Can I run something by you all...?

[Ladkyis]

I think this is a marvellous way of writing the family story. I wish I had thought of it myself. As soon as I started to read your description of how you were going to do it I was creating the journey my great grandmother took to Liverpool in 1875 when she began her acting career at the Theatre Royal.
From future certificates and information I know she remained in close contact with her family all her life so I have often wondered how she felt as she left her father's showroom on that day.

With your permission I would like to use the idea myself.

[busyglen]

And just to add my two penn'orth, I think that is a fantastic idea and wish you all the best. I love writing, although not terribly good at it, and I am sure that once started, you won't want to stop.

Good luck.

Glenys

[arthurk]

Caveats welcome, Arthur - especially to one who is a historian first and only secondly a family historian I will write a full introduction explaining the format of the work and of course I will supply all refs in an appendix. Some of the accounts can be verified by research (for instance, the stuff on my Jacobite rebels etc) but when we come to someone like Ann Linney, as you mention, I will make it clear that I have imagined that day and Ann's reaction to it, while giving references to where a researcher could find the bare bones of the event as it unfolded.

Good - I just felt that somehow and somewhere you needed to indicate where the boundary is between fact and imagination, and I'm sure you'll find a suitable way to do that.

Arthur

[spison]

An excellent book that I have is "Pompeii - The Living City" by Alex Butterworth & Ray Lawrence, ISBN 0297645609, published 2005 by Weidenfeld & Nicholson. On one hand it is a scholarly work using the most recent archaeological & historical research; on the other hand the authors have interwoven a fictional narrative that is based on all this research. The fictional parts are written ....

Another book using this type of strategy is "The Black Death" (Sorry I've forgotten the author) where the story of its approach is told from the point of view of a village in Cambridgeshire (I think- but certainly somewhere in this area). Alternate chapters cite the references used in a report form. Names from the historic documents were characters in the story.

Jane

[MythicalMarian]

I think this is a marvellous way of writing the family story. I wish I had thought of it myself. As soon as I started to read your description of how you were going to do it I was creating the journey my great grandmother took to Liverpool in 1875 when she began her acting career at the Theatre Royal.
From future certificates and information I know she remained in close contact with her family all her life so I have often wondered how she felt as she left her father's showroom on that day.

With your permission I would like to use the idea myself.

No permission required, Ladkyis - just go for it. I wish I had an actress Nice to know how it fires the imagination, and I am sure that all of us have at some time or other felt that we 'know' a certain ancestor that we have researched - so why not put it all to use and write it down? I wish you well.

[Geoffers]

Your idea reminded me of something similar, and haing trawled my bookshelves I've found the book in question. 'Life on the English Manor 1150-1400 by H S Bennett - first publ. 1937 and reprinted 1987 by Alan Sutton, includes in the prologue a week in the life of a peasant farmer; it's very readable. If you wanted to get an idea of how something similar to what you have described actually reads, this may help..........just a thought.

[Wirral]

Another book using this type of strategy is "The Black Death" (Sorry I've forgotten the author) where the story of its approach is told from the point of view of a village in Cambridgeshire (I think- but certainly somewhere in this area). Alternate chapters cite the references used in a report form. Names from the historic documents were characters in the story.

Jane

That is another brilliant book, written by John Hatcher, published by Weifenfeld & Nicholson in 2008, ISBN 9780297844754. It is set in the village of Walsham, Suffolk, northeast of Bury St Edmunds & not far from where my ancestors came from (none of them mentioned of course!). I wonder why I got funny looks when reading a book on the Black Death on my summer holidays? Seemed a perfectly good choice to me!

[Jade26]

... An example would be my 3xgreat grandma Ann Linney, who lost her husband and two sons in one day during a local mining disaster. I thought I could have Ann tell us this 'as it happened' so to speak - i.e. she had their meal on the stove, she was wondering why they were late etc., and all the horror and fear she must have gone through when the news broke that there had been an accident at the pit. That's just one idea...

...Each personal account could be accompanied by a family tree of how the person fits into my family history, together with photos, certificates, snippets It seems such a huge task, but for me, the personal approach - having the ancestors actually talking to us - fills me with more enthusiasm than trying to wrestle something lively out of the run-of-the-mill report from FH or other such packages.

It will be a huge task, but I think your idea is wonderful. Having our ancestors actually talking to us and sharing their emotions through times of joy and grief is a great way to pass on one's family history.

As an historian you'll be well aware of all the extra research you'll need to do for historical authenticity. Taking Ann as an example, would she actually have been waiting at home wondering why her men were late? Or would she have dropped everything and and joined the crowd of women and children making their way to the mine after hearing the gut-wrenching wail of the siren?

All the very best and please, please, share some snippets with us.

Trish

[Hollytree]

Hi

I've skimmed through all your discussions with interest. I too have started up with the old writing of family history, but every so often stall with research that takes me away from writing the narrative.

I wrote a book a few years ago based on my ggrandmother who married out of her class and subsequently fell on hard times. Now I never knew much about her, no photograph survives, and she died young. So this was my strategy to compensate for sparse true evidence of her. Not published needless to say, but highly enjoyable in producing what I thought might have been the reason she married this man.

Another thought passes my mind, don't forget to write your history, your thoughts wants and hopes. I was at a conference yesterday and made to realise what a disposable world we live in now, nobody writes letter with ink and quill, uses a stamp and post box. We email every body, leaving no trail of our existence. Write that journal every day, keep a diary, write 'granny's ramblings, go to schools/scouts/guides etc etc and tell your story....... they are teaching the 1980's at school as history these days.


Anne

[merseyclyder1970]

MythicalMarian,

Having been away from this site for months, I looked on the forum to see if anything interesting had been posted and I came across your post. I would just like to say that I think that you have a very interesting idea, and I would like to wish you every success in your endeavour. Good luck.