I have been reading some books in my spare time. Some of my favorites include historical fiction, mysteries, and alternate histories. Recently, I read some books that were historical mysteries. The author, Margaret Frazer, has done extensive research on the era. She writes so well about real people and events, weaving her story in to the plausible gaps that exist in our histories and incorporating the history directly in to the plot. These are the Dame Frevisse mysteries and are set in Pre-Tudor England during the War of the Roses.
Why am I writing about books on a blog about genealogy? Because one of the main characters in some of the books is a real person named Alice Chaucer, daughter of Thomas Chaucer and grand-daughter of Geoffrey Chaucer. Alice Chaucer married three times: first to a mere "Sir", Sir John Philip; second to Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury; third to William de la Pole, who became the 1st Duke of Suffolk.
To anyone who has British nobility and royalty in their genealogy, the Montagus and the de la Poles will probably show up. The Duke is not a direct ancestor of mine, but his grandfather is. The Montagus show up as well. I know my genealogy file well enough that when I read the first Dame Frevisse mystery that featured Alice Chaucer de la Pole, I immediately opened up my PAF file to take a peak to see if Alice was real and how she fit in.
I like reading these also because it gives a good idea of what life was like (minus the mystery) back then. I like having the life and times filled in behind all the dates and places.
Reading these books makes me want to do more research myself and not just on that time period. In a previous post where I mentioned that a great-grandfather had murdered the sheriff over an argument about politics, I want to do research to see what was politically hot then. What could they have been arguing about? Was it a local thing? Was it a national thing? What was the city like where the argument happened? I'm going to find out.
So bring on the fiction based in fact.
As a genealogy hobbiest in general with a decent background in professional research, I have always been interested in the story behind people. I can't look at a name and a date without thinking about what was going on at the time, how this person may have been affected, and what could I do to find out more. I enjoy nothing more than fleshing out the story of a person. If something doesn't seem right, I pursue it until I know more.
