Use Genealogy to Enhance Your Writing
By Kim Bullock | November 14, 2016 |
Kim’s great-grandmother doing the wash – San Diego 1906
With the popularity of shows like Who Do You Think You Are, Finding Your Roots and Genealogy Roadshow, compiling a family tree has transformed from a hobby for grandparents and history geeks to a mainstream pursuit. The shows illustrate that true connection happens when someone in the present gains insight about themselves by learning how traits, personalities, attitudes and even phobias have passed down through generations.
Names and dates are secondary. It’s the stories that move us.
I grew up with tales of an adventurous young artist who made a catastrophic attempt to fly off a barn roof, contracted a tubercular hip, became a cowboy in pioneer Montana, traveled with Calamity Jane and was adopted by an Ojibwa chief. My grandmother occasionally slipped and referred to him as ‘Daddy.’ Beaming with pride, she recounted each tale while we sat surrounded by paintings of trees that laughed, danced, grieved and embraced—tangible proof that her hero had once been a flesh and blood man. I saw echoes of his face when I looked in the mirror, from the set of my eyes to the bump on the bridge of my nose. I’ve long sensed myself being watched over, guided, and sometimes cajoled into writing my work-in-progress, a novelization of the scandalous relationship that led to Carl Ahrens’ downfall in the art world.
I was lucky enough to have my story handed to me. Yours may take some digging to unearth.
I Don’t Write Historical Fiction. Why Would I Look to the Past for Story Ideas?
- Not every story will be grounded in the past. You may get the kernel of an idea from a historical reference and alter details to fit a present day story-line. Novelists do this all the time when they write updated versions of classics. If a story can’t work in the age of smart phones or, for that matter, automobiles, it might lend itself to a duel timeline, fantasy, or dystopian novel.
- Nothing stops you from combining your aunt’s childhood trauma, your grandfather’s years as a POW, your second cousin’s extreme aversion to itchy fabrics, and your own inability to whistle into a single character. Writers often borrow traits from people they know. Why not cast a wider net?
- The face in that faded photograph might be exactly the one you imagine for your heroine. Use it.
- Where did you get your stoicism in the face of an emergency? Why have you always been deeply religious (or not)? Why do tears spring to your eyes when you hear bagpipes played? Why have you always felt compelled to protect homeless animals? From whom did you inherit your pale green eyes, and do you see the world as they did? The answers may touch nerves you didn’t realize you possessed. You may discover that your voice echoes that of one or several who came before you. Will you be inspired to follow the same path or avert disaster while you still can? Is there a crime you wish to expose or a tarnished legacy you hope to restore? Why? Such introspection can lead to a story that’s uniquely yours, one that comes as much from your soul as your mind.
Telegram from PM Mackenzie King
Solving a Mystery Can Come With Great Rewards
The best (and worst) thing about genealogy is that the answer to one question often leads to more questions. You can spend months, even years, burrowing down rabbit holes that lead right back to where you began. Sometimes, though, persistence and creativity can reap literary gold. For example, while trying to locate the house–still standing–where my 2x great-grandparents lived, I turned to 1880 census records. There was Edgar C. Niles, town physician of Philmont, New York. His wife, Sarah, was listed below along with their infant daughter, Helen. (My great-grandmother, Martha, would not be born until 1882.) The eight-year-old boy residing with them gave me pause. Who the heck was Homer VanBuren? My curiosity soared when I spied the ‘B’ in the column indicating race. Homer was not a servant or an assistant to Dr. Niles. His occupation: schoolboy. I had to know what had led to such unconventional circumstances, so I put out inquiries on every genealogy board I could find. A descendant of Homer’s contacted me months later. While listening to the story of my family’s great kindness to this gentleman’s grandfather, a novel plotted itself in my head. (This will be my next manuscript.)
