We are the chosen

I’ve known about this amazing quote by Della M Cunnings Wright for some time, and wanted to share it with you.

As a genealogist and author, this is exactly what I do.

I do much more than find facts. I breathe life into those who connect my past with my future, but I take it a step further. The quote has as much to do with my writing as it does in tracing the various branches of our family tree.

Through genealogy research, I have been privileged to look into the lives of other people. Sometimes I only need to read a snippet about an achievement, an unusual occupation, or a tragedy to give me an idea. I then take those stories, fictionalise them, and give them life in my novels.

To me, history is much more than academic facts about the politics and religions of past wars. History is about ordinary people living their daily lives, just as we do today, while all around us the world is changing. It makes heroes out of some people and victims out of others.

My novels are all set in New Zealand and inspired by true stories and set amongst real events. They include journeys to or from Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, England, France and Italy. There is an author, a journalist, a soldier, an artist, a lace maker and a sweet maker, amongst others.

In generations to come what happened this year will appear in the history books. People will write about the politics and wars that surround us in the world, but there will be people like me who want to know the social history of our time. The ordinary lives we live today mostly unaffected by the newsworthy events. I know that doesn’t sound exciting now, but I’m sure you can remember the days when cars had no power steering, could be started with a crank handle and were distinctive in appearance.

I know this, because my other half owns a 1937 Austin Cambridge. It is a talking point everywhere we take it. The ‘I remember when’ stories emerge and ‘I/my father had one of those’ are followed by lengthy discussions about how it runs. It’s nostalgia today, but in 1937 that was the reality of life – if you were lucky enough to own a car!

I could go on and list endless modern adaptations to life in the past – electricity being a major change, but there are many more, maybe thousands of examples.

The internet is so new that many of us over a certain age are still learning. The youth today have not known a life without the internet, let alone television. I still remember getting my first transistor as a teenager – a huge step up from the large valve radios that graced every home. What will the future look like for them, I wonder?

I’d love to hear your stories.

What experiences have you had that would make a good story?

What modern updates have made a difference to your life?

By Vicky Adin, 

Genealogist, author and life long lover of words.

Read more from Vicky here.