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You are here: Home / Uncategorized / Digging the Roots of the Family Tree

Digging the Roots of the Family Tree

September 30, 2021 by admin

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut

If you read this blog regularly, you know by now that Jane Thorburn of The Factory Girl and the Fey is loosely (and when I say loosely, I mean waaaayyyy loosely) based on my great-great grandmother.

It has occurred to me that studying my ancestors is a great way to mine for book ideas. There’s my Bohemian great-great grandmother who was first widowed in her early 20s, whose marital history seems to provide more questions than answers. There’s the alleged Civil War battle on a family farm (unconfirmed and possibly a legend, it appears).

There are the Scottish Steins I haven’t been able to connect to my family tree who made bad whisky but had a lot of political clout to keep the upstart Highland distilleries from tapping into their market share. I wrote about them years ago and was gently reminded by a distant relative that we are probably NOT related to them…which shows you my limitations as a genealogist. My brain, alas, is too much “fiction writer.”

Recently my husband and I visited Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts for a brief vacation. We moved to New York State a few years ago and are still exploring the area around us. We stayed in a B&B that was a restored old home, and I saw a sign that said, Isabel N. Chapman. I thought, hmm, we have Chapmans in our family. A quick Ancestry search confirmed that yes, she was potentially a relative (what are the odds of staying in a B&B that was once owned by a distant ancestor?).

A bit more quick digging, and I learned my ancestors played a large part in founding the town of New London, CT, where we were staying. I now have several tabs open of books about my family, including some grotesquely gleeful accountings of the Native Americans they slaughtered.

Oh. That.

It’s similar to when I found that yes, we also had slaveowners, especially on my father’s side of the family. Though I’m sure I could come up with a dozen book ideas for these, do I want to? I suppose I could if I could write with the sensitivity such subjects would deserve. Is it a way to atone? I don’t know yet.

What I do know is, The Factory Girl and the Fey began with a genealogical question, and I suspect future books could also spring from this deep well. I also know that I need to start writing a lot faster. The ideas are building up too fast.

The Factory Girl and the Fey is available for pre-order now! A Goodreads giveaway begins October 3. I’ll post the links on social media once that happens.

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