Writing, Scrapbooking, Podcasting My Family History
With any family history research there will be times when the only records you have are a list of dates, names and places. Hardly the material need for a story that will encourage your family to feel connected with. The sort of connection that Theophilus Adcock provided! Without records we must fall back on what we do know. Oral stories, photographs, intuition & assumptions all have their place in a writers imagination. Trust yourself and write from your heart.
It has become obvious to me that searching for 4th cousins twice removed to add to my ancestry tree is not my forte! They all seem distant & I struggle to feel connected. Until I find a story that is! Then the connection is made. However, when I wrote "Filling In the Gaps" & a "Love Letter For Jimmy" my memories were my starting point. Now, when my ancestry search finds a story in the court news saving them on templates and sharing them with you is going to be quite a different journey!
From the archives of my mother's memory bank our family history includes hop picking in Kent in the 1950's. She gave me two photographs of her sisters family and filled in the gaps in her own unique way. Thankfully other family historians have brought this part of my family history to life. To them I offer my thanks, should they ever stumble across this post!
When I was first introduced to the world of "Sociology" I read about the "Law of Unintended Consequences" At the time I remember thinking that (like a lot of sociology) it spent a lot of time explaining the obvious. I put it down to the fact that I was a "mature" student so perhaps I was biased! Put simply unintended consequences are outcomes that are not the ones foreseen or intended by a purposeful action.
The transition from one boat to another followed by a long train ride to a short bus trip doesn't appear to have left me with any lasting memories. I can only assume that as my parents and sister were close by I had nothing to worry about! It's only as an adult I realise that an unknown destination that was referred to as a "Transit Camp" was anything but encouraging.
The dictionary tells me I am a genealogist because I am person who traces or studies lines of family descent. But, like many others who have surrounded themselves with dates, names, records, photos and dog eared scraps of paper, we are so much more! When your are a family historian the emphasis is always on the word, "family". Medically we are connected by our DNA. But it is the life stories we uncover that makes a real family!
If I had to pick one thing from my memories of the 1950's it would have to be going to the cinema on a Saturday morning. Watching a movie was only a small part of the whole experience if you were in the ABC club! There were badges, prizes and freebies and of course there was "The ABC Minors Song" . You may find it hard to believe but 65 years later I can still remember the words!
I began my family tree with the clear aim of recording my place in time. I also wanted my children to know their place in a history that began 12,000 miles from where they were born. Unexpectedly, I seem to have lost my name! The name of my childhood; a name that identified me as the child of my parents; a name I shared with my sister.
After my first blog failed miserably I made the decision to find something else to write about. For some reason "Fermentation" was going to be it! SEO was perfect, monetization was practical and my chosen new theme was perfect, if a little expensive! There were two problems to this well researched choice. I don't like fermented food and I live on a boat where space is at a premium! So, here I am doing what I have been quietly doing most of my life, writing stories. Only this time the stories are not hidden away in boxes!
When I read the family histories of other researchers there is one thing I miss more than any other. Letters! A "Love Letter For Jimmy" was written for my brother by those who cared for him in his final days. It is the only letter from the past I have. I can not change the past but I can look to the future and leave my words. A eulogy for mother is a letter I wrote about the past. It is a letter I leave behind for the future.
Warts And All 