Random thing that amused me

[thisbluespirit]

You won't be surprised to hear that I have a few books on family history and how to and all that. I have two that I like on how to write a family history. One is a UK work, the other US. I picked them up and glanced at them recently, and got rather amused by their respective opening paragraphs once I had them out side-by-side:


US book:

You know you should do it. The relatives are nagging you to do it. You've probably attended a class or workshop on how to do it. You may have even bought or read other books telling you that you should do it and how you should do it. Write the family history? Sure. Sounds like a good idea. Maybe you've started, but for some reason, your enthusiasm to keep going wanes. You keep getting writer's block, or you can't figure out how you're going to cover all those generations in one book and make it interesting. Or you may be thinking, "I don't even know where to begin, because, heck, I'm no writer!"


UK book:

Why would anyone in his or her right mind want to write a family history, let alone publish it? I ought to be dissuading you from doing any such thing. It will cost you a great deal of effort, and could prove very tiring; it could be an expensive undertaking if you want it to be; it could put strains on your relationship with your nearest and dearest; you might not even be happy with the final product once you've brought it to completion. Have I dissuaded you? In a world which often seems to be aware of the price of everything and the value of nothing, you might think that only people who really out of their minds would embark on such an enterprise.


They are both helpful books, (and I think both authors are starting off slightly tongue-in-cheek,), but I couldn't help sniggering at how much they conformed to cultural type once I looked at them so close together...

Comments

[selenicdistance]

Hah.

(Sorry if strangers wandering in is unwelcome! I saw this on my Network page.)

Have you/are you writing a family history? I can't even imagine how I would go about it now. Most of the principals are dead (well, obviously), and the people most likely to have documentation/memories about things before the last thirty years or so are predominantly estranged.

[thisbluespirit]

(I don't mind random strangers! Hi. :-D)

I've been doing family research for a long time now - I started when I was a teenager, so about 20 years. So, I've got a lot of information that I've collected from people and archives and websites and so on that I now need to see about maybe trying to share. I've just tried writing up a couple of individuals in a more narrative history style to see how it goes. It's tricky but also quite fun.

Doing the research without much immediate family to talk to is harder, of course - but you'd start with what you know (any names, places, occupations anyone ever mentioned), even if that's literally just you and work backwards. (Say from your full birth cert to yr parents marriage cert, to their birth certs etc. etc. It depends which country/countries you might be looking at as to what sort of documents are available, of course. My experience is all UK based so far, so I mainly know that.)

[selenicdistance]

Good tips. If I ever got into this, I'd definitely have to start with a document-based approach, if only to find relatives willing to speak.

The issue is that my paternal grandmother got hit with "the grandparent scam" about a year ago, and while she didn't fork over the $2500 that "I" asked for after "my" drunk driving accident and resulting imprisonment, she also didn't believe me when I called to ask if she was okay after I got word about what had happened. So, that's a dead end. The only other living relative on that side is my aunt, who is understandably concerned with keeping her mother as calm and stable as possible in the few years she likely has left. My grandmother is like, 95 or something.

On my maternal side, there are a lot more living relatives, but virtually all the ones I know (my mom, my aunt, my...great-aunt's family? some of the links are fuzzy) are reluctant to talk much about the past. (I'm not, but what little I know is pretty depressing stuff, and I doubt you want to hear about it, aha.)

It might be easier to do research on my stepdad's family, because he's actually passionate about some of his family's history. But he's out of the country half the time, and when he isn't, he's usually spending time with his mother, who's been in and out of the hospital for a while now.

[thisbluespirit]

That does all sound very awkward - I'm sorry! Families can be so complicated. :-/

[sallymn]

I see what you mean :)

Can I ask the name of the UK book? Sis is into it, and getting a fair way back in our tree, so I thought I'd add a book on it to her xmas pressies :)

[thisbluespirit]

:-D

Of course! Actually, as it happens, I find the US one particularly useful. (Because of the practical way it's written, it doesn't matter what country you're dealing with, most of her points on the how-to will still work when transposed elsewhere.) The other is also helpful, but is a little more "here are the parts you need to include in it and the problems you might find". They're both old books by small publishers now, though, but here they are:

You Can Write Your Family History by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack (Betterway Books)

Writing Up Your Family History by John Titford (Countryside)

[sallymn]

Thank you!