First-Hand Accounts/Voice
Many of us have a pack-rat in the family. Befriend that person! They know every skeleton in the closet, and will likely be thrilled to divulge proof that Granny Henderson’s mother was indeed half Cherokee or that Uncle Joe didn’t actually die in the hospital. Well, not the typical kind of hospital anyway.
Coming from five generations of pack-rats, I wasn’t shocked to find oddities like my great-grandmother’s health insurance card, three telegrams from Canadian PM Mackenzie King and, no joke, the registration papers for a dog who died in the late 1960s among our family papers. Deep in one box, I happened upon a file folder containing over fifty original letters written between 1836 and 1850, likely unread by anyone for well over a century.
Jackpot!
One of many original letters from the 1840s
Despite having been passed around for 150 years, the ink was clear, the paper barely yellowed, each page infused with the pleasant mustiness of an antique bookstore. Most were addressed to my 3x great-grandmother during her teen years. What makes them remarkable, other than proof that crushes and gossip dominate the conversations of young women no matter the century, is that few girls received formal schooling in the 1840s. These rural New York farm girls, all Quakers, wrote more eloquently than most college seniors today.
Even better, it turned out that two of “Martha’s” friends had traceable histories.
The first, a gentleman named Charles Scholefield, was neither a relation nor a suitor, making the correspondence between them perplexing for the time. Young Charles, who filled pages with romantic descriptions of sunsets and treatises on why the white men were wrong to treat the Mohawk so poorly, later became one of the first legislators from Oneida County, NY. He was a celebrated lawyer, devilishly handsome, married a seventeen-year-old at age forty, and was a Major in the Civil War.
The second, Amanda Akin, was a woman both of her time and beyond it. She didn’t hide behind formality in her letters. She was frank, teasing, feisty, and her voice rang clear in every word. I’ll be vague about her story–she may appear in a future novel–but I will say that the Civil War, Walt Whitman, the Alcotts, and Abraham Lincoln come into play.
Names
If nothing else, census records offer writers unique character names. Surnames like Bottenhagan, Cuthwolf, Dunfrund, and Frithogar would be perfect in a fantasy novel. How about Godfrey Lothier III? He happens to be my 24th great-grandfather, but I’ll share.
Successful Novels Inspired by Ancestors/Family Stories
Here are just a handful I know of:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys – This heart-rending novel was inspired by the author’s family’s stay in Lithuania during the Stalin era.
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks – This debut novel was inspired by the love story of his wife’s grandparents.
Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford – While the story is fictional, the author was initially inspired by the “I am Chinese” pin his father used to wear while growing up in the United States during WWII.
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler – This duel time-line debut novel was inspired by a family story that Kibler’s grandmother had fallen in love with a black man in her youth. In 1930s Kentucky.
The Velvet Hours by Alyson Richman – Alyson Richman has openly said that her grandmother, who recently passed, lives on in her latest novel. (In case you are curious, she bestowed her grandmother’s elegance and eye for beauty on Marthe de Florian. I asked.)
Letters From Home by Kristina McMorris – McMorris’ debut novel was inspired by her grandparents’ relationship and correspondence during WWII.
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe – This novel deals with the Salem Witch Trials. Katherine Howe happens to be a descendant of two characters in the book, Elizabeth Proctor, who survived the trials, and Elizabeth Howe, who did not.
Over to you now. Have any of you found story inspiration in family lore? Would you consider re-imagining an ancestor’s life? Do you know of other novels inspired by family stories?
[coffee]
Kim (she/her) has an M.A. in English from Iowa State University. She writes mainly historical fiction, though has also contributed non-fiction articles to historical and Arts and Crafts publications in both the United States and Canada. She has just finished The Oak Lovers, a novel based on the rather colorful life of her great-grandfather, landscape painter Carl Ahrens.
This is awesome, Kim! I love genealogy and have rooted around in my past for stories about my immigrant grandparents (one of my saddest regrets is that they wouldn’t share many stories with me). I wish I’d known last week this: “became a cowboy in pioneer Montana, traveled with Calamity Jane and was adopted by an Ojibwa chief…” My current story has some Montana homesteading threads in it, and you sound like you have firsthand intel. And your story sounds amazing. Great post with great tips, thank you!
