Upon the discovery of a female convict at the launch of our Family Tree in 1969, my mother, Jennifer Lane, was curious to know more about her great-great-great-grandmother. A search spanning fifty years has led to this fascinating story about her convict ancestor Susannah Smith and her life in England before she was transported to NSW in 1802-1803 for seven years.
Jennifer explored the people, places, culture, criminal justice system, time in history, even the climate and the weather, that shaped not only Susannah’s life but the lives of ordinary people, especially women and girls, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
To make this story come alive Jennifer created conversations with Susannah and the many characters that influenced her life for good or ill. She researched and imagined scenes to ‘fill in the gaps’, without altering known facts. Jennifer has seamlessly woven the story of the researcher and her subject into Susannah’s story and that of her own.