All our tracks and ways - available October 2024

In 1862 a middle-aged couple, James and Frances Reed, accompanied by all ten of their adult children, left their established home in Sydney to restart their lives 800 kilometres away in the fledgling far western NSW town of Bourke. “All our tracks and ways” records their life stories and those of their parents and children, three generations of ordinary working people who forged a better life for their descendants built on kinship, initiative and enterprise.

Covering the whole of the 19th century, the book portrays the struggles and successes of a family of ordinary people from rural England and Ireland. The background to their lives features the Napoleonic and Aboriginal Wars, the development of democracy in NSW and the experience of women on the frontier of European settlement in Australia.

 "All our tracks and ways" will be released in October 2024. It has appeal for Reed descendants, the Bourke community and readers of Australian history. Click the image at left for more details.

Author James Michael Fleming has been researching and writing family history for over forty years and has previously published two catalogues of family photographs and a facsimile copy of the emigration diary of his GG grandfather, Charles Fleming. In 2019 he received a Highly Commended award in the Society of Australian Genealogists’ Croker Prize biographical essay competition for “A Noble Harvest”, about his GG-grandmother Elizabeth Taylor. The Society also published two of his articles in its journal Descent; the Bathurst Family History Group published one in its journal Carillon Chimes; and the Fleming Clan Society published two in its journal The Deed and several more on its website, www.clanflemingintl.org. He has also published many family biographies, short stories and detailed research reports on his website www.jimfleming.id.au.