Genealogy and Historic Fiction

If you want to really find out about your family history, write a book based on it.  No sooner is your novel published, than the mist clears and memories return.  "That's not right.  This is what really happened." is the phrase most often heard.  Relatives and friends who feigned forgetfulness about things that happened long ago, suddenly develop razor sharp recall.  I received a call from a woman in Tennessee who let me know two streets in my story did not intersect and Massey was a great wine maker.  The fact that many crystal clear memories conflicted with newspaper reports, census data, and each other did not seem to matter.  But my book is published, thus making my version fact.

As my research progressed, I was amazed by the wake our lives' leave behind.  Thanks to such genealogy sites as Ancestor, Family Search, Find a Grave, and others, I could piece together Massey's life.  No more did I have just the cold facts: birth, death, marriage and children.  With the additional information I obtained I could actually put flesh on his bones.  Ship records of departures and arrival dates, provided the length of his voyage and probable route.  Census records told me when he first arrived in Rockdale he lived in a small  boarding house with six other men.  Draft records showed he and Sam registered together and neither could sign their name and did so in a building they normally would not visit.  His son's baptismal record provided the names of godparents and what I assume were his and Akulina's best friends and two more characters for the story.

Massey's Draft Registration - 1918

One of the best sources for genealogy information is the local library.  Every county library has a room, or perhaps an entire floor, dedicated to family history.  While the census showed the bare facts of Massey's neighbors, their nationality and employment, it was old phone books and business listing that told me where he might have shopped and enjoyed recreation.  Old street maps outlined long gone trolley and interurban lines and newspaper ads gave the cost of food, clothing and entertainment.

Rockdale In Early Twentieth Century

Naturalization papers brought both Massey and my father to life.  Home Land Security sent me 38 pages of documents and interviews.  I heard my 19 year-old father's hesitant replies to the questions thrown at him by the interviewer, and I imagined Massey fidgeting as his son struggled to come up with the right phrases to stay in America.  No more was Massey the grandfather who died when I was five a shadowy figure.  Through his footprints, I know him better than I people who now surround me.