| After conducting seminars on the theme of 'Turning Dry Facts into Exciting
Narrative', Carol Baxter recognised the need for a book that covered and
expanded upon the topics discussed in her talk.
In other 'Writing Family history' books, most of the interesting examples
included material extracted from anecdotes, letters, diaries or photographs,
sources that, in general, have only survived for those in recent times. Many
family historians want to know how to turn sparse information into interesting
stories as she has done in her 'popular histories'.
'Writing INTERESTING Family Histories' covers these areas and more. It
explains how to structure and begin a family history. It challenges genealogists
to rethink what facts truly are. It describes how to evoke drama and tension
even when little information is known, and to draw 'dialogue' from original
records. It proves that family histories don't need to be fictionalised to be
riveting.
Contents:
Author's Note
Introduction
1. Imagination?
2. What are facts?
3. Certainly within relativity
4. Perspective
5. Stick to the fact but ...
6. Structuring a simple family history
7. Surnames
8. Beginning a family history
9. Down to the present ...
10. ... and back to the past
11. How do you eat an elephant?
12. Words on the page
13. Acorns to oak trees
14. Deliciously bad
15. Something from nothing
16. Words, words, words
17. Delight in the unexpected
18. The other half
19. Publish or perish?
Conclusion |
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