

As much as I enjoy researching the origins of my family in Britain and Europe, I am an Australian first. My father’s family were some of the earliest white settlers in the Port Phillip District of Victoria. They came from adversity and struggled to support their large family through tough times. I like to think their descendants have inherited some of their spirit.

Returning to Sweet Wattle Creek, one of the ideas for a subplot in the story came from my mother’s memories of seeing the aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith on a barnstorming tour of Victoria. Sweet Wattle Creek itself is an amalgam of some of the towns in Northern Victoria my mother’s family resided in, and there are plenty of snippets in there that she shared with me during our conversations about her family. I find it all helps to give flavour to my stories, to make them ‘real’.

Above my desk, I have a photograph of Florence. She was the inspiration for the character Alice, in my book Colours of Gold. Florence was my grandmother’s big sister, and when she was about seventeen, she contracted diphtheria and died. Many children died of diphtheria in the days before immunisation, and my grandmother had another sister called Daisy who also succumbed. When I began writing Colours of Gold, I just knew Alice looked like Florence, and having her photograph certainly helped me to write Alice’s story.

In both books, Sweet Wattle Creek and Colours of Gold, the modern day characters are researching into the past, delving into records and newspapers, using methods I have used myself. There’s nothing like the excitement of following a clue through to its conclusion, of discovering the truth about an elusive ancestor.

Family history research trips throughout Australia and overseas, have supplied me with many bits and pieces of information. I’ve always collected brochures and pamphlets-you just never know when they might come in handy. And despite what people think, not everything can be found on the internet. Often I discover the most interesting of facts, something that fits perfectly into my story, in the most obscure of places. Again, it helps to lift the characters from words on a page to ‘real’ people.

Finally, something that intrigues me about my family tree is: Are there any authors among my ancestors? Well, there are plenty of book lovers. We are a family of bookaholics. Some of us (who shall be nameless) can’t pass a bookshop without going inside. But as for authors, I’m still looking. A great, great grandfather wrote a diary on the voyage to Australia that was rather boring, and another more distant ancestor wrote a Clan history. Yes, that is promising, but not quite what I’m looking for. I still have high hopes that one day I might find someone who loved to write a good mystery with plenty of romance.

In the meantime I’m quite happy chipping away at the romance and mystery in my own family tree.

Kaye

A vintage wedding dress reveals family secrets she never knew…

The chance discovery of a vintage wedding dress weaves together the fascinating stories of three women from different eras: Sophie, in hiding from a troubled past; Belle, who must lose everything to learn what really matters; and Martha, forced to give up those she loves in order to avoid exposure.

It’s 1930 and Belle Bartholomew has arrived in rural Sweet Wattle Creek to claim her inheritance – a run-down grand hotel formerly owned by Martha Ambrose. Determined to solve the mystery of her birth and the reason why she was bequeathed the hotel Belle runs into difficulties with the townsfolk and their desire to keep their secrets safe.

Sixty years later Sophie Matheson is on a quest to find Belle and her family after discovering the wedding dress. The Sweet Wattle Creek Centenary brings more challenges when her past catches up and she must fight for all that matters to her. Who were Belle and Martha and what links their lives together?

Sweet Wattle Creek is availablein eBook and paperback from all good retailers.
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The child has no name, she’s a little girl…lost and forgotten.

1867: Named by the wife of the paddle steamer captain who finds her half drowned in the Murray River, Alice must survive in a world that reviles her. Because Alice has a gift…or a curse. She can see an aura of colours around the people she meets — and those colours tell her of impending doom.

With her friend Rosey, Alice runs away to the gold fields and then joins a troupe of entertainers where people pay to hear her predictions. But she can never escape her past…along with the frightening man in the dark coat who follows her wherever she goes…

Present: Annie Reuben is an art restorer in her father’s business, but times are tough. After being given a long-lost painting found in the basement of a condemned hotel, Annie becomes intrigued by the two girls who stare out at her from the ruined canvas.

Who were Alice and Rosey? And why does Annie find their lives so important? As Annie becomes caught up with finding answers from the past, she finds herself being stalked by the same frightening man in the dark coat who follows her wherever she goes…

Colours of Gold is available in eBook and paperback format from all good retailers.
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Amazon Australia
iBooks
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Kaye also writes under the names Sara Bennett, Deborah Miles and Lilly Sommers. Visit her webpage for more information.

Visit Kaye on her website KayeDobbie.com
Visit Kaye Dobbie on Facebook

 

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