Your Ancestor's Historical World: Family History Narrative Series
A Setting That Provides Context for your Narrative
When your ancestor’s narrative is grounded in the location and era they lived in, it provides your reader with much-needed context. Without the setting as a context for their experiences, a hole is left in terms of understanding them. Context gives meaning to your ancestor’s narrative by placing them within the circumstances of their historical world.
I recommend checking out this interesting article by
on the importance and value of context: What is the context?Building Context through Concrete Details
Providing a concrete description of the place and period of your ancestor’s narrative allows your reader to understand their decisions, way of life, and mannerisms within context. Leaving out the details can take away that level of understanding for the reader. If you leave out parts of the setting, your reader is left to imagine your ancestors’ experiences without the anchor of the details.
Take a look at these two images. The first image is of gold miners in California during the Gold Rush. You can see what was going on with them as they worked to find gold. They had tools and were among some rocky areas that likely held opportunities for finding a fortune.
The second image serves as a zooming-out of what it was like to be in California Gold Country in the 1850s. The additional details give a little more context to their experience.
Yes, they were in the middle of an opportunity to become rich from gold, but they weren’t alone. The experience was likely more than a solitary experience between the miner and the land. Building the concrete details comes from the historical settings, and how you write them. So how can you build an understanding of the setting for both you and your reader?
In this post, you can read about:
How you can approach developing an accurate setting based on your research.
Strategies for providing a setting while fully engaging your reader.
How the location versus time can affect your ancestor’s experience.
You can find posts in this series that came before this one linked here:
Optimizing your Organized Records - Getting Your records prepped for writing.
What is your Ancestor’s Backstory? - How to write exposition in your narrative to tell your ancestor’s backstory.
The Plot Thickens - How to turn your ancestor into the protagonist of your family history narrative.
Ancestral Conflict - How including conflict in your family history narrative provides you and your reader with a clearer understanding of their experiences.
For more about why family history narratives are an effective solution for preserving your family history, read this post: