Finding a Future by Rodney G. Miller

 

 

Finding a Future is the story of a family’s pursuit of independence; hard-working northern Europeans and new generations who find lives in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States. Rodney Miller shares how the unspoken past of voyage takers enabled new lives in new worlds, by taking hazardous sea journeys to escape hardship, old-world poverty, disease or persecution. As Miller explores family history, he uncovers the life of ancestors in the poorest parts of Scotland, England, Northern Ireland, and Germany. In this family history and personal memoir, he sketches lives from the 1700s in the old world to new opportunities in far-off lands. He shares reminiscence and glimpses of Australia through to the 1970s, as he grew up to find his own future. Miller finds ancestors’ transformations from laborer to quartermaster, footman to farmer, gravedigger to greengrocer, schoolteacher to court officer, and salesman to senior manager. With views into old worlds and new, this is a story of grit and commitment, of family joys and premature loss, of love pursued, and solitude endured… a warm remembrance of the valued lives of forebears, family, and friends.