Hi Julia,
His cowboy days are before my story takes place and are only brought in briefly. However, I DO have transcriptions of letters from my protagonists parents, written when they were out west in search of an altitude cure for her father. They were written in the mid 1850s from Dakota Territory and Colorado. Those may be helpful, and I’m happy to share if you think you may glean any golden nuggets in there. Since they are transcriptions they will be easy to send AND will spare you the agony of trying to decipher my 2x great-grandmother’s handwriting.
Yes, yes, yes! Your post has my blood pumping from excitement!
1. I’m looking forward to reading all of your stories.
2. I have so many stories to tell from both my family and my husband’s. (Jamestown, pre-American Revolution, Texas Rangers, sheriffs, etc.)
3. It’s easy to fall down the rabbit hole, but wonderful discoveries are often waiting to be found.
Thank you for such a great read.
I’m not surprised you have some colorful characters in your past! Thanks for the coffee! :-)
Thank You for a wonderful post.
When I was researching my own genealogy, I found out that I’m related to a notorious 1920s gangster named Pretty Boy Floyd. Apparently my Great Grandmother spent a day hanging out with him during a family reunion. I always thought that’d make for an interesting story, and this post might be the push I needed to start working on it.
That would make for an interesting story, James! You should definitely do it!
Really intriguing post, Kim. I’m a history major so you’re preaching to the choir here, and your novel sounds like a fascinating read.
I remember taking a class at UCLA were Lisa Cron talked about how all of humanity is “wired for story”. It was the first time I had heard that phrase and been clued in to the exciting meaning behind it. Humanity is indeed a collection of stories hard wired into our brains for the sake of survival. And the most marvelous aspect of this is that the brain is not the only place we are hardwired. Our genes and DNA tell a collective backstory of human existence. It’s a scientific fact.
But beyond the overwhelming scientific evidence, a part of me still believes there is maybe a heart of magic to it all, too. And that magic, when we choose to harness it and hone it into stories culled from the past for the benefit of the present, makes eternity shine.
I am excited for your story.
Blessed be your journey.
Kim, I’m totally on-board with your suggestion that writers use their genealogy experience as inspiration for stories. Studying one’s previous generations offers history from a viewpoint few others have. I snoozed through history in high school, but now later in life have a thirst to read it after tracing my German and English roots. It pushed me forward to write about a fictional U.K. family Smith and their connection with the South Island, New Zealand. (WINDOWS trilogy by Linda J Pifer) You can use your genealogy or your choice of thousands available online through the GEDCOM of the Mormon Church or commercial websites such as Ancestry. Either way, one can never get to the end of opportunities to be inspired; the human drama is endless and can entertain in any genre, not just historical.
Hi Linda,
Thanks so much for commenting today, and congratulations on your trilogy! I admit that I listen carefully when I hear other people discuss their family histories and connections to the past. There are simply so many stories out there, and some of the best include bits that are true.
I loved your whole post. And what a treasure to have old pictures and letters!!! Letters!!! I love historical fiction and my family and the lives of the saints inspire me all the time to dig deeper into the human psyche.
My life on earth won’t be long enough to write all the stories that bubble up in my head but I’ve begun and that’s what counts. I’ll probably continue in purgatory (never to be published, oy) but in heaven … well, I daydream :) Was listening to Bach last night after Mass and it was hard coming down to earth. So yeah. Thanks for a wonderful and inspiring post.
The letters are fantastic and it boggles my mind knowing how many hands they passed through before getting to me. They would have gone from my 3x great grandmother to one of her daughters, to my great grandmother, to my grandmother, then an aunt, then to me after sitting in an attic for about twenty years. There are at least fifty of them, from about fifteen different correspondents, all with unique voices. Teenagers in the 1840s have more in common with teenagers today than you might think.