I am off to the book shop this afternoon (of course, that's always dangerous... I tend to come home with more pressies for me than anyone else)

[primsong]

Ha! I totally see what you mean, and as a bonus I am now completely and successfully dissuaded from attempting any such thing.

However, as I enjoy reading about what's happened with other people's families perhaps that is a bit hypocritical of me. ;-) My mother-in-law has recently been gathering info for a light version of this sort of thing, they went so far as to have a DNA test. Turned out the apocryphal tale of a bit of Cherokee in there is just that - apocryphal. Not a drop in there. Did find out my father-in-law is 100% English however. :-D

[thisbluespirit]

:-D

Yay for successful dissuading! (Or, er, possibly not... The author does go on to be more encouraging. :loL:)

Apocryphal tales are the best, though. I'm not sure how a person gets to be 100% English, because (racially speaking) there's no such animal. Even the most established of us are a mix of Celt, Anglo-Saxon, and Viking/Norse at the very least. It's fascinating how much they can tell, though!

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

LOL! You can really tell which one's which!

[thisbluespirit]

I didn't really need to label them, did I? ;-)

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

*CACKLES* Oh yeah...you can definitely tell American vs UK. That is AWESOME, lol!!

*HUGS*

[thisbluespirit]

Hee, glad it's not just me that thought it was funny! :-)

[paranoidangel]

That is amusing.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, yes. :-)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

ROFL! Oh my god, this is incredible XD

It's really incredible how clearly you can tell the American style sometimes. These days I'm reading a lot of American non-fiction books because I'm employed by a firm who sells non-fiction summaries and American books on business that haven't yet been translated are working really well, and I keep being amazed by the similarities ;) There are times when stereotypes turn out to be quite true after all XD

[thisbluespirit]

I know! If they'd decided to try they couldn't have got it so perfect.

Ooh, that sounds like interesting work. I hope it is going okay! (Please do try not to go and take over the world through business triangle positive thinking empowered things. Although, on second thoughts, please do, it might be an improvement! ;-D)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

It's going very well, thanks! ^_^ (And hahaha, I might! ;) There are tons of interesting things about stupidity/silly practises at work and in society overall, how to make a business work and how it's important to build it on values and things you'd like to share, care about your customer, care about your team and so on and so forth. And also some more happiness/lifestyle oriented books, which are very interesting too. It's all very Build A Fulfilling Life, which is often enlightening and a bit inspiring, although there is also such a thing as too much empowerment and sometimes you just snigger resentfully when all those nice life lessons end up clashing from one book to the next ;))

♥

[thisbluespirit]

Ha, yes, it's bit more reassuring when you absolutely can't follow all the advice! :-)

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Indeed ^_^

[acciochocolate.livejournal.com]

Rather amusing. ;) But too true, alas.

[thisbluespirit]

Indeed! :-)

[liadt]

Lol! I got my cup of tea icon out for the second one;)

[thisbluespirit]

:-D

*pulls out my mug icon to join you*

[liadt]

:) Behold our Britishness and for digging out old icons!

[elen_nare]

LOL! That's brilliant.

[thisbluespirit]

Isn't it just? :-D

[emeraldarrows.livejournal.com]

Haha, that's awesome. :D

[thisbluespirit]

Indeed! :-D

this is the most American icon I have

[sidleypkhermit.livejournal.com]

LMAO! As they say on tumblr: "That's it, that's the show"

Re: this is the most American icon I have

[thisbluespirit]

Something like that! :-)

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

So funny! :D

[thisbluespirit]

:-D