I’m a genealogy junkie. I admit it. Digging into my past is my favourite procrastination tactic. But in the process, I’ve come across a few quirky sources of historical information, that are useful not only to geni’s but to writers of historical fiction too. We all know about Google and Worldcat and History.com, but have you ever explored these sites?
This site has over 64,000 maps and
cartographic images. His focus is on rare 18th and 19th
century North American and South American maps, but you’ll also find materials
from Africa, Europe and Asia. Not only can you view maps side by side, but you
can also overlay historical maps over modern ones to see how an area has
changed over time.
Did you know that there is a Genealogy on Facebook list, a 173-page PDF file containing 5,700-plus links, published by Katherine R. Willson. A Canadian version by Gail Dever includes French-speaking groups and pages.
These genealogy groups are great for
requesting help with foreign record translations or asking about specific eras
and ancestral villages like Ballymena, County Antrim in Northern Ireland during
the Irish famine of the 1840s.
If you’re looking
to compare a modern UK street view with an old one or see if an historical site
survives today, try Historypin. This is a free collaborative site with over
400,000 old photo and story submissions plotted on Google Maps.
For North America, try WhatWasThere. It works the same way. For instance, a search for Pueblo, Colorado gives images of the late 1800s and early 1900s and then the aftermath of a 1921 flood.
Need to know the
weather for a specific date? What about calculating a birth date based on a
death date from a gravestone? WolframAlpha is a computational knowledge base
that accesses more than 10,000 databases to return information based on your
calculation requests.
Ireland Reaching Out website is a treasure trove of all things Irish, from westward Trans- Atlantic crossings records during the great famine to why the names Flan, Florry, Finn and Fitheal are actually all the same name. Similar websites exist for many countries. I have South African ties, so I use the South African sites eGGSA.org and Stamouers .
Cyndi’s List is a cornucopia of useful information arranged by topic on EVERYTHING, not just historical information. In the genealogy category alone, you can find everything from records of Canadian Military casualties to South African gravestones search sites, from information on workhouses in the UK to transcribed diaries.
So there you have it. Hours and hours of procrastination facination. This list is of course, by no means exhaustive, just some of my favourites. Share quirky historical sites that you use in the comments below.
Look for Writescape’s 10 on the 10th for writing tips, advice and inspiration on the 10th of every month. Think of it as Gwynn and Ruth sitting on your shoulder and nudging you along.
Where does a writer come up with ideas for a new character? Do you always find characters the same way? Maybe it’s time to explore new ways to find the people who populate your writing.
1. Everyday people:
Spend time in any public place and someone is bound to catch your attention because of what they are saying or wearing or the way they are acting. Play the “Who are they?” game. Name them. Give them an occupation, a family (or not), and a problem. Watch, listen, take notes, and then let your imagination take over. Read literary voyeur Julie Wilson’s Seen Reading, a collection of micro fiction inspired by people on Toronto transit.
2. Historical people:
People throughout history have done amazing,
stupid, brave, cowardly, horrific, heart-warming things. Digging into the past
can uncover all kinds of people, both those who are documented, and those that
were —or might have been—in their lives. Check out museums, plaques, archives,
diaries, statues. If you don’t want to write about a famous person, think about
siblings, spouses or colleagues and imagine their lives. Think of Susanna
Moodie Roughing it in the Bush, or
Philippa Gregory’s book The Other Boleyn Girl.
3. Historical events:
Pompeii excavation
Whether you are a fan
of Tudor times, fascinated by the destruction of Pompeii, read avidly about the
great wars or have your interest piqued by the voyage of the KonTiki, historical
events are filled with possibility for creating characters. Anthony Doerr
creates a blind French girl and a young German radio operator for his WWII novel
All the Light We Cannot See. In his book Pompeii, Robert Harris creates four characters – a young engineer, an
adolescent girl, a corrupt millionaire and an elderly scientist – in a
luxurious world on the brink of destruction.
4. Art forms:
Flip through a magazine or visit an art gallery. Visual art and photography can always inspire. Degas’s art inspired Cathy Buchanan to write The Painted Girls; Vermeer’s art inspired The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. The same goes for books, plays, movies, dance, comedy, music and oral storytelling. Think of Annie Proulx’s Accordian Crimes, a novel that follows the lives of characters who successively own a green accordion.
5. Travel:
Travelling always offers fresh perspectives on
everything from the scenery to the way things are done, the foods people eat or
their attitudes to life. You can set the story in the foreign place, like
Frances Mayes did in Under a Tuscan Sun.
Or write about the effects of travelling like Vicki Pinkerton’s Reflections on the Road. Or tell a
home-grown tale with characters influenced by other cultures like Wayson Choy’s
Jade Peony.
6. Media:
News text, TV and social media are a goldmine for finding unique characters. If you read a headline and it gets you asking questions, (Why would anyone do that? How did they survive? Why didn’t anyone help? How did they get away with that?) then you likely have the makings of a story and a character. Ask lots more questions, flesh them out and go your own way. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie was published two years after the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son. Hannah Kent’s Burial Rites was inspired by Agnes Magnúsdóttir who was convicted of killing her employer. Of course, the personal ads are always a fun place to start. Julia Wertz wrote the graphic anthology, I Saw You, based on real-life missed connection ads posted on Craigslist and in local papers.
7. Death:
While thinking about death might not be
everyone’s cup of tea, gravestones, cemeteries, obits, and death masks offer
great opportunities for creating characters. In Edinburgh, Greyfriars’s Kirkyard, just
steps from The Elephant House where J.K Rowling penned the first Harry Potter book,
you will find five gravestones she used to inspire characters in her books:
Potter; McGonagall; Moodie; Scrimgeour and Tom Riddle.
8. Names:
And while on the subject of names, remember
that many of them reflect ethnic and cultural connections, have religious or
folklore connotations and can suggest era too. Want an Irish character? Try Googling “Irish
Names”. You’ll find lists for boys and for girls; meanings and popularity by
year. Or page through phone directories and baby-name books. Notice street sign
names and names on buildings. Want to write about rape or feminist themes,
using the mythical name of Philomel (who was raped, and voiceless, but was
transformed into a singing nightingale) adds a layer. Check out Margaret Atwood’s use
of that connotation in her novella Nightingale published in The Tent (2006),
9. Opposites & reimaginings:
The despised Wicked Witch of the West in the movie The Wizard of Oz becomes a much more sympathetic character when we see things from her point of view in Gregory McGuire’s book (and later musical)Wicked. If you read Jane Eyre and can’t stop thinking about the secret madwoman in the attic, then read Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea which follows a young Antoinette Cosway who is sold into marriage to Mr. Rochester and slowly descends into madness.
10. Traits:
Start with a character trait and create a
situation where someone with that trait finds themselves facing it/using it/fighting
it. Then ask questions. Why are they in
this situation? Who is the other person in the scenario? What happens next?
A woman who reads body language well: Maddie knew Ashton was lying. His eyes looked down to the left, and shuffled his feet.
A hero who is uncomfortable around weeping women: Tentatively taking Auria’s elbow, Gaston said, “Don’t weep. It does not become you.”
A womanizer: As Alysha seated Tyron between his new love and his ex at dinner, he loosened his tie and looked for an escape route.
So many ways to discover characters, and this list is by no means exhaustive. So stash a notebook in your backpack, put on your hiking boots, and get out there to see who you can find.