Ancestors

Seanathon

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Oct 3, 2013
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Has anyone written stories that include or are influenced by their ancestors?

My story Love in the Twilight was influenced by my grandmother's descent into dementia. I also had a great uncle that took part in the D-Day invasion and was killed at Arnhem (the battle depicted in the movie A Bridge Too Far). His story inspired me to write my short story When the Hammer Falls.

My great grandmother traced our family history all the way back to the 11th century and the Domesday Book. But my ancestors' stories weren't written down until they emigrated to New York in the early part of the 19th century on a tall ship. From there they traveled to Michigan, where they were some of the first pioneers. And they later made their way on foot for four months across the country by the California Trail to take part in the Gold Rush. When the Civil War came they fought with the California Volunteers and when the war ended some stayed and some left for Nebraska, where they were again some of the first pioneers.

Their lives give me lots of ideas for stories. I'd like to hear about other Literotica authors' ancestors and how their lives have/could influence their own stories.
 
My "Wolf Creek" here is essentially the story of a relative, as is "The Photograph." A good many others are essentially (the fun parts) my life/experiences (with a chrono chart provided in my profile).
 
My story http://www.literotica.com/s/earth-to-earth was influenced by my parents and my mother's ancestors.

My father was 'Church', my mother was 'Chapel'. It was a mixed marriage. My mother didn't become a communicant member of the Church of England until her 50s. I wasn't baptised (C of E) until I was 10 years old because they couldn't agree whether I should be Church or Chapel.

I have Welsh ancestors (and Scots) but most are English. My mother's family came from rural Suffolk. My father's family lived in the City of London from the 14th Century until 1915 when the family home was destroyed by a Zeppelin bomb.

My story http://www.literotica.com/s/ancient-liberties was influenced by my paternal ancestry. Most of my ancestors and relations, including my father, my eldest aunt, and my older brother were Freemen of the City of London. They were not 'Honorary' Freemen which is only awarded rarely, but working Freemen who traded in the City of London. You could, and probably still can, becoming a Freeman by completing an apprenticeship with a master craftsman; by birth - being the son (or daughter) of a Freeman; or by redemption - paying a nominal fee to become a Freeman and being sponsored by two other Freemen. Women have been able to be Freemen of the City of London for centuries, and many of my female ancestors were.

An aside: some of my wife's ancestors were Watermen, licensed to trade for hire on the River Thames and its tributaries. They had to serve an apprenticeship before being examined to see that they were suitable people and competent. One of her ancestors had a sudden heart attack and died just after mooring his boat and unloading his passengers. At the time, his sons were apprenticed to him and learning their trade. That could have been a disaster for the family - except that their mother was also a Waterman. The sons' apprenticeship papers were transferred to her.

Note: Freeman and Waterman were comprehensive descriptions for male and female. There were no Freewomen or Waterwomen.
 
'Uncle' is not quite an ancestor, but my RON and ALAN and DEXTER tales are based on my Uncle Ron's extensive journals, among other sources. Other extant and upcoming submissions may also be based on those journals.
 
My grandfather did a lot of genealogy work on his family before he passed. He was able to trace our ancestors back to a certain ship captain in the early 17th century. The wealth of information he eventually compiled was enough to fill a briefcase. After he died, the case was sent to me.

I've often thought about using some of that material for various stories, but personally, I think I'd have a hard time including anything erotic. I can write about other people's family members having sex, but when it comes to 'eroticising' anything from my family's past . . . dunno. I guess there's a personal 'ick' factor going on there.
 
I think I'm related to Casanova.

Obviously this suspicion has had a profound influence on my life. I just bought a new house...
 
One of my cousins researched my parental family history in the 1970s, visiting churches and libraries in the City of London and reading the original documents and registers.

It is much easier now that many records are available on line at a price.

If I believe Find My Past, and other people's research, I am descended from King Henry II, and through him back to the Norse God Odin/Woden.

But do I believe it?

It's probably wishful thinking, just like the purported ancestry of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Her official ancestry is impressive enough, but according to researchers/ fantasists in the 19th Century, her ancestor Queen Victoria was descended from:

Julius Caesar, and through him the Roman Goddess Venus;
Cleopatra, and through her the Greek Goddess Aphrodite and the Egyptian Goddess Isis (and Helen of Troy);
The Plantagenet Kings, and through them the Norse God Odin/Woden;
and a few others such as Genghis Khan...
 
But do I believe it?

My other grandfather repeatedly told a fanciful story about how Anastasia Romanoff escaped Russia in 1917, made her way to New York, changed her surname to Off and married my grandfather's uncle. They only had female children, and my grandfather only had female children. Of his two daughters, one only had daughters, while the other -- my mother -- bore me.

