Eight Easy Ways to create compelling Ancestral Life Stories

Henry George Hine. 'Mr. Crindle's Rapid Career Upon Town' Cartoon created for 'Man in the Moon' courtesy of Lambiek Comiclopedia https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/hine_henry_george.htm

​‘Biography is one of the most popular and widely read of literary genres.  It can also be controversial, scandalous, and hotly debated. And it is by no means a fixed or stable form of literature. Biography has gone through many centuries of change and exists in many different versions.’[1]

​Documenting ancestor’s lives and bringing together family history as a narrative creates a position of both power and responsibility.  Not least, over what form the account will take, what to include and what to lose to the cutting room floor.  It is the culmination of years of research come to fruition.  The stories of the good, the bad, the bigamous, the unmarried, the criminal or the victim all waiting to spill out onto the page.  But where to begin?  And is it ‘right’ to include everything ‘warts and all’ because it has been unearthed?   

The October issue of Family Tree Magazine contains my article discussing this issue.[2]  It also covers some other considerations faced when writing ancestors stories (moral and otherwise) based on the results of a questionnaire circulated in June.  The same issue contains an exclusive feature on house history by David Olusoga, presenter of BBC2’s ‘A House in Time’.  A great article that builds on last month’s blog looking at creating immersive historical settings.

In preparation for the companion piece focusing on the ‘practicalities’ of writing ancestor biographies, this month I look at some stylistic ways it can be easily achieved.  It can be a lot of fun!  Plus, many methods outlined can also act as a research aide memoir by highlighting gaps in knowledge.  ​

‘Cradle to Grave’ is the traditional style or method favoured by family historians.  It is customary to begin with a birth and follow a chronological path through life and achievements to the point of departure.  But there are many other ways to approach writing family history and ancestral stories and, they don’t all have to begin at the beginning or with a birth!  Here are a few alternative tactics that work well in the context of family history:

• Begin or focus on a particular event in, or aspect of, an individual’s life.  Think ‘On Chapel Sands’ where author Laura Cumming begins the narrative with the childhood disappearance of her mother from a beach in Lincolnshire.
• The story of your discoveries.  Take the reader on your journey of discovery as you uncover the evidence and the story begins to emerge piece by piece.
• Use an object or place as a focal point.  Using a simple object that has passed down through the generations, or a house or place that was home or place of business can be a great way of uniting different strands of a story around a common theme.
• A life told via graphics or images such as photographs.  There are some fabulous graphics software packages available these days, many of which have free versions too.  If words are not your forte, keep them to a minimum and let your creativity run wild with a picture book. 
• A series of essays or stories within the story.  Bite size chunks are not only manageable but can work well.  Author Miranda Doyle used this to great effect when writing her memoir ‘A Book of Untruths’.  Even limiting herself to approximately 1,000 words per untruth a series of separate stories run seamlessly together.  (They don’t even need to be this long – try it with 500 words or less.  It’s amazing how much information a few words will capture.)   
• Bring together the research and commentary of others.  Some biographies have little or no original research in them at all.  They work by combining the research or commentary of others or even pitting them against one another.  In a family history context bringing together the different and (sometimes) opposing memories of family members can create diverse, colourful and sometimes humorous accounts.  

​There are at least two further approaches.  One will be familiar to all family historians (the Obituary style) and another that took me a bit by surprise!  During five days of intensive life writing workshops, author Richard Skinner set a task to research and gather as much information as possible about a favourite ‘artist’.  The research time given was one afternoon!  The information amassed was to form the basis of the next day’s writing challenge. But at the time of the research, that challenge was unknown. 

Portrait of a Painter - Henry George Hine 1811 - 1895

Figures Crossing a Back H.G Hine. A Street in London [Possibly Hampstead] Early Morning in Winter. (1887)

​My knowledge of the world of art is somewhat limited, but the well-known watercolourist Henry George Hine immediately came to mind.  He was the husband of a third great aunt, Mary Ann Eliza Egerton, so I already knew something about him too.  An interesting man who preferred a ‘simple kindly life’ and had great stories to tell.  He was a prolific artist whose pictures are rich in historic detail.  They reflect a bygone era and provide powerful vignettes of social history.  Those of Brighton are useful records of the town’s history with its fish quay, promenade and bathing huts.   Other paintings depicting scenes such as a cattle train on a viaduct, London washerwoman at work and a fire in Drury Lane are three others that offer rich glimpses into the past.  Hine himself often reflected on the Brighton of his childhood recounting the tales to friends and family along with the legend of a highwayman ancestor hanged during the time of Cromwell. 

