Question of the Week: If you wrote a novel about the history of your family, what would the title be? [closed]

+41 votes
3.3k views

We'll put this one in the "Just for Fun" category. :-)

Can't wait to read your answers!

in The Tree House by Julie Ricketts G2G6 Pilot (481k points)
closed by Chris Whitten
100 YEAR Royal Secret.. My Illegitimate Daughter's
Assorted nuts, the story of the Langford Family
"Memories From The Watcher Within The Fritz Family"

By Taylor Fritz
The Baker Mystery
Good grief - they did what?

From what I know of my family their unusual way of looking at life and how they get on (or not) with each other, could mean an interesting read.

RE:

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Is John's last name in your story, Sherrill? I have family with that name , (Agnes Sherrill) and also some of my family also fought on King's Mountain.

No. John's last name was Sevier. He married Catherine "Bonny Kate" Sherrill 14 August 1780, after losing his first wife, Sarah Hawkins, a few months earlier. Nothing shocking about this. It was common, and EXPECTED, for a man to remarry within two months and sometimes as early as one month, after losing his wife, particularly if he had children.

Sarah died in the Spring.

Sarah gave birth to their tenth child, Nancy, had complications, they had to fort due to an impending Cherokee attack. She made it to the fort, but died early one morning before the fighting broke out.
wowwwwww
Mine would have to be Liar Liar xxx
No, John's last name is Sevier. Catherine "Bonny Kate" last name was Sherrill.

104 Answers

+23 votes
 
Best answer
Mine would be "The Tale of Two People"
by Wendy Sullivan G2G6 Pilot (158k points)
selected by anonymous
Thank you for best answer Susie, much appreciated :)
I did and it was :  They Came to Texas
FAGAN'S GIRLTOWN AND THEN SOME.
+23 votes
"Go West Young Man!"

Oh wait, I think it's already taken..
by Bart Triesch G2G6 Pilot (268k points)
+23 votes
Out of Round
by Janet Gunn G2G6 Pilot (157k points)
"Out of Round" is right for my 19th and 20th century family. But I think there is the makings of a great historical romance/historical mystery in the story of my 16th great grandmother.

see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Unknown-291499 and https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Great_Chalfield

* Multiple marriages

* Out of wedlock children

* Incest

* Possible kidnapping

* Legal interpretation (and a legal struggle for ownership of an estate that lasted over a century. That estate was used in the filming of "Wolf Hall")

* Greed

* Bribery

* Rebellion

* Debauchery and gambling

* Armed conflict

* Prison

* Agincourt

and of course

* True love

The title would be  "The Naughty Lyf of Lady Constance"
+25 votes
Nightmare on Elm Street

That's where we lived when our house burned down Christmas Day 1983.
by Eddie King G2G6 Pilot (690k points)
I hear Freddie Krueger was big on your street, Eddie. =) Haha!
Strangely enough, I had a buddy in school named Michael Myers.
Was your town called Silent Hill?
Dude ! I live in Youngstown Ohio, hometown of the DEBARTOLO CORPORATION, the owners of my dearly beloved '49ers. Equidistant from Pittsburgh and Cleveland for NFL games ! Hometown of one of rock and roll's greatest bands - KOOL AND THE GANG.  Kool (Robert) Bell is a third cousin. ) Do not make fun of Y-town (we got Mafia here!)
Oh, have ya met Cousin Vinnie? He owes me money for the job I did for him.

Nice town tho. =D
I gotcha, buddy. No need for the links. Interesting stuff...

Our old congressman and the mob

http://www.moldea.com/Traficant.html

Gotcha. No need to tell me more about the Mob. I may tell you in private.....
+22 votes
Spirits of The New World
by Tannis Mani G2G6 Mach 2 (20.0k points)
+22 votes
Our Crazy Clan

or... Family is Forever

But I think my cousins would all pick the first one, lol
by Mindy Silva G2G Astronaut (1.1m points)
I like Family is Forever more. =D

Was gonna go with "My big Fat Italian Life" but I am not fat so it doesn't work.
Too funny Chris!
Thanks. =D
+31 votes
"I just might be my own grampa!"

(There's a fair amount of cousin-lovin' on both sides.)
by Erik Oosterwal G2G6 Mach 5 (53.1k points)
Intro by Phillip J Fry? =P
I had to giggle out loud at this one
+23 votes

"Letters to Lydia." This is Lydia https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Woolcock-108 , and it would be a kind of epistolary novel, based on known information.

by Fiona McMichael G2G6 Pilot (208k points)
I like :)
That's a lovely title, and a great profile. If only I'd seen it before the nominations for Prized Penmanship! :-)
Thank you for your kind words, Suzie. She is my favourite ancestor and someone I never knew about even though she is my great grandfather's half-sister. A key character would be Nicky's great great grandfather who let his sister in Cornwall know her husband, Lydia's father, had been spotted in New Zealand in 1864. We both would have loved to have been flies on the wall at that meeting!
+19 votes
Mine would be From Ag-Lab to Accountant.

