Having fled famine in Galway, my Irish ancestors toiled in the silk mills of Macclesfield. When the silk market crashed around 1860, my great, great grandfather, Thomas Kelly, made the momentous decision to try his luck in the colony and sailed for Sydney. His wife, Ann, bravely made the long journey a year later.
The luck of the Irish didn't follow them and Thomas was killed by a lightning strike. Widowed with three young children in this distant land with no family support or social services, I can't imagine how hard it must have been. Ann was on her own until her sister arrived 18 years later. But that's not the happy ending. When Ann's son's wife and twin baby died in childbirth, she moved to Melbourne to care for the surviving twin, my grandmother.
My grandmother also found herself widowed at a young age with seven children. Though I've never had to face such tragedy, I feel a very real connection to these women. It's their strength that inspires me. Their stories are not necessarily great stories of history, but they are extraordinary stories of survival.
Discovering my story began at Ancestry.com.au. When you can start with a name and then paint a picture of the real people and the stories behind those names, you come to realise that all the things you are have been shaped over a very long time.