Hi everyone, I'm Ray and lurker up till now, but let me just give a warning about some Academic Historians and the publicity machine that comes with them. They don't have a high regard for us amateurs. Now I've only had experiences with one of the institutions named, but it was shared by several other rellos as well. Basically our judgements about the information we supplied (when approached) was scorned, and the final published result was a travesty. I was interviewed on National Radio about the resultant book chapter and it was obvious that the interviewer wanted me to gush about the wonderful insights that the writer had provided. I wasn't forthcoming (in a polite sort of a way) because I considered that the writer had done a pretty rushed and shabby job despite the PR hype. When the program went to air I found that my sentences were spliced and refitted together to provide what they wanted. Further my acknowledgements to the family people whose work I had built on were left out, leaving it looking like I was claiming all the credit for myself. The whole experience left me feeling cheated. Treat with care! Ray On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 2:53 PM, Grahame & Rosslyn Thom <grthom@bigpond.com>wrote: > Hi all > > I hope everyone is enjoying Australia Day. > > On page 3 of today's Age there is an article about "Proud convict > past an evoluntionary lesson for savory Darwin. > > The bottom line of this story is that the University of Tasmania, > together with the University of Melbourne will be collecting stories > as they "want to uncover these rich personal stories and migrate them > into the historical record." At the end of the article it state > "Visit www.foundersandsurvivors.org - details of "your convict" can > be registered on the site from February 10." > > It looks like a good project, but the one thing that annoys me is the > comment "Their post-convict lives are not part of the public record. > Instead, they are hidden away in private family archives - a secret > history." Have they not heard of Lesley and all the listers on this > mailing list???? > > Have a read of the article at > > http://www.theage.com.au/national/proud-convict-past-an-evolutionary- > lesson-for-snooty-darwin-20090125-7pgq.html > > cheers > > Grahame > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > AUS-PT-JACKSON-CONVICTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' > without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >