Make History Come Alive with Your British Genealogy Culture View

If you have already completed your British genealogy records or you are planning on completing them, you might want to consider incorporating a “culture view” into your British genealogy project.

What is a Culture View?

A culture view is simply the photos, documents, graphics and records that compliment your British genealogy and family history narrative¹ from a cultural, political or historical context.

Start Your British Genealogy Culture View

For example, to begin your British genealogy culture view you could purchase a book of remembrance, (or anything that will organize your genealogical information effectively) and on one side of the book’s fold, place information about your ancestor(s) and on the opposite page insert excerpts of popular culture, inventions, photos, newspaper clippings, famous people, political happenings or even drawings of clothing fashions that were typical during your ancestor’s time period. You can of course keep track of genealogical and historical information in digital formats as well.

Give Me a Double?

If you currently live in a country besides Great Britain, you might consider adding additional references to a cultural view of the country that you currently call home. Wouldn’t it be great for your kids to see comparative cultural references to historical happenings that occurred in Great Britain and the country you currently reside in? What a great way to learn about your British genealogy and the history of your homeland(s)!

Famous People

A great way to start your British genealogy culture view would be to include references to famous persons who lived during the time periods that your ancestors lived in. If you have found the information for British ancestors who lived during the 19^th century for instance, you could include references to the following famous British persons²:

• Charles Darwin


• Michael Faraday


• Charles Dickens


• Florence Nightingale


• Jane Austen


• William Booth


• J.R.R. Tolkien


• William Wilberforce


• Horatio Nelson


• Arthur Wellesley, 1^st Duke of Wellington

Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out more about your ancestors might have fit into the bigger picture?

Food

Everyone can relate to food! Your ancestors probably enjoyed their daily fare just as much as you do, but do you know what they ate? Start investigating their preferred tastes and see what types of comestibles were common during their time period by investigating the origination dates of the following British edibles ³:

Yorkshire pudding

Scones (these scones may not be the types of scones that you are used to)

Marmalade

Crisps

“Meat and two vegs”

Bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes)

Black pudding

Fish and chips

Steak and kidney pie

Cornish pasties

Gravy

Rhubarb crumble

Bread and butter

Pudding

Trifle

Spotted dick

Mushy peas (traditionally a side dish for fish and chips)

Pie and mash

Tea

Clotted cream

Bacon sarnies or bacon butties

Butterfly cakes

Kedgeree

Fruit cake

Blancmange

Custard

In your British genealogy culture view, you may also want to include references to literature, elite professions, the British language and even political movements. A British genealogy culture view can take a lot of time but is worth it if it brings families closer.

About the Author: Marci Crane is a web content specialist for 10x Marketing in Orem, Utah. For more information in regards to British genealogy or creating genealogy records that are perfect for your book of remembrance, please fell free to contact a Price & Associates representative.

¹A family history narrative is simply the written stories, anecdotes and legends that make your genealogy data (i.e. names, dates) come alive.

² http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/famous_people.htm

³ http://www.lingolex.com/cc/foods.htm - http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/glossary/index.htm