Do you have any farmers in your family history? Maybe a better question is, were any of your ancestors not farmers? With the draw of new land in the United States bringing many people from Europe, there’s a good chance that if your ancestors are American, someone farmed. Noted historian...
Do you have a fascinating ancestor who is also a historical figure? What if family stories, DNA, and research found that ancestor to be a different race than expected? Researching and imagining their life could lead to asking hard questions and writing their story. Rachel Jamison Webster discovered her ancestor,...
What would you do if your aunt gave you the charge never to forget your family’s history and then gave you a book about the family but forbade you to read it? For years, author, Meryl Frank, kept her promise to her aunt but did start researching the events during...
We’re reading Ribbons of Scarlet: A Novel of the French Revolution’s Women for our winter selection for the Family Locket Book Club on Goodreads. Written by historical fiction authors Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Sophie Perinot, Heather Webb, and Eliza Knight, the book provides a fascinating insight into the French...
Reading historical fiction can provides ideas on how to add historical context to our work. Researching the world of our ancestors allows us to write with more authenticity when telling their stories. Kristen Hannah’s recent novel, The Four Winds, takes us on a journey to the Dust Bowl of the...
When writing family stories, how often do you research the location and history surrounding events that influenced our ancestors? As family historians, we can learn much about the importance of this type of research by reading historical fiction. The Girls in the Stilt House provides an excellent example of using...
Telling our ancestor’s stories requires knowledge of their time. What better way to discover life on the frontier during the Revolutionary War than to read a historical narrative? Author Matthew Pearl tells the tale of a specific era in Daniel Boone’s life that was pivotal for history. The Taking...
As family historians, we often confront the challenge of discovering the truth behind family stories. In Murder in Matera –Â A True Story of Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy, we follow Helene Stapinski’s journey to unravel stories heard as a child about her great-great-grandmother, Vita. The book takes...
Do you have any ancestors who moved to the frontier? What was it like for them to leave their community and create a new home in the wilderness? Historian, David McCullough, provides important insight into the settling of the frontier after the Revolutionary War in his latest book, The Pioneers:...
If you’ve read Before We Were Yours, the fictional account of a family torn apart by Georgia Tann and her Tennessee Children’s Home Society, you might be interested in learning what happened to some of those children who passed through Tann’s hands. Lisa Wingate, the author of Before We Were Yours,...
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