Over the last few weeks I’ve really had my head down ploughing through a lot of research websites and documents following multiple threads of information that may or may not lead me to the little gold nuggets of information I seek for Bon Alliance.
Consequently I’ve got a case of information overload which has forced me to organise the facts and find a project management system to suit my needs. I know there’s plenty of software out there but on a zero budget and working on the KISS principle, Excel is my preferred system.
I’ve been using excel for a while now to build a spread sheet of Jean’s life and all the different characters who played important roles in it, along with the background streams of what was going on in New South Wales, Australia, Bordeaux and the World at the same time he was alive.
Each row represents a year starting from the French Revolution when Jean’s grand father was executed and father rescued/hidden/or lucky enough to survive through to 1900 which roughly covers the lifespan of the story… which carried on for 20 or so colourful years after Jean’s death.
It’s a pretty quick way to marry up the important years when a lot is happening in Jean’s world on personal/emotional, business, political and community levels. At a glance, I can see and piece together a year in the life of Jean Serisier and choose the more interesting ones for the book to hopefully achieve my second main goal which is to engage readers to keep turning the pages to the very end.
Like everyone’s life there are years for Jean where it must have been drudgery to get up in the morning for the endless stream of things that seemed to go wrong, even for a man who is clearly a high achiever and demonstrates a great capacity for getting things done.
The project management system I use will eventually be a grand document to print out. I say grand because it’s going to be big in size. For Dubbo, it will be a comprehensive reference point for highlights in the life of their town’s founder. The book will be a summary of these points told in a hopefully more palatable way.
The image I’m sharing today is from recent research. I knew Jean’s wife’s second husband eventually settled in Western Australia. As it turns out in a place called Siberia which is almost funny considering the havoc he reigned upon Jean’s assets and life work he may well have been in a sort of exile. I found this obituary of Margaret on Trove. It sounds like a big funeral for a well respected lady surrounded by family and friends. Jean’s death seems so stark by comparison, alone in Paris with his son, Hippolyte and the employees who reported this passing to officials.
King of Dubbo 