One Family, Many Connections: Using the FAN club in one Australian locality

Family historians know only too well the importance of researching the family/friends, neighbours and associates (the FAN club) of direct line ancestors. Any information we find does not become truly valuable until placed into a community or cluster or network context. Harvesting the clues in the FAN club gives us the potential to further advance our research as well as provide pointers to other records or fragments. So, what genealogical details would be found if the FAN principle was applied to one family in a locality? This presentation will show how one such network or cluster evolved in the Hunter Valley region; one which was to be hugely influential in the growth years of the New South Wales colony and in the development of Australia as a nation.