I love family stories, those ones passed down through the generations, the ones our parents told us about. Many stick with us. The funny tales that still make us chuckle because you can’t imagine your parents being that young or childish. Then there are those that forever bring a tear to our eyes. We wonder how they survived it, but they did because we are here as a result. You must have stories or anecdotes in your family. I’d love to hear them, so please drop a comment.
Many fiction stories come from tales sent down through the generations. It’s important to tell yours. Visit Family Stories month for more information.
Author Carol Parkes listened to her mother’s stories as she nursed her. One day she wrote them into a book, so they will never be forgotten.
‘The Road to Wigan Pier‘ by George Orwell is a social study of the northern English town written in 1936. Carol tells The Road from Wigan Pier as Elizabeth’s autobiography. She was 18 years old and living in Wigan at the time Orwell wrote his book. It’s a tale of ordinary people, who lived in extraordinary times. Saddened by financial struggles, family losses, and separations of war, yet, through it all, her love and marriage survived for over 75 years.
George Orwell’s book looks at the social and historical reality of the suffering in the north of England, – Orwell does not wish merely to enumerate evils and injustices, but to break through what he regards as middle-class oblivion, – Orwell’s corrective to such falsity comes first by immersion of his own body – a supreme measure of truth for Orwell – directly into the experience of misery.”
I read a great character interview recently and the book Spring House is based on the lives of the author’s four times great-grandparents. It’s described as ‘historically accurate fiction’. Another great example of keeping family stories alive.
Meet My Character on the blog of JM Northup
Finally, I wrote an article on my own blog a few years ago called Hidden Stories in Family Trees. Each of the ones mentioned could easily be turned into a tale of fiction based on fact.