​My January 2019 blog also mentions the family.  In it, I aim to dispel a few myths concerning the Egerton family pedigree and speculate whether coaching connections may have brought the couple together.  It is only speculation, as Mary Ann was to become an accomplished artist in her own right.  She exhibited a figurative watercolour at the Dudley Gallery in 1873.  The couple had a staggering fifteen children of whom only one did not make adulthood.  I also mention two of his youngest daughters who were founding members of the ‘Peasant Arts Society’ in Haslemere Surrey.  But so many aspects of this couple’s life have an interesting back story.  The history and site of Saint Marks Church, Kennington, where the couple married in November 1840, is worthy of its own chapter.  But I digress!

Faber Workshops & Writing Challenges  

•             The interview or question and answer method.
​
When Richard outlined the writing challenge the following morning, my heart hit my boots.  ‘Interview your chosen artist in five questions.’  How do you interview an ancestor who died in 1895, let alone know what questions to ask?  Believing myself well prepared for the day’s exercises, my confidence flew out of the window and blind panic set in.  On top of this horrendous challenge was a time limit of 45 minutes.  I was having premonitions of a blank page at the end of the allotted time and sitting back to enjoy my writing partner’s piece of literary genius!  Where to even start such an endeavour? I looked to Henry himself for guidance and started to write …

Henry George Hine V.P.R.I by Walker Hodgson Dec 1891. (Walker Hodgson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

I am looking at the 80-year-old man in an 1891 sketch by Walker Hodgson.  His mass of white, leonine hair is set high and Einstein-Esque above an intelligent forehead.  His kindly eyes gaze over his long nose, drooping moustache and feathery beard to a point in the distance somewhere beyond my left shoulder.   I imagine ‘chewing the fat’ over a cup of hot chocolate with this portly fellow with the immaculate bow tie, waistcoat unbuttoned to accommodate his form and handkerchief, wilting in a top pocket.  I want to ask him about his life and experiences that culminated in the vice presidency of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours.  A position he held from 1887 to his death in 1895.

Tell me about where you were born, your parents and your siblings. 
‘I was born in East Street Brighton on 15th August 1811, and I was the youngest of seven children, although two died as infants before I was born.  My father, William, who had come from humble beginnings in rural Hampshire, had worked his way up in life and ran a coaching service.  One of the first on the London to Brighton route.  My mother was a fine specimen of a housewife with a tendency to be overly fussy.  Both were illiterate but made sure to give us children a good education. My brother William was married and lived away from the home that I shared with my parents, older sisters Mary and Esther and brother Fred.  Cousin Ridley lived with us too when not driving a coach, along with old Sukie the maid and Sprightly the outside porter.’

Can you describe one of your earliest memories?
‘One day, when I was just the same height as the keyhole of the office door, I sat outside in our cobblestones yard while the clothes were drying.  Sukie came out of the washhouse with her arms full of clothes. Have ‘ee heard the news she asked me?  The old King is dead at last.  I remember I cried bitterly as it seemed so sad.  A little while after that they gave me a medal of his late Majesty King George III in his wig going up to heaven assisted by an angel.’

How did you learn to paint?
‘I was self-taught and received no formal training but was encouraged to make art a career by Rev Townsend, the local vicar.  He had several watercolours paintings of the sea and downs by Copley Fielding that I spent hours admiring and trying to emulate.  Some of the subtleties in the use of light have been attributed to his influence. But it might also be down to the way I grind the paint for a second time.’ 

But painting was not what you were first known for – why was that?
Life as a young painter from a humble background is hard,  although I did exhibit at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1830.  Don Quixote in the Sable Mountains, if I remember correctly?  I wasn’t particularly successful until around 1859 when an oil painting of ‘Smugglers waiting for a Lugger’ started to attract attention.  I needed to earn a living, so I joined a couple of other artists creating illustrations that became known as cartoons at the new satirical magazine Punch, then Puck,  The Man in the Moon and The London Illustrated News.  I continued illustrating through the 1840s and 50s but had become freelance by then and had a wife and large family to provide for.

​Although I didn’t finish the challenge in the allotted time, I was not left looking at a blank screen either.  Yes, the first question was about where he was born, but it needn’t have been!  In my haste to put words on the page, I framed the questions around answers I knew.  But none of the details are fictitious and where possible, Henry’s ‘own voice’ has been used.  As I began scribbling, I remembered the book ‘Round about a Brighton Coach Office’, a selection of his stories retold and published by his daughter Maude.  Using extracts from the book and combining them with other known facts formed the basis of Henry’s answers.   

​As coincidence would have it, the afternoon’s challenge was an Obituary, the style of which is popular and well-known amongst family historians.  

