Ever Thought about writing a detailed story on an ancestor?

[The Geneal Geologist]

I have a similar situation with a couple of my families. All the evidence seems to suggest that some wives become infirm, are looked after, but the husband has already started a new relationship and often has children with his new mistress before then marrying her a year after the death of his wife (a suitable period of morning).

I've always wondered, since they are living close by whether this was acceptable practice at the time and was done with the knowledge and consent of the first wife to, both to ensure a woman is available to look after her children and knowing she wasn't too long for this world. I have also noted, the child or children of the 1st wife are often "farmed out" afterwards to relatives.

Hard to image the conditions some families were living. Both my cases are around the 1840's in Aston, Birmingham, where living conditions were pretty grim.

Mark

[tazzie]

  Hi .....

  One piece I would love to have printed for the family is about my Grandfather Richard. He was born in 1903 and died in 1997 so saw a world change before him.
 He remembered going to tea at the Mansion House in London in 1911 for the coronation of King George V. His first job at 13, the buses he rode on and the buildings around him. The Cuomo's who made ice cream in their shop. His mother died in 1916 and father lay injured in hospital with wounds from WW1. He along with 3 sisters was taken in by an aunt. Whilst there he witnessed a Zeppelin caught in the search lights from Tower Bridge alongside was the plane of Capt Robinson V.C.  who shot down the Zeppelin in flames. He lived through air raids and gas attacks when a bomb fell on Glyn Mills in Gracechurch St.  He goes through the jobs he had from a clerk at a stock jobbers to being a shipping clerk at GWR. Then driving the London Cartage and Union Cartage travelling alll over the south of England. In all his whole working life till he retired in 1980 ...yes 1980!
  It tells me so much about him and his life it is amazing and I am so pleased to have it. It would be great to have a few copies for our little boys.

    Maybe one day......

   Tazzie

[Rossdal3]

Coombs, I think it's a great idea too and would love some tips about how to go about finding the father of an illegitimate relative.

In my case it's my Gt Grandmother, who was born illegitimate and she also had an illegitimate brother/half brother 10 years older.  Her Mother is listed as 'formerly servant' in the 1861 census (the year of GG's birth), but by this time her Mother was back home, with her own Father and I have no idea how to track down the Master of the house she served in. Any tips would come in very handy!   

Cheers,
Jill

[reverie]

Writing family history stories can take you down all kinds of interesting roads.

I have made up several family history stories and put them in folders with as much history as I can find including photos of old homes (some now demolished but can be found in some of the local history books) as well as photos of headstones, churches attended by the family and even an illustration of an immigration ship which had family on board when they headed for Australia.  I was even fortunate to find a house once occupied by some great aunts on an estate agent's website.  I was so tempted to ask for a viewing but the house was still occupied and I did not have the courage to be a nosy viewer with no intention of buying. 

I am about to start another folder which should be ready to send out to family folk by next Christmas.

Happy writing folks.

Reverie

[Berlin-Bob]

I agree: writing up family stories is a great thing to do.  

I started my family history research because I wanted to integrate various material
I had about my Grandfather, Hanns (Hans) Margulies.  

It's one thing to research and collect data, but it was the the work involved, technically and emotionally, trying to form a coherent "whole" out of all the facts and photos, that really made him a "person" to me, and not just a collection of facts.  

I started by presenting this in the form of a hypertext book, which then became a website. The book and website led to me becoming interested in the technical side of drawing up trees, presenting data, etc.

Which made me aware of another - personal - problem: I am not an author  I'm a technician  

The "technical" side was becoming more and more interesting (and still is !) but that was not the object of the excercise.

So this is definitely a point to bear in mind: here on RootsChat we are all good at collecting data but we are not all "authors".  So practice, in any form, is a great idea.

I intend to continue this, with other family members, even though it will only be for a limited audience - the family.
Most of my ancestors have not led "publishable" lives and I doubt whether there would much interest outside the family^*, but simply writing their stories is a great way to bring them alive.

Bob


ps. I have listed various topics here about writing books, presenting your FH etc :
Topic: RootsChat Topics: Organising and Presenting your Family History
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,158638.0.html


pps. ^* I sometimes feel there is not much interest even within the family     
But, for all that I say, "it's for my daughter, and nieces and nephews .. for later" or other such 'excuses',
I'm doing this for me, because I want to  

[Daisy Loo]

lol @ Bob...

I'm sure we all tell ourselves that we are doing it "for the family" or for "our children" but yeah, you are quite right a lot of my family just don't have the interest (I just can't understand that!) And yeah, I'm doing it for ME!  (and my son and daughter  hehe)

Just a point Ben...if you are planning to write a factual book, then you have to be 1000% positive, that the father of the illigitimate child is correct...it can't just be guess work and logic...that's not fact.  The only way you could get round that, is by not stating it as fact, but by saying in all probabability?

[mike175]

I am also trying to write a "proper" family history book, but I don't think I have enough detailed information about any one of my relatives to fill more than a chapter. Anything more would be mostly speculation, although that in itself could be very interesting reading.

Much depends on whether you can write well enough to keep the reader's attention from wandering, something you'll never know unless you try . . . my first attempts were about as entertaining as an old school textbook, but I like to think things are improving.  

I've never really considered actually publishing my work since I'm also doing it purely for myself, and possibly to leave something for my descendants, in case any of them happen to share my interest in our ancestors.

Mike.

[Gadget]

Most of my writing has been for academic books and articles until I started on my family history so I've not come 'new' to it!

I've written a few bits for FH mags and for my website. Some of the stories are easier to write than others but, as you say, Daisy, you have to make sure of the facts first. However, the story should be the important part and the background BMD, census, other documentary sources should be used as that only - to back up/verify the story.

I'm in the process of working through a complex story at the moment about my Wilson/Burgess/Carson  family - they travelled from Scotland to Wales in 1833 on a sloop with all the farm animals, etc. It's a continuation of the 'My Fallen Woman' * piece on my website.

I try to write as if I'm telling a family member or friend.


Gadget

* Added - I still need to do more research on domestic service, illegitimacy in 19th century; homes for 'fallen women' and the workhouse to expand this piece

[reverie]

Same here Daisy Loo - my immediate family show little interest despite all my stories etc   I get more interest from the 'colonials' in USA and Down Under.   However I get lots of personal satisfaction in hunting down the history so will just keep at it.

Reverie