Tuesday 17 October 2017

Writing the Family Saga - Flash Story 1



In this Unit of the Diploma we were encouraged to write on more than one ancestor in our Flash(short) stories. Again we had a 250 word limit, but with the added 100/150 word Reflective Statement.


Many of the characters appear in many of these stories, but told from different points of view as required by each activity's instructions. So you may have read of some of these before as all these Flash Stories are for writing practise.



STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT 

Fell to his death down a well...


Died of inflammation of the lungs...

What could link these two things together?

Louisa, Sugarloaf, Gunnedah, Sweden to name a few! Two similar but very different men married Louisa.

Alfred Brandt married Louisa Barker, after the birth of their seventh child, in January 1883.[1]They moved from Tasmania in 1870, where Alfred was a Gold Miner, to northern NSW. They settled seven miles out of Gunnedah, where Alfred became the Publican of the Sugarloaf Inn. They had been together for approximately fourteen years and had seven children.[2]Unfortunately six months after their marriage, Alfred fell to his death down a well. [3]

Three years after Alfred’s death August Engstrom married Louisa. She had been Publican of the Inn, in her own name since Alfred’s death. August assumed the role of Publican with the arrival of their first child and the eighth for the family.[4] Tragedy struck again with August dying from Inflammation of the lungs in 1888.[5]

Research shows that both Alfred and August were born in Sweden.[6]

Alfred and Louisa are my Great Grand Parents, so by default of her second marriage to August, he now appears on my tree.

Did these men know each other? I am yet to find out.

The common link in their stories is undoubtedly their love of one woman, Louisa. One strong woman, who even after the death of two husbands went on to provide a living for her large family of eight children.

How had these events affected her and her family in rural NSW in the late nineteenth century?

REFLECTIVE STATEMENT

My main decision in writing about Alfred and August was twofold. Firstly to highlight the similarities between the men. Secondly to introduce Louisa, who may make an appearance in later e-tivities.

The limited documentation for these three has led to many challenges in writings. I hope the more I find about this part of my Family Tree, will eventually add many branches with interesting leaves being told in stories.

The documentation stating that Alfred and Louisa married after the birth of their children, poses many unanswered questions for a Family Historian. 


1 Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950 Index Reg 685 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Accessed 12 August 2015, http://www.ancestry.com.au
2 Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 Index Reg #44 Alfred L BRANDT, Index Reg #135592 Magnus BRANDT, Index Reg #14877 Peter BRANDT; Index Reg #15707 John BRANDT; Index Reg #22850 George BRANDT; Index Reg #25169 William BRANDT; Index Reg #17610 Ethel BRANDT; [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010 accessed 12 August 2015, http://www.ancestry.com.au
3 Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985, Index Reg#8157 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 18 August 2015 , http://www.ancestry.com.au.
4 Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922 F ranges Engstrom, [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. http://www.ancestry.com.au
5 Family Notices (1888, March 31). Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907), p. 34.
Retrieved May 27, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71095921
6 Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985, Index Reg#8157 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 18 August 2015 , http://www.ancestry.com.au
Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. http://www.ancestry.com.au

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