Month: May 2015

6 Tips: Transport Readers to Your Ancestor’s World6 Tips: Transport Readers to Your Ancestor’s World



An important part of writing our ancestor’s stories is building the world where they lived. Building an authentic world is the key to transporting our readers back in time. It’s not enough to just state the year and the location of your story, you have to show your readers what that world looked like.  You can’t assume your reader will know anything about the time period your ancestor lived. They need the writer, you, to build the world, paint the picture, give colour, texture, and emotion to that world so that it comes to life for them and they are transported back in time.

Writers build a world on the page through detail and description and the same holds true for family history writers.  Below are six tips you enlist to build the world of your ancestor. A world that emerges from the page so that your reader will not just read about it but travel back in time and experience it.

 

  1. Understand the history of the time. It’s important to understand world history, the politics, economics and social conventions of the time. Who was in power at the time? Why? What was the main trade? Marriage laws? You must become very familiar with the time you are writing about. Researching the time period, and all matters related to that time period is extremely important to establishing that world. By referring to the history of the time, perhaps even referring to historical figures you help your reader connect with the time and place.

 

  1. Know the local community. It’s not enough to know what was happening in the world, you must have a strong sense of what was happening locally, and understanding the make-up of the community where your ancestor lived. Did they live in a city or a small town?  What was the topography of the area? Was the landscape hilly or flat? What was the weather like? Did they experience the four seasons? Was the community close in proximity or distant? Who were their neighbours? What was happening in the local politics? Were your ancestor’s well known in the community or outsiders?

 

  1. How were they effected. Once we identified the specific historical events, both world, regional and local to your ancestor’s timeline we have interpret how those events may have effected your ancestor. Is there any correlation between those events and your ancestor’s actions? Don’t just lay on historical information into your story but weave it into the story, into the events and actions of your ancestor’s life. The events should be seen through the lens of your ancestor. How does he or she feel about specific events? Don’t know, perhaps their actions reveal their attitudes?

 

  1. Sense it. Make use of your five senses when building your ancestor’s world. Your senses are an important part of bringing the surroundings to life for your readers. The sight of land as the ship arrives to its port, the smell of city, the music playing, the sound of the cars or horses coming down the road, the touch of a wedding dress. The use of your senses make the surroundings come alive for your reader.

 

  1. Dress it.Make sure you know what your ancestor is wearing, what undergarments support it, what was considered appropriate or risqué, and what kind of dress would suit your ancestor based on their station in life, their occupation, their religion and their attitudes. You may not necessarily have a picture of your ancestor but dress and grooming of the time can help you piece together an image of your ancestor for your reader.

 

  1. Detail it. Details bring a world to life. The more intimate the detail the more believable your ancestor’s world becomes. It’s important just not to list an abundance of detail and to lay it on thick but to choose those details wisely. Instead look for small details that you can weave into the story to show the reader your building an authentic world. What clothes they wore, the food on their plate, the book they were reading. Other details that add authenticity to your narrative include transportation, furniture, medicine, language, etc. We need to go under the surface of the story, to know what life was like in that era and how your ancestor experienced that world.

 

Where do you find these social and historical details?

  1. History Books
  2. Historical Novels
  3. Local Museums
  4. Historical Societies
  5. Local and Social Historians
  6. Websites

Here at the Family History Writing Studio, we’ve started a resource list of social history links from across the web that can help you in your history and social history research. Click here to check out our list.

We also dedicate a great deal of time discussing how social history can help you know more about your ancestors, in Workbook #2, Authentic Ancestors. Now available on Amazon in paperback.

Authentic Ancestors: Bringing Your Ancestor to Life through Characterization (Writing Your Family History Stories) (Volume 2)

or  as an e-book.

 

 

 

 

Social History ResourcesSocial History Resources



History and social history are important ingredients in building the world and stories of your ancestors. Below is a list of resources to help you with that research. If you have found a website that could benefit others please email me at lynnpalermo@eastlink.ca so we can add it to the list. Likewise, if you have found a link on this list that is broken or no longer is available please let us know.

General

The Social Historian

WishbookWeb.com – Archives of Sears Wishbooks

Historic Catalogues of Sears Roebuck 1896-1993  (Ancestry.ca)

 

Digital Libraries

HathiTrust Digital Library

Google Books

Smithsonian Digital Library

Digital Public Library of America

American Centuries

American Journeys

Documenting the American South

The New York Library Digital Collections

Harvard University Library

 

Timelines

Timelines of History

HyperHistory Online

The Food Timeline

Timelines: Sources from History

 

Disasters

Gendisasters – Disasters that touched our ancestor’s lives

 

Economics 

Measuring Worth

 

Love and Marriage

Love and Marriage in the 19th Century

 

Poorhouses

Waterloo County House of Industry and Refuge

 

Fashion

Fashion-Era

Early English Costume: Medieval Women’s Fashions

Had to Be There – fashion covering nearly 1000 years by NY Times

16th Century Fashion

Women’s Fashions of the 17th Century

 

Travel and Immigration 

Historical Background on Traveling in the 19th Century  

Voyages – Immigrants on the Ocean (focus on Norwegian emigrants)

Emigration to USA and Canada

Journeys to Australia

Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives: Social and Cultural History – The Future of Our Past

Canadian Immigration – Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21

 

Canada

Canadian Social History Series

Canadian Museum of History: Online Resources for Canadian Heritage

A Nation’s Chronicle: The Canada Gazette

History of New France

Rural Diary Archive

War Diaries of the First World War

Canada’s Nursing Sisters – Diaries

Ink – Free Early Newspapers 

Military Oral History – University of Victoria

Pioneer Life in Upper Canada

 

United States of America

Making of America 

American Memory Collection

Historical Census Browser

Discovering American Women’s History Online

American Social History Project

Bethlehem Digital History Project

Chronicling America

 

Britain 

British History Online

A Vision of Britain through Time 

HistPop: Online Historical Population Reports

The Health of London: Medical Officer Health Reports 1848-1972

Connected Histories: 1500-1900

History to Herstory: Yorkshire Women’s Lives, 1100 to present

The Statistical Accounts of Scotland 1791-1845

Timelines Sources from History

VCH Explore, Explore England’s Past

House of Commons Parliamentary Papers

Witches in Early Modern England

Routledge’s Manual of Etiquette  – Victorian Etiquette

 

Medieval Times

Life in a Medieval Castle

Manorial Language

Tales of the Middle Ages

 

France

Economic and Social Conditions in France during the Eighteenth Century