About

About the writer

James Michael Fleming has been researching and writing family history for over forty years. He has published several books and numerous journal articles on associated subjects.

All Our Tracks and Ways (2024) provides a detailed history of three generations of the Reed family of Staffordshire and New South Wales. Meticulous research on several picture collections produced the Kessey Photograph Collection (2013) and its Fleming equivalent (2015). Townsville or Hell! (2012) documents his GG-grandparents’ 1883 emigration voyage from Glasgow to Queensland.

Jim is a committee member and historian for the international Clan Fleming Scottish Society and a member of the Society of Australian Genealogists, the Bathurst Family History Group, the Entwistle Family History Association and the Turton Local History Society. Several of these historical societies have published his articles in their journals, including Descent, Carillon Chimes, The Deed and the Twissle Times. In 2019 he received a Highly Commended award for his Croker Prize biographical essay A Noble Harvest, about his GG-grandmother Elizabeth Taylor.

In addition to Scottish, Irish, English and Australian heritage, Jim boasts Aboriginal ancestry through his 4G-grandmother "Mary" of the Mowgee clan of the Wiradjuri nation. He obtained an Economics degree from the University of Sydney before enjoying a 33-year career with Australian Customs, culminating in several years as a Director. In retirement he lives on Sydney’s lower north shore, enjoys travelling and sings baritone in the Leichhardt Espresso Chorus.

Jim's next book

During 2027 and 2028 he plans to publish Scotland's Fleming Clan: a Genealogical History across two volumes, Origins and Rise and Fall. It narrates the family’s contribution to five centuries of Scotland’s turbulent history. Jim has also completed and plans to publish a complementary reference book: Original Records of the Fleming Family of Scotland, Earls of Wigtown.

Jim's genealogy website

Jim maintains another website to share his genealogy research with members of the extended family. It provides biographies of his immediate forebears and extensive information on other members of the family with special pages for research reports, stories, convicts and memorials.

Check out Jim's genealogy website at www.jimfleming.id.au.

To contact Jim

The Contacts page provides information on how you can contact Jim.