Who is going to read this?

There may be many reasons why we begin to research our family history but what we all do with our findings is a big unknown.  Some of us may be content simply to learn facts?  Many of us will want to record what we have discovered for others to read.  But who are these others?  Some of the contributors to this blog site have always been clear that they are writing for their own children and grandchildren mainly, although siblings may be interested too.  Others have cherished wider ambitions and the scope of these very much influences how the research will eventually be written up.  Is it of academic significance and requiring proper footnotes and so forth?  Might it be turned into a fictional account, based on real people and events, to liven it up and cover the gaps imaginatively?

A classic mill-owner in Dickens’ Hard Times

My own intentions have changed markedly in the three years I have been working on this project.  I had no idea what it was intended for, except my personal curiosity when I began my Writing Family History course in 2011.  We were encouraged to aim high so I took up the challenge and imagined my ancestors’ story might be of wider historical interest.  I then tinkered with the idea of making it a fictional saga – with its hero a kind, honest mill owner as opposed to the usual fictional villains.  I have lately come to a more realistic goal – that of simply producing it in some inexpensive format in the hope that local studies archives and family history societies might accept a free copy.  I would like to make my diligent research available to any others who might be interested in the local area where my ancestors had their wool mill, Gomersal in the West Riding of Yorkshire, or my Burnley ancestors, who lived there in Pollard Hall for nearly 150 years.  In the context of the Yorkshire wool textile manufacturing my ancestors’ transition from yeoman clothiers to factory owners and their survival for six generations was not particularly remarkable.  Their middling achievements are dwarfed by the mighty Titus Salt, the Crossley family of Halifax or the Listers at Manningham Mill, Bradford to name but a few.

So the process of research was the real satisfaction for me – the joy of discovery and the help of very many people on the way.  While I am amazed at how much information there was out there, the outcome will be a modest document.

Margaret