I’m sure you won’t be doomed to the purgatory of the unpublished forever, just as I won’t. As one of my wise professors once said, “If you throw enough mud at a post, some of it is bound to stick.”
Loved this post — especially since my novel in progress is based on something that happened to an aunt who committed suicide the year before I was born, and for whom I’m named.
Much more recently, a college friend I’m in contact with only because of FaceBook sent me something she found in the process of downsizing to move: an invitation to a bridal shower for me from 1960! The invitation lasted longer than the marriage did, but what grist for the mill that provides.
Wow, Jean, that’s an amazing find, and the sentiment about the invitation would make for interesting story fodder!
Thanks for stopping by!
My mother recently came across a packet of letters and telegrams between my father and his relatives in Italy from when he first arrived in America, circa 1938. As she translated them for me, she came up with more memories of her own, adding to the treasure trove. A double score! I also got an insight into my parents lives before they were my parents, and she enjoyed the trip back in time.
That sounds like an amazing find, Christine! Letters make those people in the faded old photographs come to life again!
Thank you, Bernadette!
Over time I have come to fully believe in genetic memory. It explains how I can “know” things I couldn’t possibly know, how I can feel a sense of belonging in certain places I’ve never lived. I’m definitely wired for THIS story.
Here’s to the magic that makes eternity shine. I love that!
You know, Kim, I’ve thought about this often since reading Campbell and after UnCon with Lisa Cron — learning again about how characters develop misbeliefs about themselves — I’m really convinced this is the simplest way to condense and distill the backstory of characters: focus on their backstories.
For instance:
Snape and Lily Potter.
Darth and Luke.
Surrogates in films like Never Let Me Go and Eighth Day and The Island.
The kid in Station Eleven.
And so on. Instead of having random evil / good characters, why not make them related in some significant way? Mystery writers talk all the time about making the mystery personal — the easiest way to do that is through a tight “family” tree.
Moving back, then, to your original point, I’m working on a novel about carpenters in Southern Illinois and interviewing my grandpa on Tuesdays (excited for tomorrow). I’ve learned all kinds of things about my family. For instance:
I thought Grandpa was ornery. I thought my brother and I were ornery. I thought my father was ornery.
But apparently we’re in the minor leagues beside my great-great grandpa who once told a widower he could order a new wife out of a Sears and Roebuck catalogue if he wrote the company a letter. Once the letter was written, great-great grandpa dressed up one of the younger men as a chained up and dolled up woman. And when the poor widower went to load up their luggage for the honeymoon, the young man in disguise whipped the horses and drove away.
“I don’t understand,” my great-great grandpa’s widower friend said in the wake of the dust. “She was just the prettiest woman I ever did see. Why wouldn’t she want to be with me?”
Yes, I look forward to Tuesdays. And to the resulting novel, for better or worse.
Your great-grandfather would make a wonderful character, Lance! That story cracked me up.
I’m one of the writers inspired by ancestry. My family has lived in Salem, MA since 1628, and I have written all around the 1692 witch trials for years, though my upcoming book, “The Fifth Petal” addresses the subject more directly. I knew our family was descended from Rebecca Nurse and two of her sisters (two executed, one accused), but I was surprised to find we’re also related to one of their accusers. Small world, even smaller in 1692 in and around Salem Village. The family has always suffered a generational guilt typical of Salem folk, but now I know why ours might have been deeper than others. Taking it further, I have to say that the DNA search was most enlightening. My mother’s family is English and my father’s is Irish, so I would have thought myself 50/50. It turns out it’s more 65/10 with the Irish dominant in my genes. It explains my fascination with Irish mythology. All of these elements have found their way into my books, not always on purpose. They have added texture, I think.
Wow, that is a lot of family history in one town! I have a couple centuries worth in Columbia County, NY and Providence, RI, neither of which I have been to. I have to wonder how I would feel walking the streets and going in to the more historic buildings.
