h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A couple of days ago I mentioned finishing the first rough draft of the “True History.” I knew at the time it needed more work. Looking at it again, I see it really needs dismantling. There are too many dates for a narrative, and too few stories for some of the family branches, which is why they are nothing but dates.

It is at times like this I bless Bill Gates, write once, then just keep shifting it all about, change the fonts, and put in a few extra colours, until it all fits.

I have decided that the book must be split into three parts. Part one will be the clearly laid out linkages between the ancestral lines, each ancestor having a quarter page, containing essential dates and facts; Name, birthdate, location; marriage date and place and to whom; number of children; date of death. Thus I introduce the reader gently into the stories, giving them a framework within which to locate the actors in scene two.

That will be the second part, all the interesting stuff, the stories, scandals, rumours, surmises, wild guesses, and any other pieces of barely concealed fiction that I think I can get away with. With at least one major branch of the family, I am going to have to be at my creative best, at present they exist only as names and dates. Luckily, most of them seemed to be involved in heavy industries in the North, shipbuilding and the like. There is an Irish connection here, some of them crossed over the water, perhaps I can find something circumstantial referring to the building of the Titanic.

Knowing my family they were probably the people who skimped on the bulkheads; “Ah, you don’t need them going all the way up to C deck, this ship will never let in that much water, let’s go to the pub.” I am half believing it already.

Part three is going to be for the geeks. I haven’t finalised exactly how it is going to work but it will be basic details of every blood relative we have so far discovered. That’s roughly seven hundred people so far with the likelihood of another fifty or so before Christmas.

It is definitely going to be an E-book, there is no way I can justify printing twenty copies.

I've been looking at self-publishing possibilities and Amazon looks attractive.

Wow, I wish you were a family member of mine so I could read my family history like that. Sounds brilliant!

Deb

Same here!

Let me offer you a link, this is the book where I found a lot of my Leib information.

I offer it not so much as a source for the family, but perhaps to give you a few ideas for your own project.


http://books.google.com/books?id=80UZAQAAMAAJ&pg=PP12&lpg=PP12&dq=harrison+waples+and+allied+families&source=bl&ots=M4SdTbtb5P&sig=6AEDdg0BccaMKFVayxd3pLafj88&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RdFvVOPRH8ijgwTi_IKwBA&ved=0CEsQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=harrison%20waples%20and%20allied%20families&f=false

F S

Thanks FS, any and all suggestions and advice gratefully received. Not that I ever really intend to finish the book, of course, it is the 'Last Project' that will keep me occupied to the final gasp.

By its very nature, a Family History can never be finished.

I know my cousin in Wales and my cousin in South Africa have been researching our family history. It is harder because my father who comes from South Africa who's grandfather (paternal side) came from Italy and on his mother's side (either or both grandparents or great-grandparents came from Scotland. I don't know how far back my cousin in Wales has been able to trace our family tree. I wonder if I have Norse/Saxon ancestry?

Apparently, Thinky, all Europeans are descended from seven mothers. And we all descend from a bunch of illegal immigrants from Kenya, originally.

You can confirm that you are descended from Norse/Saxons by applying a simple test. If you turn your heating on before November, you aren't. If you wait until ice is forming on the inside of your windows, then you are.

I had my mitochondrial DNA analysed a few years ago which tells you which of the "Seven daughters of Eve" was the ancestral line. At first I was quite disappointed that mine was one of the most common, but then I realised this was probably because I have a robust DNA line, which contributes to the long lives of the female relatives on my mum's side.

The clan is all over Europe, and reaches its highest frequency among the Basque people of northern Spain and southern France. One day I will visit the area and look for likenesses.