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General => Technical Help => Family History Programs, Tree Organisation, Presentation => Topic started by: Mart 'n' Al on Saturday 10 February 18 13:58 GMT (UK)
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Naturally I don't want to make my family history a work of fiction, but I want to try and make it more interesting than just a list of events. I'd be interested to hear what other people have done.
Basically I start with all or part of an ahnentafel report, and then add things such as local and world events which my family might have experienced, descriptions of a hypothetical street corner pub perhaps, or a local sporting event. I have a nautical ancestor and I've added descriptions from the time of the ports which he visited. Adverts from local papers have also been added. If a child grew up in a seaport then I might add a description of how the quayside might have looked as a large ship came into Dock.
I'm sure there are purists here who would scorn my idea, but I would be interested in any and all suggestions on this theme. I should add that I am writing this mainly for extended family both living and future, to read rather than having any hopes of a wider audience.
I like the idea of an ancestor looking in a shop window, or perhaps whistling a popular song of the day. I've even wondered whether one of my ancestors had a dog called Trump.
Martin
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What an interesting idea Mart
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Batty, thank you, better than my partner who is scoffing.
Martin
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I have done something similar and relate my family's history with the events going on in the world at the time and give some background as to what the norms were for the times. Most people are not to interested in the minute details of dates of baptism etc. so my family history is more of a narrative.
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I think it depends on your target audience and the purpose of the exercise. For example my dad was in business with his father from 1930 to the beginning of WW2 as builders in the Midsomer Norton and Radstock area, and whilst there is scant documented evidence of the actual business side, just a few plans, a few scraps of financial details, but a complete record of all the houses which they built and their clients. So in this case my brother an I put together an account for publication by the local Museum Society.
On the other hand I tend to pick out certain parts of the family and their travels around the country, and beyond, looking at the reasons why perhaps they moved as they did.
And then my OH grandfather was a prominent businessman and one time Mayor of South Shields, and so he gets his own "monograph".
And perhaps one of the most interesting stories is that of OH family background in North Norfolk and their translation, for reasons principally of finding work, to the North East of England.
My aim is to provide some interesting and informative reading for my grandchildren, leaving them to explore further from the base which I have provided.
And no, I do not fill the stories up with all the dates and minutiae, where that can otherwise be covered in simple diagrams.
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Thank you for the comments so far.
The bit I'm having trouble with is fleshing out the following conversation between my great grandmother and my grandmother.
"Look darling daughter, you got yourself pregnant, you got married, he went off and left you, and I'm quite happy to bring your baby up as my own, but you must agree that you never ever let the baby know."
My grandmother and great-grandmother got away with their deception for the rest of their lives.
Then one day my father applied for a passport in the name of his grandfather rather than his father, and had endless administrative problems before he discovered the truth.
Martin
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We all have these "little local difficulties" to contend with and it will obviously depend on how far you wish to take this situation....it's now part of family lore and what's been done can't be undone. Do you want to put the best gloss on it or tell it as it really was?
My OH gt grandmother had a shady side to her; having produced 4 daughters she left her husband and set up with another chap a couple of streets away and started all over again, subsequently marrying her second bloke bigamously, declaring to the Registrar that she was a widow! Having taken on her new husband's name they then changed it presumably to avoid detection. That played havoc with my research in trying to trace her. But it makes a good story!
Unless there is a particular reason to be circumspect I have taken the general view that you cannot rewind the reel.
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I do look into the background of occupations and all places each generation lived, but not every character in my tree has a narrative, just those that interested me at the time. I've also related stories such as the mother who sent her boys down the street for a pint of blood from the slaughterhouse so she could make black puddings. Still on the subject of food, there's a sentence or two about how one hard up man made a noose to catch birds for a meal.That man moved northward to get seasonal work at a large port and I've described how large groups of unskilled men crowded outside the dockyard gates hoping the tallyman would hire them and hand them a tally (a metal disc). As workers were often paid their wages in a local pub, I saw the harbour where my OHs ship's carpenter ancestor worked had a tavern named "Ship's Carpenter" and my imagination took hold. I've also got newspaper adverts inserted by my commercial ancestors and as one of OHs ancestors made and sold a patented object, I've got an image of that too. From an 18th century ancestor's inventory listing the different sized metal rods he used in his occupation of a nailor, I then managed to find images and descriptions of handmade nails and what they were used for, readers can skip over that chapter but if they do theyll not know what an inkle factory was ;D
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These are all great approaches. I'm going to have to work hard and incorporate some of them when I write up my family history.