England to NZ - 1817 to 2016

My ancestors were Agricultural Labourers in Devon, England.

Both my father and my uncle were accountants,

1817 is the year the first Ag-Lab in the family got married.

2016 is when my father, the last accountant, died.
by Robynne Lozier G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
+24 votes
"Aotearoa Soup" !
by Living Blacklock G2G6 Mach 2 (29.9k points)
Is that your translation of "Great Big Melting Pot?'

I can still remember the chorus...

What we need is a great big melting pot - Big enough to take the world and all its got - Stir it for a hundred years or more - Turn out coffee coloured people by the score.

Do you know that song? It was a huge hit in NZ in the 1980s - about the same time that Poi-e came out as well. My 2 most favoruite songs of that era. And there I go showing my age again!!  LOL

Hi Robynne :)

Yes, that's the one! "Melting Pot" ~ I've always loved that song too Here's the old original. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naLnOMbtZoY I loved our beautiful Kiwi girls "When The Cat's Away" version of it too back in the 80s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfypLPoE508 

When I first explored my genealogy I had no idea that within 4-5 generations it would go back to so many different countries and cultures, let alone quite how far back I'd go from there! I was so amazed that I'd even been born! So I've called my tree Aotearoa Soup ever since.One day I hope to put it all together for my children's children in an illuminated manuscript scroll format, starting way back and meandering it's way all the way forward to them. I'm hoping they will be so fascinated by their roots it will inspire in them too a passion for history and genealogy and that they'll feel the same sense of pride I feel for all those who have come before.

+24 votes
A Menagerie of Messes :-)
by Emma MacBeath G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
+19 votes
Probably 'Who's Who'. Sorting my maternal grandmother's family out had its challenges. On the other hand, one of my "cousins" did write a novel about my 4 greats grandmother "The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor", by Sally Armstrong.
by Doug McCallum G2G6 Pilot (527k points)
+22 votes
Tractors, Plows, and Hoes.
by Natalie Trott G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
Nice one, Natalie!
+21 votes
I'd have to split it into three books. One for each side of the family.

Book 1 would be about my Italian side. It'd be called...

"La Famiglia: From Italy to Haverhill"

Book 2 would be about my French Canadian roots. It would be called....

"The French Connection. Or how I learned to stop worrying and enjoy baguettes"

Book 3 would be about the American Colonists

"The Original New England Patriots"
by Chris Ferraiolo G2G6 Pilot (756k points)
+19 votes
Mine would be "Family History Mysteries" with a subtitle of How I fell in Love with West Virginia Records!
by Cindy Lesure G2G6 Pilot (126k points)
+18 votes
I'm in the middle of writing mine: "Faith and Silk", which is about a branch of my family who were silk workers and nonconformists.

“We are all Adam’s children, but silk makes the difference.”
(Thomas Fuller 1654-1734)
by Ros Haywood G2G Astronaut (1.9m points)
+17 votes

For my paternal grandmother's side a broadly epic trilogy:

  • The Charcoal Makers
  • The Sawmill Workers
  • The Teachers

 

by Eva Ekeblad G2G6 Pilot (565k points)
+18 votes
"The most boring book in the world"... Nearly everybody is an agricultural laborer, not anything even remotely resembling a notable (even an infamous one) in sight ! I love researching them, but to someone not connected to the family, they must be very much like one another.
by Isabelle Martin G2G6 Pilot (560k points)
But you could make it captivating! (Alas, mine are mostly farmers as well.)
They are captivating to me! Actually a few entertaining stories around my Belgian great-grandfather's family... they were a bit bohemian.
Even farmers can have an interesting life!
Mine were all like yous Ag-Labs with the occasional silk factory worker and roof thatcher thrown in....
Mine too  and so far they were all in the South East  too.  No adventures, nothing exciting.
+21 votes
"The Farmers in Their Dells and the Ministers Under Their Bells" would
cover over 75% of us.
by Beulah Cramer G2G6 Pilot (565k points)
+14 votes
MY WONDERFUL SURPRISES ABOUT MY FAMILY, PIERCE, WILLIS, RITTER, HAWKINS THAT I HAD NEVER KNOWN
by Jean Pierce G2G Crew (950 points)

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