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  1. #1

    Default "Binning" book and starting again!

    I am writing the history of the Bedggood family in New Zealand... My father put some stories down in the 1980's and 5 years ago I took them over and expanded them substantially. But I have realized that they are just a collection of facts, stories and quotes from old letters etc and NOT what I would consider a book. So rather then trying to expand and work with what I have I am going to put what I have a side and start again. The ideas are coming thick and fast now that I have liberated myself from the format I had before. Sometimes I think you just have to start again!!
    Regards
    Gavin Bedggood
    New Zealand.

  2. #2

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    When you are so emersed in a family history, sometimes it's hard to see the wood from the trees. I have lived my history all my life as my father was the family historian before me so from a child I have heard the stories and handled the artifacts. So to write a good history I am having to think hard about what is important. Also a lot of things I would think are obvious are very much not obvious to potential readers. The flow of the book is something i am thinking hard about. I have what is called "a pivotal couple" to base the book around. They are the ones who came to New Zealand in 1836. Then I have English and NZ periods either side of them. Sorry I am rambling a bit!

  3. #3
    Valued member of Brit-Gen MrsPoppy's Avatar
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    I agree Gavin, there are those of us who are esctatic about all the dry facts but if you are putting something together that is going to be interesting and entertaining to other family members and for family in years to come it has to read like a good book - or as good as you can make it.

    I am in the process of writing mine up 'properly' after over 30 years of research. I have added social and political context, worldwide and local, as well as interesting facts about the area that events are taking place in. As well as photographs and maps (after checking copyright of course).

    I am doing mine generation by generation.

    Good luck with your labour of love and I hope it turns out as you want it to.

    Mrs p

  4. #4

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    Thanks for the encouragement Mrs P!
    It must take a lot of time researching the world around your ancestors. But I think its important to put there life decisions in perspective.
    I always thought my ancestors were mad to come to New Zealand in 1836 and risk a six month sea voyage and the very real risk of been killed and eaten by Maori. BUT when I looked into the conditions in London in 1836 I realised that death was all around them and much more a part of everyday life, so to them the risk of leaving was not mad after all.

  5. #5
    Knowledgeable and helpful stepives's Avatar
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    I admire anyone who has enough information about a relatives life, that warrants a book being written about them, and their family.
    To go from London, to an alien environment, is a in expedition of the mind in itself. It was an adventure to get out of London, to green pastures new in England, never mind thousands of miles away.

    With myself, having 'snapshots' of stories, and then trying to expand on that, is never that easy. To fill in the 'blanks' in between, births and marriages, war and peace,etc, all through the decades and centuries is a task in itself.
    We can only assume the feelings and anxieties over the course of a lifetime, of any given individual, and it's far easier to write one of ourselves, as we remember it.

    Well done to you, and keep on going.

    Steve.
    Too many bones, too much sorrow, but until I am dead, there's always tomorrow.

  6. #6
    Valued member of Brit-Gen MrsPoppy's Avatar
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    And.... you have a fabulous surname to be researching.

    Don't forget the newspapers as they are fantastic for little snippets about what people were getting up to, where ever you are in the world.

    If I do a quick trawl in the Morning Chronicle of 1845 an article entitled 'the perilous state of New Zealand' has the surname bedggood mentioned.

    Enjoy your writing.

    Mrs P

  7. #7

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    I had spent a lot of time wondering how to make all the dry facts more palatable for the younger generations of my family and one night as I was just settling down to sleep the first line of the story spoke itself in my head. Luckily I keep a notebook by the bed for just such occasions (many an article has begun in the early hours when I was hoping to sleep) so I wrote it down and now I have the main character and after two days I have nearly 3000 words.
    It isn't easy but I know it will be worth it just to see the faces of the youngest cousins as they read it.
    Sadly, our dear friend Ann (alias Ladkyis) passed away on Thursday, 26th. December, 2019.
    Footprints on the sands of time

  8. #8

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    I was lessoning to a writer taking on the radio tonight and she said something that I thought was quite relevant to writing a family history so I quickly wrote it down....

    "Your task as a writer is to pick a path through the facts too meaning"

    I like that.

  9. #9

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    Here are few more notes I have written to help guide my thoughts about my family book.,...

    Give the experience to the reader of what it might have been like to have been there.

    What problems and obstacles did they have to overcome?

    What would there social life have been like?

    What are family traits or narratives that have come down the generations? In my case they are perfectionism, until recently strong Christian devotion and melancholy.

    I have a lot of letters from the early days in New Zealand so I thought I could cherry pick from the descriptions of day to day activities and pick a day and date, say Tuesday May 12 1838, and write a fictional but research based account of a day in the life of my GGG grandparents and there children in colonial New Zealand.

    Something to think about.

  10. #10
    Valued member of Brit-Gen MrsPoppy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gavin Bedggood View Post
    I was lessoning to a writer taking on the radio tonight and she said something that I thought was quite relevant to writing a family history so I quickly wrote it down....

    "Your task as a writer is to pick a path through the facts too meaning"

    I like that.
    So do I.

    I think it sounds as if you have plenty of source material and it will be very interesting, you have some excellent ideas.

    Ladkyis - inspiration always comes in the middle of the night when your mind is quiet doesn't it.

    I had one interesting story from the newspapers, in the 1850's women wearing crinolines were making headlines as they were having accidents caused by the wideness of the cage, 'which swung in an alarming manner if one went at speed causing a momentum which was extreme enough to over topple the wearer' - believe it or not - on the street my ancestor lived on one particular 'lady of fashion' got stuck between a wall and a gas lamp, she was firmly stuck for 15 minutes before being freed. She was taunted by the 'young urchins of the poor' (my lot) who lived nearby.

    What's not to love about family and social history.

    Mrs P

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