Thanks!
Josephine
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I have been back to re-read some of my narrative family histories. The ones of grandfather and gr grandfather are not bad because I have stories I was told as a child, but further back it gets more difficult to avoid the lists of dates. The trouble is that they are a very ordinary bunch of country folk, barely worth writing about really, and imagination is not my strong point! A reference my gr grandfather got during his navy service sums up the family pretty well - "a sober, steady, intelligent and thoroughly trustworthy man."
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A few thoughts on writing facts into a narrative, which, (I hope,) becomes easier with practice.
I remember my English teachers begging us to think about "what, when, where, why, how, who?" when writing compositions.
The competition that I entered was helpful, as the rules specified the piece should be set in local, national and world context.
Professional authors try and visit the locations they will be writing about to make descriptions accurate, and provide atmosphere. For instance, I was able to visit a farm that cropped up in a census entry. Though the farm and most buildings are no longer as they were, the cider press, (with resident barn owl) still stands, and walking the surrounding lanes also provided extensive material regarding local flora and fauna. When considering that kind of detail for a place you can't visit, try searching "images".
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I have found it easier to write about individuals rather than sort out a list of who begat who.
There are some good ideas about writing about people, documents and heorlooms in your history at http://auntiemabel.org.
I first came across the site because it mentioned Edwin Crew, who is on the fringes of my tree. It prompted me to write up a proper story about him and which is now on the site. The process got me looking more meaningfully into the society in which he lived.
I'm sure that most people would have somebody in their research who is worth writing a few hundred words about!
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I have just started writing up all my researches over the years. Just hope I live long enough to complete. I have no intention of just a documentation. Luckily I have an interest in history and will add everything I can think of locally and nationally.
Recently, a cousin employed a genealogist to take back my researches in time. Unfortunately only one generation due to the start date of the relevant PR. He found one relation, brother to our gggrandfather born 1785 who was in the Army 1803 to 1818. The Discharge Papers and a website on 90th Regiment provide a wealth of detail of service in the Caribbean to Canada. fantastic stuff. I found images for most of the relevant uniforms, I know about uniforms. Whether any family is at all interested is another matter.
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they are a very ordinary bunch of country folk, barely worth writing about really, and imagination is not my strong point!
I've written in general terms about one family of millers and what type of wind/water mill there was in the area and just life in general when they were living in the 18th century. i actually thought I had another miller in the tree and then discovered last year that although he was a miller, he worked in a factory milling flint for the porcelain industry ;D. When you look at old maps, it can be seen that the vast majority of us descended from ordinary "country folk", who (despite their official occupation stated on the census) had many skills and knew how to live off the land surviving whatever mother nature threw at them. What did our countrymen do after the busy harvest season of making preserves from the fruit, or storing produce in dark cool places and making sure the potato pie in the corner of a field was properly made. Depending on the requirements of the nearby large town the families might be making nails,or making & selling home brewed alcohol and the women might be spinning, dying and knitting wool collected during the summer months, they might not have had any sheep but even today there's sheep's wool to be found on hedgerows, etc.
It's worth researching whether the land was arable (used for growing crops) or pastural (less rich soil used for grazing animals). I guess mowsehowse's farming ancestors had a fruit orchard, hence the cider press. Before the industrial revolution people wore linen cloth, which was the end product of the stalks of a crop of flax - the flax seeds would be sent to the local windmill to be pressed to gather the flax oil (linseed oil). Besides making garments, there were many uses for linen cloth; it was used to make sails for ships. Additionally, prior to industrialisation farmers also used large pieces of the linen cloth when they were threshing and winnowing their crops, which would have been cut down at harvest time by men using scythes and sickles.
One use of the flax oil was for light in the hours of darkness - there'd be a holder on a wall which held a long piece of wood with an oil soaked taper at the other end which could be lit (probably seen in old Errol Flyn movies lol). It wasn't just farmers who produced liquid refreshment to sell - many farm labourers would also supplement their income by something similar but on a smaller scale, they would either buy a few bushels or sheaves of grain crops such as barley to make ale, which was very profitable. Bees were another source of income because the honey was used as the original sweetener, and a medication and it was also used to brew mead which could be sold on to the local innkeeper.