Untitled (A courtyard of women washing Clothes) © Trustees of the British Museum | Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

•             Obituary style or ‘Beginning at the End’

As well as containing details of funeral arrangements, an obituary of a well-known figure often comprises a brief biographical overview of their life.  Adopting this approach essentially begins an individual’s story at the point where it ends.  The main focus is almost always specific achievements.   This time there was a limit of 500 words on top of the 45 minutes of writing time.   What follows is my attempt, which, although roughly completed within the time, is not great but will hopefully inspire you to give it go! 

On the 16th March 1895, at his home in Gayton Crescent, Hampstead, in his 84th year, renowned watercolour artist Henry George Hine laid down his paintbrush for the last time. 

Henry, or ‘Harry’ as he was known to his family, was the youngest of 7 children.  He was born in East Street Brighton on 15th August 1811, where his father William was a proprietor of a coaching service on the historic London to Brighton route.  Henry spent his childhood in Brighton.  The beach with its fishermen, the bathing huts and the vast open spaces of the South Downs were his playground and inspiration for many of his most memorable works.

He was encouraged in his artistic endeavours by the Rev. W Townsend, the local vicar, whose collection of watercolours by Copley Fielding became his early muse and whose influence in the subtlety of light is discernible in many of his works.  Henry’s career was slow to launch and, although he first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830, it was not until 1859 when ‘Smugglers waiting for a Lugger’ brought him to prominence. 

As a teenager, he was apprenticed as a stipple engraver to a Henry Meyer in London, but a bout of ill-health saw him sent to France where for around two and a half years he could be found painting and mastering his craft amongst the cloisters of Rouen Cathedral.  On his return, he again went to London, where he worked as a wood engraver for Peter Landells and was present at the beginning of illustrative journalism.  Henry was a talented watercolourist, known for the subtlety and delicacy of his paint – he always gave his cake colours a second grinding on the slab to make them finer. But he is also famed for his political and satirical cartoon illustrations that appeared in magazines such as Punch, Puck, The Illustrated London News and other rival publications. 

It was around this time that Henry moved to London permanently.  On 11 November 1840,  he married Mary Ann Eliza Egerton, the daughter of the proprietor of a rival coaching company at St Mark’s, Kennington.   He was a prolific painter, exhibiting over 331 paintings in his lifetime, and in 1887 he rose to the position of vice president of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours.  A position to which he would be re-elected every year until his death.  Too modest to accept the post of president. 

As well as a painter, Henry was a great raconteur and would entertain his family and friends with tales of Old Brighton.  Stories handed down to him from his father of the old coaching days and the legend of a highwayman ancestor.
​
Henry is survived by 13 of the couple’s 15 children.  Among them are several noted artists and authors. His funeral will take place at Highgate Cemetery on the afternoon of Tuesday 19th March.   

​I confess to writing the beginning and the end first and then ‘putting the jam in the sandwich’.  Cheating, but at least it provides some form of narrative arc to the 481 words used!  But it is the sharp contrast in language and tone between the two exercises that is so dramatic.  

The Q&A is more personal and the subject feels close and alive, whereas the Obituary is altogether more formal and the subject quite distant.  It is interesting to see how much the different approaches affect the result in such a radical way.  An interview or Q&A with a deceased ancestor is not something I would ever have thought of trying before, but it is a method and style I will try again.  I can also see its benefit as a focus and framework for questions to pose to the living too!

The reason for sharing the  exercises above is to inspire you to be bold and have a go yourselves! Choose a style, set a clock for half an hour or 45 minutes and just get scribbling. (Setting a short time limit can be an effective motivator.)  Then, why not share your results with others. They may look differently on family history after reading your work!

Henry George Hine, 'In and Out'. (Henry George Hine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

[1] Hermione Lee. Biography A Very Short Introduction.  Oxford 2009.
[2] Family Tree Magazine, October Issue on sale from the 10th September either in print or online https://www.family-tree.co.uk/store/back-issues/family-tree-magazine
​

Useful Links

St Mark's Church Kennington, 
https://stmarkskennington.org/about/history/

Explore a further selection of Henry's Paintings at Watercolour World  
www.watercolourworld.org/search?query=Henry+George+Hine&displayCount=24

A highly informative website about the peasant art movement and its people. 
Peasant Arts - Haslemere http://peasant-arts.blogspot.com/p/introduction.html
 
A wonderfully illustrated copy of Henry's tales retold by his daughter Maude.  
Archive.org 'Round About a Brighton Coach Office' Maude Egerton King with illustrations by Lucy Kemp Welsh.
​ ​https://archive.org/details/roundaboutbright00king/page/n9/mode/2up