When Tony Berry received an email from a hitherto unheard-of cousin researching her family history it set him off on an unex-pected journey from his home in Australia to the valleys of Wales, the mill towns of Yorkshire and the Sussex coast. Along the way – and hand in hand with his cousin now his partner – he discovered unknown relatives in New Zealand, Norway and the USA. Stories were uncovered of abject poverty, sudden workplace deaths, hardship and perseverance. Instead of the hoped-for landed gentry and honoured dignitaries they found a family tree of labourers, tidewaiters, shipwrights, preachers, weavers, cotton pickers, maids, servants and paupers. This is their story … written from the author’s new home on the other side of the world.
