Australian Series #4 of WDYTYA

[Nova67]

Watching Melissa George episode at present. Currently reading David Hill's, The Forgotten Children: Fairbridge Farm School and Its Betrayal of Child Migrants to Australia.  David Hill being the former Managing Director of the ABC, and a former Fairbridge Farm School boy, eventually reunited with his mother.
Another book on the subject of child migration is Empty Cradles by Margaret Humphreys, which was a feature film as "Oranges and Sunshine" in 2011.
The Leaving of Liverpool (1992) was a mini series based on child migration in the 1950's.
Missing bits... taping, will rewatch.

[Wiggy]

I enjoyed it - some powerful stories in that family!!   Phew! 

I've seen 'The Leaving of Liverpool' and read some stories about those child migrants - touch times weren't they!

[MarieC]

I quite enjoyed the Melissa George story.  The bit about the prison warder on Rottnest Island didn't really grab me - just seemed to revolve round the point that the ancestor could have been brutal towards the aboriginal prisoners like his bosses, but she proved that he wasn't.  Not a lot about the ancestor apart from that.  I really enjoyed the other story, though, exploring the issue of child migrants and some of the many factors that lay behind it.  Fascinating social history and a poignant exploration of a tragic family situation.  Very well done!  Maybe the point could have been made, briefly, that inquest files do not usually survive in England and that is why they would have been looking at the report in the newspaper (or did I miss it?)  (Sorry, Diana, I always seem to find a small issue!)

I reckon this series is going pretty well, though!  Have to make sure I am home on Tuesday nights and take the phone off the hook!

MarieC

[deeiluka]

Very tough times, Wiggy! No Centrelink or much in the way of other support systems to speak of back then......
So hard on the children - but would it have been any easier if the aunt had remained looking after them, I wonder?

I really enjoy the glimpses of different aspects of Australian history that we see in these episodes.

(Thought I was going to miss the final episode as I'd be travelling by train to Sydney! Thank goodness I'm now going after episode #5 and will be in Sydney for episode #6.  I would have hated to miss it!)


Dee    

[Ruskie]

I really enjoyed this episode, and not as many tears as I expected. 

I agree with Marie about the Rottnest family. It seemed that her ancestor might have been a nasty chap, but she seemed to be in denial that a member of her family could have been less than nice. Then she set out to prove he was a kind and true man. She found the nice obit about him, but I'm not sure that would be proof enough. Surely obits always focus on the positives of the recently deceased. I'm also not sure the two prisoners protecting him during the altercation in prison is proof enough of what a good bloke he was either. There could have been any number of reasons that they went to his aid. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between. However she seemed satisfied that he had been wrongly portrayed.

I really enjoyed her mother's side of the story. I don't think that she managed to look up one single document though - except the newspaper (but the relevant article was pointed out to her). This may have been a record as far as being handed the relevant documents goes. Nevertheless a very interesting story. I think I liked this because the family was so ordinary. I think all of us have stories such as this in our history, strings of tragic events, and remarriages to deceased wives sisters. We do, don't we. Or maybe it's just mine. 

Another excellent episode.

PS. Diana, what hotel did Melissa George stay in when she stayed in Dorset (I think it was)? Some papers were delivered to her there and she was shown walking up the stairs to her room.

[MarieC]

I really enjoyed her mother's side of the story. I don't think that she managed to look up one single document though - except the newspaper (but the relevant article was pointed out to her). This may have been a record as far as being handed the relevant documents goes. Nevertheless a very interesting story. I think I liked this because the family was so ordinary. I think all of us have stories such as this in our history, strings of tragic events, and remarriages to deceased wives sisters. We do, don't we. Or maybe it's just mine. 

Spot on, Ruskie!!

I wasn't even going to mention the spoon feeding because I seem to always be harping on it, but yes, I did notice how much there was!

And quite agree about the way the family struck common chords for me as well as you, and possibly others.  I had a ggrandfather who was sent out here from Ireland, age 14, in the middle of the 19th century when his family fell on hard times.  He was keen to come, and made good, but was sent to two uncles who may not have been ideal guardians for a young lad!    So there were some common factors.

Perhaps this is the main strength of WDYTYA - when it manages to engage family historians with themes that are common to many families.

MarieC

[Wiggy]

I think the marrying of the wife's sister seems to have been quite common - as was the remarriage fairly quickly when there was a family to look after - with no social support, how else was the family to be looked after - seems a very reasonable solution to me - and one which has also occurred in my family a couple of times - probably for the same reasons!

I think most of the documents are probably 'spoon-fed' - even if they don't appear to be - how else would they make the programme?? - pretty boring taking  all the time it takes for find out things!!   

Looking forward to next week already!

Wiggy

[Ruskie]

True Wiggy, but I remember in some of the past UK episodes of WDYTYA, they actually showed the celebreties looking through the censuses, through parish records etc. Of course the page has already been marked for them to 'find', but it did give an inkling of what kind of searching is involved to find these details about our ancestors. It wasn't shown in real time either so not boring at all. A couple of times a celeb would simply be handed an ancient tome and be left alone to get on with the searching. I presume there was someone around to lend a hand behind the scenes though, but you did get the impression that they were going to be there for some time. 

I think Melissa George's family seemed to leave a fair paper trail, and it just seemed like they might as well have just passed on a pile of photocopies to her. Pertinent documents were repeatedly being pulled out from between a pile of papers.  But, her family story was explained well by the experts, and she had Nick Barratt there to help her. I have not seen him in any other Australian WDYTYAs and would like to ask Diana how they got him on board to help with Melissa's story? Another question Diana, which you may not wish to answer ... Would someone like Nick Barratt be paid to appear in this show? Presumably he had some minions to gather the evidence - certificates etc and put the story together, or did he himself do the reasearch? Just curious. 

Another question for Diana - did Melissa purchase a headstone for her ggg(?)grandparent's grave, as she implied she was going to do?

[cocksie]

I would like to know what happened to the aunt/stepmum. Did she go to Canada? Make another life there?