Quirky Genealogy

Every writer knows that the title of a book and the picture on the cover is crucial in attracting readers. Family history writers, too, are in the business of attracting readers, although their genre is a difficult one. A widespread view that family history books are 'boring' means its authors are too often bashful, humble and self-effacing about their work.

Stop right there .... we could be injecting a bit of fun into our titles.

Here are some witty examples from some published genealogical material:

• A Lot about a Little, edited by John G Jennings
• Over-Halling the Colony, George Hall - Pioneer, edited by Russell Mackenzie Warner
• The family of Mann, by James Dargan
• Pickett lines : descendants of Samuel Piggot/Pickett and Mary Thompson, by Penny Ferguson
• Sailing on .... The Hibbs Line, by Allen Maunder
• Lore of the Roses - Thomas and Jane Rose Family Descendants
• In Morse Code: tracing the family histories of James, Charles & Edwin Morse who migrated to Van Diemen's Land between 1842 & 1855, by Alan F. Dyer.
• Unravelling the Code: The Coads and Coodes of Cornwall and Devon, by Dr Joe Flood
• Can't See the Woods .... for the Woods, the search for one Henry Woods, by Catherine Meyrick

Think of the fun you could have with book titles for the following family names:

• Case Studies
• The Wide Brown Land
• Keen & Able
• White Lies
• Black Humour
• Ridge Lines
• Farr Horizons.

We family history researchers already know how to inject a bit of fun into, and find joy from, our work and how to share a bit of humour with others. For instance residents of Australia who were born overseas, yet the details of how or when they arrived can't be traced, are called ‘the swimmers’. Australians do love irony.

Some family history researchers actually make you laugh out loud. At an archives office in Sydney I’ll never forget one woman who discovered something unpalatable, a lie told to her by her father. She slammed the microfiche slide reader shut and shouted ‘If he was alive, I’d kill him'. Lovely black humour.

I'm trying to practise what I preach with my next book, 'Sentenced to Debt', due out in a few weeks. It's much more than a family history and is intended for general readers of Australian history. I've found a relevant cartoon-like picture to work into the cover. It depicts a scene at the Old Bailey in 1807, where a famous barrister named William Garrow was a noted defence counsel from 1783.

More miseries. Being nervous and cross examined by Mr Garrow, 1 Apr 1807, one of 49 etchings by Thomas Rowlandson, published on 1 Dec 1808 in ‘The Miseries of Human Life’ by R Ackermann, Repository of Arts, 101 Strand, London

While the book's title is not humorous, neither is it boring. It's somewhat quirky, as it has three meanings.

• It's a play on words for the First Fleet convict Robert Forrester who was 'sentenced to death' at the Old Bailey in 1783. 
• It describes the outcome of Robert's life in Australia, virtually sentenced to debt, resulting in a unique case study of an archetypal 'Aussie battler' coping with a string of natural disasters, and 
• It recognises the debt all Australians must acknowledge as Aboriginal land was claimed by the Crown according to the terra nullius principle and given away, sold or leased to incoming settlers.

To purchase this forthcoming book, due out on 18 May 2020, click here.