Gill Blanchard - Writing your Family History: A Guide for Family Historians

FAMILY HISTORY FROM PEN & SWORD

Tracing Your Army Ancestors

Simon Fowler

Tracing Your Pauper Ancestors

Robert Burlison

Tracing Your Yorkshire Ancestors

Rachel Bellerby

Tracing Your Air Force Ancestors

Phil Tomaselli

Tracing Your Northern Ancestors

Keith Gregson

Tracing Your Black Country

Ancestors

Michael Pearson

Tracing Your Textile Ancestors

Vivien Teasdale

Tracing Your Railway Ancestors

Di Drummond

Tracing Secret Service Ancestors

Phil Tomaselli

Tracing Your Police Ancestors

Stephen Wade

Tracing Your Royal Marine

Ancestors

Richard Brooks

and Matthew Little

Tracing Your Jewish Ancestors

Rosemary Wenzerul

Tracing Your East Anglian

Ancestors

Gill Blanchard

Tracing Your Ancestors

Simon Fowler

Tracing Your Liverpool Ancestors

Mike Royden

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors

Ian Maxwell

Tracing British Battalions on the

Somme

Ray Westlake

Tracing Your Criminal Ancestors

Stephen Wade

Tracing Your Labour Movement

Ancestors

Mark Crail

Tracing Your London Ancestors

Jonathan Oates

Tracing Your Shipbuilding

Ancestors

Anthony Burton

Tracing Your Northern Irish

Ancestors

Ian Maxwell

Tracing Your Service Women

Ancestors

Mary Ingham

Tracing Your East End Ancestors

Jane Cox

Tracing the Rifle Volunteers

Ray Westlake

Tracing Your Legal Ancestors

Stephen Wade

Tracing Your Canal Ancestors

Sue Wilkes

Tracing Your Rural Ancestors

Jonathan Brown

Tracing Your House History

Gill Blanchard

Tracing Your Tank Ancestors

Janice Tait and David Fletcher

Tracing Your Family History on
the Internet

Chris Paton

Tracing Your Medical
Ancestors

Michelle Higgs

Tracing Your Second World War

Ancestors

Phil Tomaselli

Tracing Your Channel Islands

Ancestors

Marie-Louise Backhurst

Tracing Great War Ancestors

DVD

Pen & Sword Digital &
Battlefield History TV Ltd

Tracing Your Prisoner of War
Ancestors: The First World War

Sarah Paterson

Tracing Your British Indian
Ancestors

Emma Jolly

Tracing Your Naval

Ancestors

Simon Fowler

Tracing Your Huguenot Ancestors

Kathy Chater

Tracing Your Servant Ancestors

Michelle Higgs

Tracing Your Ancestors from 1066
to 1837

Jonathan Oates

Tracing Your Merchant Navy

Ancestors

Simon Wills

Tracing Your Lancashire

Ancestors

Sue Wilkes

Tracing Your Ancestors through

Death Records

Celia Heritage

Tracing Your West Country

Ancestors

Kirsty Gray

Tracing Your First World War

Ancestors

Simon Fowler

Tracing Your Army Ancestors
2nd Edition

Simon Fowler

Tracing Your Irish Family History
on the Internet

Chris Paton

Tracing Your Aristocratic

Ancestors

Anthony Adolph

First published in Great Britain in 2014 by

PEN & SWORD FAMILY HISTORY

an imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

47 Church Street

Barnsley

South Yorkshire

S70 2AS

Copyright Gill Blanchard, 2014

ISBN 978 1 78159 372 1

eISBN 9781473841185

The right of Gill Blanchard to be identified as Author of the Work

has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is

available from the British Library.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical

including photocopying, recording or by any information storage

and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Typeset in Palatino and Optima by

CHIC GRAPHICS

Printed and bound in England by

CPI Group (UK), Croydon, CR0 4YY

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword

Archaeology, Atlas, Aviation, Battleground, Discovery, Family History, History,

Maritime, Military, Naval, Politics, Railways, Select, Social History, Transport,

True Crime, and Claymore Press, Frontline Books, Leo Cooper, Praetorian

Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Wharncliffe.

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

PEN & SWORD BOOKS LTD

47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk

Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

T o my personal editorial and proofreading team Citlin Blanchard, Ian Buckingham and Ellinor Orton. Any mistakes that remain after their efforts are, of course, all mine. As storytellers and writers in their own right Citlin and Ellinor provided much appreciated feedback on the content. Additional thanks must also go to fellow author and genealogist Simon Fowler for being a fierce friend.

Citlin Blanchard, Ian Buckingham and Alex Orton are the source of most of the technical advice on websites and blogs. The cartoons in this book were specially created for me by Sascha Stiven, and are her copyright (her website is www.sascha-stiven.co.uk).

Stories about my family and folk songs and tales of the past have been the inspiration for much of my own writing. This book is for storytellers everywhere, whether in words, music or song. Your family history is your story. It is time to tell the tale.

INTRODUCTION

Who, What, Where, When, Why and How?

A s family historians, the questions who, what, where, when, why and how underpin the quest to find out about our ancestors. Who they were; what they did; where they came from or went to; when key events in their lives occurred; why and how they made certain decisions, and so on. These are the fundamental questions or themes that lie underneath every story, whether fact or fiction. This book aims to give you the tools to present the answers to those questions by telling the story of your ancestors lives in an accessible and interesting manner.

Writing a family history is one of the best means to preserve and share your research with others both in the present and future. Whereas a family tree and research data are not necessarily things others can follow easily or feel connected to. Moreover, writing an ancestral story creates the opportunity to explore social history and places associated with your ancestry that may not have been pursued so far. In addition to which, reviewing and distilling the mass of information gathered to create a story is one of the best means I know of spotting gaps and anomalies and identifying what still needs to be checked.

My own interest in stories of the past originated with folk music. Songs, folk tales and legends of peoples lives and historical events were my first experience of social and local history. Even their contradictions and anomalies helped to shape my view that history is all about people and the telling of their stories. I began to write family histories and then to teach others after developing my own writing skills through creative writing courses, writing guides and belonging to writers and reading groups. For this book I have drawn on my own experiences of teaching and writing family histories professionally and for myself and family.