By Ruth A Symes
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Could your ancestors write their own names or did they mark official documents with a cross? Why did great-grandfather write so cryptically on a postcard home during the First World War? Why did great-grandmother copy all the letters she wrote into letter-books? How unusual was it that great-uncle sat down and wrote a poem, or a memoir?Researching Family History Through Ancestors’ Personal Writings looks at the kinds of (mainly unpublished) writing that could turn up amongst family papers from the Victorian period onwards – a time during which writing became crucial for holding families together and managing their collective affairs.With industrialization, improved education, and far more geographical mobility, British people of all classes were writing for new purposes, with new implements, in new styles, using new modes of expression and new methods of communication (e.g. telegrams and postcards). Our ancestors had an itch for scribbling from the most basic marks (initials, signatures and graffiti on objects as varied as trees, rafters and window ledges), through more emotionally charged kinds of writing such as letters and diaries, to more creative works such as poetry and even fiction. This book shows family historians how to get the most out of documents written by their ancestors and, therefore, how better to understand the people behind the words.
From the introduction…..
Amongst their possessions and official paperwork, our ancestors may have left a whole raft of personal writings, from a name etched into the top of an old box, to an appointment diary, a shopping list, a recipe or remedy book, a sheaf of letters or a collection of postcards. Some may have gone further, leaving a trove of intimate detail in letters, a holiday journal, a fragment of poetry or even a full-blown but unpublished manuscript of an autobiography or novel.
In his diary entry for New Year’s Day, 1858, actor John Pritt Harley recorded that : ‘I gave my Dear Sister Betsy a new Pocket Book.’ Harley did not make it clear what use the book was intended for but there were many possibilities. And, as the century wore on, publishers rose to the demand for these pocket and desks books in multifarious shapes and sizes, some no longer filled simply with blank pages but specifically designed for particular purposes: ‘almanacs’, ‘miscellanies’, ‘birthday books’, ‘memoranda,’ ‘commonplace books’, ‘appointment diaries’ and ‘holiday journals’ to name but a few titles.
Whilst we might easily assume that our upper and middle-class ancestors left some written evidence of their lives, it is a common misconception that working-class ancestors did not. Historians of ordinary people have tended to focus on sources that record their spoken words including folklore, stories passed down through a family’s oral history, transcriptions of what was said in a court situation, or spoken words quoted in a newspaper. In fact, however, many ordinary people with low levels of literacy left personal writings which may profitably be analysed by family historians. As one recent commentator, Martin Lyons has put it: ‘Our ancestors’ writings are there if we care to look for them. The problem is not that ordinary writings are scarce and ephemeral: rather there is such an abundance of ordinary writing that the historian hardly knows where to begin.’ (Martyn Lyons, The Writing Culture of Ordinary People in Europe, c. 1860-1920, CUP, 2014)
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