Some archives have records of people who rented small plots of land in addition to the piece of land their home stood on and it wasn't unheard of for labourers to have a pig to breed from, a goat/cow for milk, some chickens for eggs, etc. in an effort to be self sufficient. As the country got richer in the industrial revolution, some used those small plots to grow sought after types of cut flowers because the nouveau rich liked to display their position in the pecking order. For centuries beet crops were grown for animal fodder but it could also be used as a supply for sugar which would be bought by the rich - imported sugar was taxed - but not the beet sugar, which was a source of income for "country folk". There's a piece on how to make it here: http://www.survivopedia.com/how-to-make-sugar-at-home/
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Gosh RENA. Thanks for that.
Just thinking about the average household jobs would fill pages.
Fetching water. The procuration of food, cooking, cleaning, laundry.... all while being pregnant or nursing. Don't know what the men did!! :P
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I decided to base a story around the life and families of my maternal great grandfather, starting with his birth and family in Scotland, his work as a miner, his 2 marriages, children's births etc etc. His immigration and life in NZ, his writings, poetry he had written, plus other writing he had done! He wrote a lot about Robert Burns, speeches he wrote to give at the local Scottish Club. I haven't added in the speeches yet, as they've been written in pencil, very tiny writing and very faded. (They're currently being scanned professionally for me) of the poetry and speeches he wrote were published in a local paper, so I've been able to copy those in as well.
That's worked well for me, and with him as the central character, from his birth to his death, dates, obits photos etc, and I've been able to paint a picture of his life and times that I'm very happy with. Although I can still add to it as I find more detail, - I typed it up in a word document. I also need to add in a few more generations, down to my own wee Great Grandaughter, who just had her 1st birthday party yesterday!
I intend to do the same sort of format for my paternal Irish Greatgrandfather, using the same sort of layout, as he also led an interesting life, he was the son of a "Gentleman", and was a Troop Sergeant in the 12th Prince of Wales Lancers.
I'm quite happy to email you a copy of the one that I've written, might help you decide how to run (or not 😜) with your own stories! If you're interested, flick me a PM with your email address, and Ill send you a copy!
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Gosh RENA. Thanks for that.
Just thinking about the average household jobs would fill pages.
Fetching water. The procuration of food, cooking, cleaning, laundry.... all while being pregnant or nursing. Don't know what the men did!! :P
;D ;D ;D You missed out a couple of chores. making fires and handcrafts. - I made most of the family's clothes from offcuts of cloth and wool bought from the local outdoor market. ;D ;D ;D
These days our clothes are mainly made from synthetic fibres and i reckon future generations would either laugh or be in awe that we didn't use highly educated scientists or have to drill down into the earth to clothe ourselves.
"Polyester fabric is a synthetic fabric created by bonding polyester fibres together. Polyester fibres are the product of a chemical reaction between coal, petroleum, air, and water."
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Gosh RENA. Thanks for that.
Just thinking about the average household jobs would fill pages.
Fetching water. The procuration of food, cooking, cleaning, laundry.... all while being pregnant or nursing. Don't know what the men did!! :P
;D ;D ;D You missed out a couple of chores. making fires and handcrafts. - I made most of the family's clothes from offcuts of cloth and wool bought from the local outdoor market. ;D ;D ;D
These days our clothes are mainly made from synthetic fibres and i reckon future generations would either laugh or be in awe that we didn't use highly educated scientists or have to drill down into the earth to clothe ourselves.
"Polyester fabric is a synthetic fabric created by bonding polyester fibres together. Polyester fibres are the product of a chemical reaction between coal, petroleum, air, and water."
I missed out LOADS of stuff..... think you mentioned the allotment, and the possible pig. Not forgetting collecting eggs for the chickens. Leading the fire grate. Whitening the door step. Oh and what about that glorious "Cardinal" (?) polish for keeping the floor tiles looking up to standard, (which I was still using in the early 70's).
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For more tips about this see also
Topic: Structuring a written family history
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=537614.msg4046144#msg4046144
Bob