Can you help?

Novel Research - BOOTHEY / CORBELL / PENDLEBURY

My name is Kim Lock, and I am an author based in the Barossa Valley. I am writing a novel based on the life of my 3x great-grandmother, Sophia Lock (nee Boothey) who, as a child, emigrated from England and settled with her parents, Thomas and Sarah Boothey, in Cherry Gardens in the 1840s. Sophia Boothey married Jacob Lock on 28th September 1850 in the Wesleyan Chapel Cherry Gardens. Thomas and Sarah Boothey’s eldest son was Joseph Boothey, who is listed on the Cherry Chatter website, as an early settler.

I am seeking contact with any Boothey descendants who may today hold personal items or information from the early Boothey settlers or their children or grandchildren. In particular I am interested in letters, diaries, enduring anecdotes or recollections, and photographs. Though I am writing a fictionalised account of my ancestor's life, I would love to gain as much factual information as possible.

In particular, I am seeking information regarding daily life in the early colonial Cherry Gardens area. Things such as:

• was there a local midwife available for birthing women at that time?

• What sorts of foods were commonly prepared and eaten daily?

• What sorts of rituals surrounded life events such as birth and death?

• What sorts of medicines or medical care, if any, did they employ when sick or injured?

Other names descended from Thomas and Sarah Boothey upon marriage of their daughters are Lock, Corbell and Pendlebury.

Any assistance in locating any descendants who may be interested in helping me would be greatly appreciated. I can be contacted on email: kim.lock@adam.com.au
www.kimlock.com.au