Alexander Henderson Award, 2011

The September 2011 edition of The Genealogist, the official magazine of the Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies (AIGS), contains the results of this year's Alexander Henderson Award. The Award has stirred up a little bit of controversy - only eleven books were submitted to the judges this year, and five were disqualified for not being a family history.

One of the five was my book, about which the judges said:
A well-written story that makes an excellent contribution to the field of the lives of convicts and their contributions to building of Australia, but it is not a family history, rather a biography.

I am told that the AIGS plans to redress the situation by introducing an additional award for biography, to be named in honour of its co-founder Don Grant, who died on 30 June 2011. The books disqualified this year will be eligible for the new award next year.

Note: The book about Paul Bushell is available online through BookPOD.