Tassie Trails - from Family Heritage to World Heritage

Our Family History research has been a theme in our travels for many years. We have been known to picnic in cemeteries (much to our children's chagrin) and it was the compass for our 2014 trip "Returning to our Roots" when we visited locations in Germany, Scotland, England and Ireland....our ancestors' countries of emigration. For some it was to find a better life, for others it was to escape political oppression and for others, well, it was at the pleasure of His Majesty.

This theme led us to small, out of the way places like Altenau and Tangermunde in Germany, and Bir and Kenmare in Ireland where Wendy's relatives came from. And it led us to Kinnegad in Ireland .......a small, rural, boggy, nondescript township out of Dublin that was the ancestral home of the Bests in Australia. Until recent years we suspected, but did not actually know, that we are descendants of the poorest of the poor, the Bog Irish.

The story of John Best is fascinating .....but only one of many in Australian/ Irish convict history, and it would never have been known except that convicts have records....and they have been well kept.

This trip to Tasmania is, in part, to follow the fate of John Best and his family, from Irish convict to free farmer......with all its trials, tribulations and hardships. The highlights of their lives (mostly being able to own land, sunshine and eat regularly) and the tragedies of a murdered daughter and a son hanged for the murder of a fellow farmer. The efforts of his descendants to make good, and their efforts to hide the shame of their antecedents, has been part of our family's oral history for generations......but the internet has changed all that.

The story of John and Mary Best is  chronicled in Mark Rowland's outstanding blog, "Just One Australian". It has been the inspiration for us to follow up what happened to him and his family after boarding the Minerva in Cobh Harbour, Cork in December 1817.......bound for Van Dieman's Land.... at the other end of the earth.

This fascinating story, 199 years old and a major impetus of our visit can be explored further here:-

http://justoneaustralian.blogspot.com.au

The Minerva approaching Hobart, June 1818
(Photo from the "justoneaustralian" blog)

Only a few days to go!