Carol Baxter

I am an author, historian and genealogist, having first become interested in family history research while still at school. My career as a professional genealogist began when I was appointed Project Officer of the Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record (ABGR) in the 1980s. In that role I edited six volumes of early New South Wales muster returns (similar to Census returns) and later the Convict Indents for 1788-1812. I later became General Editor of the revamped ABGR – the Biographical Database of Australia (BDA) – yet to go online. For my services to Australian genealogy, I was voted a Fellow of the Society of Australian Genealogists in 2002.

These days, I write and speak full-time. My writing career took off in 2005 when I sent an unfinished manuscript (the story of a political sex scandal in NSW in 1829) to Allen & Unwin expecting that it would be rejected. To my surprise, I received a call only two weeks later expressing interest in the manuscript. The book was published in 2006 as An Irresistible Temptation. Breaking the Bank (2008) and Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady (2011) were also published by Allen & Unwin, and I have a contract for another book, The Lucretia Borgia of Botany Bay, to be published in 2014. Meanwhile, my fourth book (title still to be determined) is being published internationally by Britain’s OneWorld publishing house in 2013.

When undertaking my Thunderbolt research, I became associated with Dr David Andrew Roberts at the University of New England, and we co-wrote an article Exposing and Exposé which was published in the international Journal of Australian Studies in 2012. From that association, I was invited to become an adjunct lecturer at UNE.

Over the last half-dozen years, I have given hundreds of talks including author talks, research seminars and writing seminars. I was one of the speakers on the first Unlock the Past Cruise and am a guest speaker on the third cruise. I have also spoken at the Sydney Institute, and the Australian and Union Clubs. 

For further information: see www.carolbaxter.com.