Lives found
between the lines.
Once Removed reconstructs the lives of ancestors whose journeys brought branches of one family to Australia. Some came by choice. Others had none.
Explore the novels
Every record leaves something out.
The records called them convicts, immigrants, orphans, wives, labourers and paupers. Written by a descendant and psychologist, these stories ask what removal did to them, and what they built from what remained.
Young & Condemned
A Nottingham boy is sentenced to seven years’ transportation for stealing potted beef. Exile, work, marriage, children and land carry his life far beyond the sentence that first recorded his name.
Explore the book and records“The record tells me what happened. The novel asks what it meant.”
The novels tell the story. This site shows the evidence.
Follow the documented events, meet the people behind the novels, and see where the surviving record ends and reconstruction begins.
Questions about the methodA map of removals
Explore how the books sit in one family tree, from the first arrivals in each line to the stories still being researched.
Explore the book tree