Fearless Females - Day 1

Once again, in honour of National Women’s History Month, Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog presents Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month. You can read the prompts HERE.

I had not planned to take part this year. I am still exhausted from February and if I am honest I am still writing and reading from that, but the question for today is

 "Do you have a favourite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check."

Drawing by Esther Bellasis nee King left
in Australia in 1803.
Original located at the Mitchell Library

One of my favourite ancestors has got to be Esther King. I have written about Esther before and won't bore you with more details about her (you can use the search facility!), but Esther has been inspirational.

What started out as a name with a date on my family tree has become so much more. The main delight was finding a single piece of artwork left in Australia in 1803.

• Was that the only piece of work she did? 
• Has anymore survived, in Australia, India or the UK?
• Where did she find her inner strength to deal with the issues she faced?

When I looked again at the life of Esther I wanted to write about her, I then looked to her sisters and realised as I researched that they are such an amazing family of women - 10 siblings of which 9 are girls. 

How could I possibly leave their stories confined to the past?