I might regularly win awards for my writing, but keeping up with social media is definitely not my strong point. Belatedly, I’m reporting that my latest book ‘Richard Ridge: Convict, Trader and Bailiff in Early Colonial NSW’ won the Don Grant Award 2025 for a family biography. The Award was presented at the annual Family History Connections luncheon in Melbourne on 31 May 2026.
The judges described the Ridge book as ‘the model of how a biography of an ancestor should be written’. Gail White (in pink in the photo), one of the three judges, came over to congratulate me after the presentation.
Two other books of mine about early convict settlers of the Hawkesbury, near Sydney, have also won awards from this group: ‘Southwark Luck’ won the Alexander Henderson Award in 2012 and ‘Sentenced to Debt’ won the Don Grant Award in 2020. My book about Sydney’s first professional scientific botanical illustrator, ‘Margaret Flockton: A Fragrant Memory’, published by Wakefield Press in Adelaide, won the Don Grant Award in 2016.
Eligibility for these awards is not restricted to members of Family History Connections (formerly the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies). No matter where you live in Australia, if you have a family or particular ancestor you care about it is well worth making the effort to fit within the entry guidelines for the Alexander Henderson and Don Grant Awards. The hurdle of publishing a book is easily overcome: since 2009 I have mostly used BookPOD in Melbourne to get my stories out of my laptop and into the hands of readers as an actual book. Thank you, BookPOD's Sylvie Blair (on the right in my photo).
A Sydneysider by birth, I've lived in Melbourne since 1987, so my work focused on so many people living in the Sydney area has required numerous fact-finding trips up and down the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne. Come to think of it, I should write a blog post about those trips - or use the Hume Highway as the setting for a novel, as I know that road and landscape so well! For now, you can find the Information about, and purchase details for, all thirteen of my existing books (nine family histories and four other books) on my website www.louisewilson.com.au