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Archiver > SCT-WIGTOWNSHIRE > 2006-06 > 1150319897


From: "john kemble" <>
Subject: Fw: [WIG LIST] Writing up family history
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 22:18:17 +0100


----- Original Message -----
From: "john kemble" <>
To: "The Macwhirters" <>
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 10:15 PM
Subject: Re: [WIG LIST] Writing up family history


> Really something to ponder. Your dilemna is the dilemna of the novelist
> for whom the characters become so real that each clamours to have his or
> her story told. If you think about the people in your life, there will
> always be some about whom you can understand and know more than others. I
> suppose the answer is to tell all that you know in story form and
> interweave them . To some extent this will mean repetition, but in life
> one man's big adventure out in the world is the sad loneliness of the wife
> and children left behind.. ..or these days, the husband and children left
> behind. I would try to see each story from the point of view of all family
> members, to interweave social history, pictures, photos, descriptions,
> memories. It's a story you will never finish alone. Why not start from you
> and your desire to discover your roots and tell the sory of what you found
> and how.
> I don't know if this helps. For me writing a family history and even
> researching it, means paying homage to all those unknown and forgotten
> ancestors, speaking to my blood and saying that they are not forgotten.
> It's scary stuff and very very sad. I end up wanting restitution for their
> pain and loss.
> Enough already.
> Rosemary
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "The Macwhirters" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 4:57 PM
> Subject: [WIG LIST] Writing up family history
>
>
>>I hope our list administrator permits an enquiry such as this .......
>>
>> Has anyone ideas on how best to create a semi-literary text on one's
>> family
>> history and aimed at 'the family' rather than genealogists?
>>
>> I have very substantial notes on forebears. I also have source references
>> and notes for future investigative work. The whole would be a bit dry for
>> the non-genealogist.
>>
>> I can easily extract a printed account of my Wigtownshire family from
>> earliest known times for general family reading. My test text already
>> runs
>> to several hundreds of pages.
>>
>> To make it of interest to my family at large it ought to have the notes
>> for
>> future research removed and much of the source lists. Leaving that data,
>> the
>> genealogical evidence as it were, in the family history database program.
>>
>> What do other listers think?
>>
>> Moreover, I'm unsure a simple history beginning with a chapter covering
>> the
>> earliest ancestor downwards is satisfactory - what of aunts and uncles?
>> Sometimes we have illustrious relatives out of the mainstream and common
>> interest suggest these ought to be included. More importantly, starting
>> Chapter 1 say with Joe McStrangle born 1700 in Kirkinner as the earliest
>> known ancestor, how best do I give proper prominence to his wife whose
>> origins are known back much further. In Chapter 2?
>>
>> The whole text could easily become something of a see-saw through time.
>> Ungainly. Perhaps there is no option as there'll be a lot of information
>> on
>> 'Joe', little on 'Hamish' and so on. So unevenness is inevitable.
>>
>> Perhaps someone has thought through the better ways to structure a family
>> history aimed at the family and might be able to offer advice to all of
>> us.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Ian
>> Ian Macwhirter
>>
>>
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>> -----------------------------------
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>> ==============================
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>



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