Author Talk Dr Samantha Battams: Paving the Way

Gawler Libraries and Gawler Cultural Heritage Centre are proud to present an author talk by Dr Samantha Battams, as she discusses her latest release.

Paving the Way: Pioneer Ancestors from England, Ireland, Prussia and Bavaria to South Australia and New Zealand commences as an adoption story, as the author searches the genetic origins of her father, which spurs further research on her European pioneer ancestors of South Australia, who all arrived from 1837 to 1853. They include Kavel's people, a group of Prussians who with the support of George Fife Angas, founder of the South Australia Company, fled religious persecution and first settled at Klemzig, before establishing the Barossa Valley, and Bavarian Johann Gramp, who was the first commercial winemaker in the Barossa. The story also traces the arrival of the Fahy family, which starts when Edmund Fahy and his two younger sisters (one only 10 years old) leave Clare, Ireland, sponsored by Edward Stirling to work in the mining town of Kapunda. They initially settle at Templers, outside Gawler. The book also traces the well-known Rumbelow family of Encounter Bay, along with the White, Lomman, Heading and Battams families who were early settlers in South Australia, and the Heslop, Miller, Thompson and Parsons families who settled in Canterbury, New Zealand. There is a 'DNA surprise' discovered along the way. The story is set in the social and historical context of the six generations which is spans, with vignettes on interesting characters, including women in the family, and of early interactions with Aboriginal people across South Australia. It also explores the effects of the World Wars on working class families. It reflects on the nature of families and social change, particularly for women, and the impacts of colonisation for Aboriginal people in South Australia.

About Samantha:

Dr Samantha Battams is an author specialising in non-fiction historical books. She has written two true crime books on poisoning cases, a story (with Les Parsons) about SA Pioneer aviator Harry Butler, and a family history story on early pioneers to South Australia and New Zealand (Paving the Way). She is an Associate Professor at Adelaide University (Stretton Health Equity) and has a PhD in Public Health (Flinders University), Honours degree in Sociology (UTas), and has worked in public health and global health for 30 years, including in Geneva, Switzerland. She is the local convenor for the SA chapter of Sisters in Crime.