I don’t often do book reviews, but I wanted to share something about this one with you.

Having just finished reading Carol Baxter’s book “The Peculiar Case of the Electric Constable: A True Tale of Passion, Poison and Pursuit” it leaves me without a doubt that reality most certainly can be far stranger than fiction.

A Sydneysider, Carol Baxter is an internationally acclaimed author who has made her mark in the literary world with her unique genre – one I’m not even sure of the title of – but it is  true history written like a novel. Based on what I’ve read I would she’s mastered it. Carol doesn’t write a novel adding in some historical references as some do, but rather the entire story she tells is based on history.

The year is 1838, and James Bell a young man from Scotland has said goodbye to his family and the love of his life, and has made his way to Southampton to embark on the voyage of a lifetime. He was one of more than 90 passengers who boarded the “Planter” ship on 23 November 1838, all eager to reach their new homeland South Australia in a few short months.

Little did they know what was in store. And if it wasn’t for James Bell writing in his diary, we wouldn’t have known what would have happened on the one of the most adventurous, tragic, exciting, and exhausting voyages ever.

Sound intriguing? It is … Titled “A Journey To Australia: A Journal by James Bell“, the book is the diary of a guy who migrated to South Australia in 1839, and in my opinion it’s is just as exciting as any thriller book I’ve read. I would go as far to say that it is one of the most AMAZING books I’ve ever read in my life.

The dictionary defines serendipity as “the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident”, therefore I would think that genealogy serendipity could be defined as “finding genealogical information by accident” … right?

I have read of this happening to others, and through their words could even feel their excitement. Even the happy dancing bit! But seriously this is one of those “it’ll-never-ever-ever-happen-to-me-in-a-million-years” things, which I was cool with, and life goes on. But apparently today was out to prove me wrong. So let me take you through my serendipity moment.

Behind every researcher there is a great big, huge, pile of reference books that they constantly use to help them along the way. This pile of reference books can start right from the beginning when you are an amateur researcher, and continues right through to the professionals. And just to be clear, I’m not confining this habit of collecting reference books just to family history researchers … but shall go as far as saying that it encompasses ALL researchers, in ALL fields. So for R my post in the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge

R is for REFERENCE BOOKS

Now to bring this topic back to genealogy … well, I for one know that I would be lost without my reference books.