6 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.

 

 

 

 

Related Post

A Path to Mapping a Story SettingA Path to Mapping a Story Setting

 

 

In our last instalment of setting and social history, we talked about how setting can be a key component in our stories especially when we view it as a character in our family history stories.

Today, we will look at mapping our setting.  We will look at the purpose of a map as a tool in writing our family history stories. I’ll show you how I created my own setting map for guiding my writing. There are three features I like to keep in mind when creating my setting map; the main setting, beyond the central location and the activities and occupation that provide the movement throughout the setting. Let’s get started by looking at each one of these key elements.

 

Your Main Setting

In most cases, the primary setting of your story will take place in a city, town or village. However, your story could be on a ship or any other of many locations.  Regardless of where your setting is taking place, we need to include all the internal buildings and places within the setting. For example your ancestor’s home, his place of work, where he worships and where he gathers with other towns people to visit.

 

Beyond the Central Location

You’ll also want to consider what is beyond the central location. For example,  if your story takes places in a small town is it surrounded by lakes, forests, swamps or is it a city surrounded by industry or a ship surrounded by water.

 

Activities and Occupation

If your ancestor was a farmer, (we have a lot of those in our research), then details of how he performed his job and how he moved about in his day to day activities is very much a part of your story setting. Describing the physical characteristics of a farm, the land, the buildings and so on is one aspect of the setting. Explaining how to fix a broken wagon or harvest the crops in the field is also an element of your story setting.  How did your ancestor move about to school, church, and get the groceries? Where were these places located in relationship to your ancestor’s home?

 

The Purpose of a Setting Map

Creating setting map can be very helpful when writing your family history stories and dealing with the location and activities of your ancestor. They can aid your writing in many ways.

Maps can enable the tracking of your ancestor’s location throughout the story.                                      

As your ancestor moves about, from his job to home and church or the grocery store, it’s important to know where each of these locations is located in the story setting. Place them on your map as a visual tool.

Your map can help to reflect on your ancestor’s awareness of their surroundings.

As you move your ancestor through their activities, your map can help you develop an awareness of your ancestor’s surroundings.

A setting map can act as a tool for measuring your ancestor’s movement from point a to point b.

As you write your ancestor’s tale, he’ll have to move from one location to the next physically. Your map can help you with that. What’s the distance, does he walk, ride a horse, take a boat. This might lead to some further research to answer these questions.

A setting map can help you describe your ancestor’s journey and the world to your reader. 

Your setting map will allow you to consider what your ancestor is doing at the place he is on the map and what do the surroundings look like? How is he interacting with his surroundings? Whether it is a short journey to the neighbour’s house or a long journey across the ocean, a map can guide you through writing those details into your stories.

A setting map can help you to visualise the scene and the proximity of your ancestor to other characters and places.

With the movement of your ancestors, they will come in contact with other characters in the story and other locations. Your setting map will make it easier to know when they are within the proximity of greeting another character or hearing the church bells ring.

 

How to Create a Map

First, you have to take the time to get to know your story setting through research and then as you are discovering the setting or after you’ve completed your research you can create a map of the setting. I like to create the map while I’m researching.

Here’s an example from my research. The town of Stratford is the setting for the story I’m currently investigating. It’s important for me to understand where some key places are located as my main character/ancestor makes his way about town.

As I went about doing my research this summer, I created a map.   I uncovered clues and mentions of various places that allowed me to put them on the map. Keep in mind my story is set in 1847, so I need to research and understand what Stratford looked like during this time.

The local museum had a map that is from the period of my story. They allowed me to take a digital picture of the map. I then uploaded the picture to Evernote. This is where it got fun.

This summer, as I worked through my setting and social history research each time I uncovered the location of an important place I marked it on the map. I did this right inside Evernote.  In Evernote, I used the annotate feature and created a key with coloured dots, so I have an easy reference to where various places are within the setting. Once I start to write, as I move my ancestor through the story, I can quickly reference where he is on the map and what the surroundings look like and how he might be interacting with those surroundings.

 

Also in this Evernote note, I created internal links to the information and pictures that I have for each location making it very easy to not only find the place on the map but to find my description notes within my research notebook.

Of course, this is only one of many ways to create a setting map. You certainly can sketch a map out if you like or use mind map programs, you are only limited by your imagination. Here’s an example of a setting map done with Prezi for The Great Gatsby.

Regardless of how you build your map or your map’s purpose, I hope you’ll consider including a map among your writing tools as a means to keeping your family history story on the right path.

 

Enriching Your Story with HistoryEnriching Your Story with History

In the Getting Ready to Write and Authentic Ancestors workbooks, I mentioned historical timelines and their importance in organizing your research and writing your ancestor’s stories.  Not only is it important to map your ancestor’s life on a timeline, but also to map world, regional and local history. It’s necessary to consider what was happening in the world around your ancestors and it’s relationship to their life.

I want to spend a few minutes today discussing how we can use historical events to enrich your stories.

Historical events can provide both a background and a setting for your story. However, while these events can add a lot of colour and depth to your story, it’s important to not just insert a historical event in your ancestor’s narrative only because it happened during their life.  It’s important to look at how those events may have impacted your ancestor’s life, actions, and reactions.  While some events will be easy to include due to your ancestor’s direct relationship to an event, do not discount an event because it did not happen directly to them. It may be happening in the background and influencing their life.

These historical events can happen before, after or during the story. It may be something from the past that sets in motion a current event in your story. Historical events can add richness to your story and can place your ancestor’s life and story within the context of the world. It can also help to establish the tone of your story for your reader.  By linking your ancestor’s story to something happening or that has happened, this event may impact them or people around them. It’s important to consider how the event may change their feelings, attitudes, culture, or society.

These historical events may strengthen your story ideas and feed your ancestor’s stories. Perhaps your ancestor’s story will be a political or social statement about abortion, adoption, slavery, corruption in politics or the environment to name but a few. You can look to historical events to help you build your story ideas and theme.

An excellent resource for looking at events in a variety of categories is The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun.  This book is organized into seven categories, history and politics, literature and theatre, religion, philosophy and learning, visual arts, music, science, technology and growth, and daily life. It spans from 5000BC up to 1991 and is organized on a year by year basis.

I’ve also provided you with a small chart below for you to download and use if looking at the historical events of your ancestor’s life and analyzing them for the impact on their lives. Completing this chart might help you to shape your story with regards to plot, theme, and your story question.

Don’t limit yourself to just the large world events. Regional and local historical events must also be considered. We often think wars and national tragedies when discussing historical events. However, a local storm that causes devastation to area crops or local politics may play a significant role in your ancestor’s life and decisions.

Historical events provide context and richness to your story, and  it places our ancestor in the world making them more real and believable to your reader.

Here’s the timeline with a couple of examples filled in.

Timeline Table

Timeline Table – blank