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Who Do You Think You Are?: Aug 5

Amanda Keller say her episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be "the most important thing I have ever done for the family.”

2014-08-04_0113Amanda Keller maintains that her episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will be “the most important thing I have ever done for the family”  (surely not more than being a mum, Amanda?).

But the episode will take her to the Gates of Hell and back…

Popular radio and television presenter Amanda Keller discovers her bloodline has survived against all odds. In the new Australian series of Who Do You Think You Are? 7:30pm Tuesday 5 August on SBS ONE Amanda finds an ancestor who faced hell on earth in Australia’s most brutal prison and a mother fighting to save her family in the face of tragedy.

With help from her father, Arthur, Amanda discovers her Great Great Great Grandfather John Edwards was living in Tasmania in 1843. John was a convict transported to Macquarie Harbour Penal Station – one of the most brutal places in the British Empire.

Amanda is astonished to learn that John was incarcerated on Sarah Island. Amanda takes a boat to Sarah Island where the colony detained the most violent and monstrous criminals, via the notorious waterway the “Gates of Hell”. She discovers that it is very rare to have an ancestor from there as only 1,152 prisoners ever served time there. Amanda is shocked by its remoteness and the brutal treatment dealt out to the convicts.

Back in Hobart, Amanda learns that her Great Great Great Grandmother, Charlotte Woolf was one of the passengers on the Princess Royal, a bride ship, which arrived in September 1832. John Edwards gained his freedom in 1833, and despite his convict background and lack of resources, he and Charlotte married. But despite having ten children together there was no happy ever after for Amanda’s Great Great Great Grandparents. In 1864 John was charged with threatening to take Charlotte’s life.

“I was forgiving of John Edwards indiscretions that got him on to Sarah Island. It’s not as easy to be forgiving of his final actions against his wife” – Amanda Keller

Amanda’s father had told her about there being a Cobb and Co coach driver somewhere on his maternal line. Amanda travels to Toowoomba and at the Cobb and Co Museum she finds out her Great Grandfather Harry Bruce worked for the iconic company and was known as ‘Flash Harry’.

Amanda meets Flash Harry’s granddaughters who help her uncover more information about the Bruce family. She discovers that William and Mary Clark were the first of this line to come to Australia. In March 1837, the Clark family boarded the ship John Barry; bound for Sydney, part of an immigration scheme for skilled workers. After 111 days the John Barry arrived in Australian shores with disease on board and immediately went into quarantine.

At the Quarantine Station on North Head, Manly, Amanda learns her ancestors survived the voyage but William Clark died of typhus fever during quarantine.

Amanda’s Great Great Great Grandmother Mary and her four children were left without their breadwinner. Mary was forced to send two of her children to Orphan School and to take employment far away. Amanda learns of the hardships Mary and her children faced, and her resilience and determination to reunite her family.

“When you look at the near misses along the way: John Edwards, Mary and William, to have survived all that, to go on. To think that’s why I’m here, and that’s why my children are here, it’s extraordinary,” – Amanda Keller.

7:30pm Tuesday 5 August on SBS ONE

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