Thus, according to my grandfather, I am the crown prince of Russia . . . if they ever decide to go back to a monarchy. :p

Hey, my grandfather wasn't referred to as "Baron Munchausen" by his Lions Club for nothing . . . .
 
I forgot to mention above that I *will* be mining some ancestral lore for upcoming stories. Grand- and great-grand-parents who were pioneer balloonists, motorcycle monsters post WW1, prohibition smugglers, Quaker farmers, country musicians, wanted outlaws, gold prospectors, etc.
 
I have plenty of family history material, all of it interesting. One ancestor had like 20 children with 2 of his slaves.

Another ancestor married a white woman who divorced him for keeping a free black mistress...I descend from the black woman.

Another made a baby with a free black woman of New Orleans, the child married a man of Tallahassee but was raped and murdered by a black man. The same ancestor went to New Orleans on business, and while he was away his nephew put a baby in his wife. They had a gunfight, and the pregnant wife fled town.

I have a theory. Young girls generally married older, prosperous men, and when their old husbands lost interest in pussy, younger men helped the women out.
 
I'm writing Blood of the Clans in part from my family history. What started as an ancestor search long ago, ended up turning into the story I have out now. Some of the characters are named for them and many of my relatives have been used as well.
I had no idea what a crazy bunch of people my forefathers were. lol :D
 
Some of the tales from my family scare me and others are so unbelievable I wouldn't dare write them. But then there is my "Memories of" series that are more true than not.
 
My Dad's family is English mostly, with a Scottish maternal grandmother (my great-grama). There's family stories about how his father's family left England in the 1600s to stay in Holland, then came back to England only to sail on to the States. Family lore says they sailed first with the Speedwell in company with the Mayflower but their ship turned back, and they sailed very soon afterward.

I don't buy it since the names of the passengers are a matter of record, as are names of pax on many of the following ships. The first ship from England with the version of the family name in use then was 20 or 30 years later than family lore.

My mom's mother was from a Czech family that came over in the late 1800s. Her father was an orphan and they thought he was either German or English descent. His last name could be either.

I wrote a non-erotic story (Combat Wounds) based on stories told by a maternal uncle about his father's (my grandfathers') experience in WW1. I highly highly embellished it. About the only parts I didn't make up were the artillery box to cut off a section of trench and the mention of mud "deep enough to drown a man", and the raids that took place from both sides against the other. Once they had been 'softened up'.

Added later in an edit: I was also told that they put maggots on wounds that were festering - the maggots only ate the dead flesh - it was easier than cutting away the dead flesh manually. Not sure if this happened to my granddad or not, but he got a medical disability payment for the rest of his life.

The same uncle was an infantryman with Patton's army in WW2. The few stories he told about his own experiences were humorous anecdotes, as were the few stories my dad told about his experience in a bomber crew. Only as an adult was I able to read between the lines and understand the situations behind the anecdotes.

I've thought about a short short story or two based on the anecdotes they told me.

There's also a family story about an encounter with some native american's at their homestead on the Nebraska plains in the late 1800s. It might make a good story as well.
 
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Princesses

Then, of course, there's stories from both sides of my family of marriages to Native American women during the 1800s. Of course they are both 'Indian Princesses'. Dad's family claims their's was Crow/Absoroka/Apsaalooke, Cherokee on my Mom's side. Princess. Ri i i ight.

Although there is a family picture from the middle/late 1800s with one wife that looks very very Native American. Although a non-family member says her hairdo looks Pennsylvania Dutch.
 
My five times great-grandfather and his younger brother were walking home form school when they were abducted by Indians. They lived with their captors for several years near the current location of Sandusky, OH. The brother ended up marrying the Chief's daughter. I have often thought this would make a great story but I will never write it, I don't know anything about life in a mid eighteenth century Indian village.
 
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I've been working on a "fact" based story for the last 6 months. It's turning out to be harder than I thought it would be. My maternal side is from Texas and Louisiana going back to the 1840s and the family is filled with what would have been called mulattos and octoroons back in the day. Even now, unless you knew otherwise you wouldn't be able to guess our ethnicity. When you look at our family history, who married/got with who, it becomes obvious that white men were all over them in more ways than one.

If I can get focused, I think this will be a great story (interracial sex, illicit couplings, out of wedlock mixed babies, mistresses, young "black" women with old white men) . . .
 
Only in so much that I write about strong women.....and my family has very strong women.....fiesty, unafraid, and very smart...they just are...my great grandmother was a doctor when women were not allowed to be doctors...in WWII, my grandmother worked in a coal mine because my grandfather lost his leg...

Very strong and smart women are sexy....so it is easy to basically add all of my ancestry into my stories....:heart:
 
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