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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Ancestors as Muse #amwriting #familystories #novels

Ancestors as Muse #amwriting #familystories #novels

July 22, 2015 by admin

At a book conference some years ago, I was chatting with a man in the book room, where When a Grandchild Dies and Patchwork & Ornament were on display. He made an interesting observation: “Dead people seem to inspire you.”

He was absolutely right. Both books, one I authored and one I edited, were inspired by the memories of people I loved. Their lives inspired me and helped me transcend my anxiety about sharing my writing with the world.

The problem with this is, I don’t want to depend on family members to die in order to find inspiration (my novels to date, thankfully break this trend). Maybe there’s another way to do this.

Enter genealogy.

In the past year, as some of you know, I started researching the family tree on my mother’s side. One result, so far, is an inspiration for the next novel, so I’m immersing myself in 19th century rural Scotland.

Also, in a curious timing, I took a workshop from author Elizabeth George, who begins work on her novel by creating her characters…a great way for me to approach this new project.

But the hits, as they say, just keep on coming.

There’s a family story about my great-great grandmother chasing after her son-in-law with a broom. Grandma Wood was a tough cookie by all accounts, often married and full of piss and vinegar. “Not a nice person,” people have said.

As a rookie genealogist, though, this is the kind of ancestor that grabs our attention. What happened to her? Why was she so “difficult”?

Born Franziska Pokorney in Bohemia, she immigrated to the United States as a child. Frances, or Frannie as one of the Ancestry.com family trees calls her, married at 17 and, it would appear, was widowed at age 23 with three small children.

She remarried, and with one of her husbands had twins, one of whom died at about six months of age. Curiously, the surviving daughter ended up with the surname of Frannie’s first husband — Cross, an Americanized version of Kriz — though young Cora was born five years after Mr. Kriz’s untimely death. I thought this was a fluke at first, a mistake of the census-taker, but Cross shows up in several other places, and her birth father’s name doesn’t appear anywhere.

Was her father a ne’er do well? I don’t wish to speak ill of the dead, especially when any conjecture would just be gossip. All I know is, Frannie was married to him in 1900 and not married to him by 1910.

It’s hard to keep all of Frannie’s husbands straight. I’ve found four that I know of, with the last one William Wood, but based on family lore, there may be more.

She buried a total of four children in her lifetime, and only one, Cora, lived on after her. Isabell lived to age 19, Viola to 23, and Frances (my great-grandmother) to 35.

What happened to the other husbands? How did she bear all that loss without knuckling under completely? What was this woman made of?

I may not get my questions answered — yet again. As with my Scottish ancestors, information is sketchy. I suspect, though, Franziska wants a novel of her own, too. She may, in fact, demand it.

Apparently I have encountered ancestors as muse.

I respect and admire genealogists for their work, and I do try to get the family history as correct as possible. Yet, above all else I am a fiction writer. Even when facts tell me one thing, my brain goes off into a story tangent. The ancestors are giving me so much delicious fodder for novels, I’m afraid I will need to pick up the pace!

 

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gwynnrogers
gwynnrogers
7 years ago

Ohhhh, I can see your mind twitching from here!! I can see you will have lots of fodder for your creative spirit… GO FOR IT GIRL!! Relatives ARE interesting! 😉

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admin
Author
admin
7 years ago
Reply to  gwynnrogers

Funny how it took me all these years to figure out what really hits my hot button when it comes to writing. I guess I’m glad I figured it out at all!

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vrein11
vrein11
7 years ago

I sincerely hope you DO write a novel about that ancestor! She sounds like quite a pip!!! (and i totally cracked up at your mention of “piss and vinegar”! I don’t hear that phrase much outside of my family members…

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admin
Author
admin
7 years ago
Reply to  vrein11

Yeah, it’s fun to run across someone like this!

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Liz A.
Liz A.
7 years ago

Consider her “inspiration”. Rather than taking her literal life, you can take liberties. But that would be an interesting place to start from.

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admin
Author
admin
7 years ago
Reply to  Liz A.

Yes, exactly! If I had the real facts, I could write nonfiction, but with a novel, I can do anything…with the hope of writing something that would honor her.

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