Monday 28 January 2013

The Indentured Man - new book

I've had an email from Stephen Ward, who has just had a go at telling the story of an ancestor in his new book, The Indentured Man - the story of William Gaze Pioneer Settler to Australia. Having had a go myself at writing up a family tale recently for a book, and knowing the effort it takes, I'm only too happy to give him a plug! Here's a description of the book from Stephen himself:

William Gaze is a distant ancestor of mine and was born in the small village of Churchdown near Gloucester in 1801. Growing up in the shadow of Napoleonic England, with the growing development of the Industrial Revolution, he realised that the rural craft of wheelwright and carpenter was steadily coming to an end. In 1829 he became indentured to a Thomas Peel and sailed for the newly founded Swan River Colony in Western Australia. The first ship load of Peel's settlers found the Swan River to be an inhospitable area. They faced exposure, disease and starvation in the sand dunes south of Fremantle. Peel did not pay his workers in cash, only promisory notes and in 1830 William Gaze took Peel to court to be freed of his indentures. He succeeded and became a free man - only to meet an untimely end at the hand of an aboriginal freedom fighter.

The book is available from Amazon at www.amazon.co.uk/The-Indentured-Man-William-Australian/dp/148018425X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359394749&sr=8-1 with a free preview. There is a Kindle edition or paperback - sounds a great read!

Chris

Pre-order my new book, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet, through Pen and Sword (30 April 2013), or purchase early at Who Do You Think You Are Live 2013 in London. For my other genealogy books, please visit  http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/p/my-books.html; whilst for my online Scottish based genealogy courses please visit the Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd site.

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