I knew you would understand what I was getting at in my post and I can’t wait to read The Fifth Petal!
Great post, Kim! I, too, cling to old photos and letters, believe in genetic memory, and love to hear family stories told around the kitchen table late at night.
While at WU’s Uncon last week I had a visit from the muse. The result is a very sketchy idea for a new novel based on my Irish grandmother’s immigration to Toronto in 1918. Looking forward to unearthing whatever dusty skeletons lurk in my family closet.
Looking forward to reading The Oak Lovers some day soon!
Wow, Rita, part of my novel takes place in Toronto in that very same year. I could give you some resources for getting acquainted with the city at that time. Unlike today, it was a very conservative city back then, hence the reason my great-grandfather’s divorce and remarriage caused him to basically be blacklisted in the art world.
My rewrite of the novel was finished the week before UnCon. Once this shoulder injury (I got it on the plane when I landed back in Dallas) dies down, I will get back to doing a final polish before it goes out to beta readers and out on submission.
Good luck with your story! Sounds like one I’d want to read.
This was fascinating. Thanks for sharing it with us. I’ve wondered if I’d ever do anything with my family history…will save this post in case I do. Inspirational!
Thanks for stopping by, Carol, and good luck if you decide to write any of your own family stories.
Kim, this post is so inspiring. I too have found stories in my genealogy research that I plan to turn into novels. The first, about my paternal grandmother, is entitled Madam May, and is already published. We never suspected our “Granny” had such a colorful life long before she became a mother and grandmother. I have since uncovered other fascinating plots. In many instances, truth has turned out to be stranger than fiction. I’m now working on the story of an unofficially adopted aunt, her liaisons with a gangster, and her search for her birth parents. Next I plan to tackle a several times great grandfather who supposedly accompanied Daniel Boone to settle in the Kentucky Territory. I have learned so much history first hand through my research and through the stories of ancestors. Thank you for this thought-provoking post and I look forward to reading the selections you have suggested, as well as your own work.
Janet Hogan Chapman, Ed. D.
Hi Janet,
It’s so much fun to find out you’re connected to colorful stories from the past. The Daniel Boone one sounds like great fun! I may have a couple colonial era novels in my future, too. There’s an Indian agent in my family tree and I’m not sure how many novels there are about Roger Williams, a.k.a. “Grandpa” (10 x great).
I’d definitely pick up your novels!
Kim
Kim,
I loved this post! My second book Where the Sweet Bird Sings (coming out next September) is all about the the MC using genealogy to discover the truth behind a genetic condition found in her child. To research, I searched the Family History Library provided by the Mormon Church for my own ancestral roots, to see how the process worked. Fascinating! And there is a wealth of information available out there on various sites if you’re willing to go a-hunting.
Ella
Ella,
I will definitely have to keep an eye out for your book! Sounds fascinating!
Kim
Thanks for the nice idea to write an interesting stories. Genealogy indeed a great idea to start a great story. I will definitely try this!
Damian,
It is a wonderful place to start!
Kim
Hi, Kim.
Still catching up on WU posts after the Uncon ;-)
For many years now, I’ve been intrigued by a family story about a great-great aunt. No famous people or events, just an unheard-of family situation that has had me stewing over what could have been the thoughts and emotions behind it. When it’s cooked a bit more I’ll be ready to write about it.
Thanks for this delightful post. Because of what you’ve said about it and also my fascination with the Group of Seven, I’m so looking forward to your book about Carl Ahrens!
Barbara,
Most members of the Group of Seven are characters in my novel, some more than others. My great-grandfather would likely roll over in his grave to hear me say this, but I appreciate a lot of the Group’s work. I don’t, however, appreciate how they treated him. Not that he was kind to them either, but so much of what appears in art history books does not take into account that Carl was basically shunned as a moral repugnant for his relationship with my great-grandmother. There’s no mention of anyone claiming the marriage wasnt legal, or that their children were bastards, etc.
Kim