The First Story

This is the first story I will tell about my family tree.

My Current Writing Project

THE TITLE OF THIS CURRENT WRITING PROJECT AND BLOG POST SERIES:

The Story of a Family Tree: The epic saga of a family told in short stories of historical fiction, science fiction, romance, drama, and creative nonfiction


A DESCRIPTION OF THIS CURRENT WRITING PROJECT AND BLOG POST SERIES:

This blog's current writing project and blog post series is about the stories of my family tree told in historical fiction, from science fiction to fantasy, and is about: Joseph Arimathea to King Arthur, Charlemagne to Nero, Queen Elizabeth I to Sir Walter Raleigh, Roanoke to Jamestown, Signers of the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War to Civil War to World War II, and everything and everyone in-between to today. This is a different way to learn history.

The Journal of Lady Raleigh on October 29, 1645

AN INTRODUCTION MADE IN HINDSIGHT OF THE JOURNALING AND WRITING OF Lady Throckmorton Raleigh OCTOBER 29, 1645

Greetings, FRIEND. My proper name is Lady Elizabeth Throckmorton Raleigh. You may know me as Lady Raleigh or the lady-in-waiting of the privy chamber of Queen Elizabeth. Nevertheless, I hope you call me Bess. It is the name I prefer and it eliminates the unimportant.

As I pen the tales of my life, and the lives I hear about because of my former position in society, I realize how few have made it to my age. Even fewer have made it to my age after my former experiences. Even fewer know the stories I do. I have known richness, glory, and fame, and I have known corruption, destitution, and what I means to fight for my life. After all, I am in a very unique position now and have been all of my life. Am I blessed or cursed? I will leave it to you to decide.

Today marks the twenty-seventh year since my husband's beheading. Therefore, I feel quite melancholy and decided to do something more useful with my time than feel sorrow and act a sluggard. Walter would not want me to mourn him anyway. He wanted me to live a strong faith and to grow it by the day, so I could act as an inspiration for others. Consequently, this is my attempt to do so and I hope to convey how faith is the only way I got through the last fifty-three years, if I were to speak in such a frank manner.

Walter also did not want any of our stories to fade into the annals of time. The truth of what really happened mattered to Walter, as it does to me, and I want to make sure to capture our stories on the page. Our stories, by the way, can be defined as those we lived or witnessed. After all, if you witness a story, it becomes part of your story assume well.

Hence, I write this volume of stories for Walter. I hope to join you in eternity soon. However, I pray it is not too soon. I have much to accomplish. I have been dabbling with this project for years. It seems befitting to start this project in full on the anniversary of the worst day of my life and the best day of yours since you joined our Lord in and for eternity.

I know many people and they have shared with me the stories I want to impart to you, my reader and friend. Furthermore, I will share some stories from my point-of-view, for they are my personal stories. I will also share stories with you from the perspective of others. These are the stories I heard about from another, whether I was told them directly or overheard others speaking. Regardless, my recollection of the stories now is through the wisdom of age and the lenses of hindsight, reflection, and lessons learned and analyzed.

Decades ago I collected these stories in my secret journals. Women were not supposed to write for entertainment, let alone keep journals. My position naturally barred me from doing so as well, but I just could not resist.

I wanted and want to provide a new look at history, not the shiny and sparkling one the Queens and Kings have chosen to tell. Royalty must always appear victorious and in charge, and they rarely show how they are human like the rest of us. Hence, they paint a different painting of history than what really transpired oftentimes. Moreover, the story of history they tell is of those who are wealthy, not of the peasants. Hence, the history of the kingdoms with a royal family is mostly false and is a small and somewhat untrue history.

The purpose of my writing is to show you the story of the commoner, not just those with wealth. It is my desire to share the true history, not a colored one. Or you might say I want to share a complete history, not an abbreviated one.

I have hundreds of stories to share with you in time. After all, time has certainly been my friend and has not been my enemy. What happened to my husband and myself has meant I have had great time alone to write and reflect. I also hope to live long enough to go through all of my penned stories and share them with you from the perspective of the hindsight of an old lady, both smaller case and upper case L.

I am eighty years old now and I want to retell my former stories I kept in journals and I have memorialized these stories on the page through the wisdom of my years and through looking back to see where we have come. I also want to leave my children, grandchildren, and other descendants a legacy and the story of what really happened is the single best legacy I can offer them. I also offer the same legacy of full truth to you, whoever you are, as well.

What stories can you look forward to reading? You might wonder.

I will share with you about my childhood, so you can learn the deranged nature of a family who wanted to join high society, raise within its ranks, and my family's  power and prestige. Oh, how we were greedy. We were so ambitious we forgot to fully live and certainly forgot how to have hope. I will paint a very unvarnished truth of what really happened and of my family and will not trivialize our sins or accidental missteps.

When I lost everything, including my husband and wealth, I learned what truly matters in this world. It is not any human being, anything you can buy with money, and any circumstance. A strong faith is what matters more than anything. Earthly people, things, and events are temporary. Faith is eternal.

Furthermore, I will tell of world historical and current events, along with the facts and rumors we heard in the day. I will make sure I explain what happened, when, and why at the time as well as through the hindsight and reflective lens of today as I share the true stories from my life.

If you keep reading my stories, you will learn about my relationship with the Queen, others of noble blood, and with the other courtiers.

You will also learn about the plight of establishing the first permanently English settlement in the New World and in America. Since my husband was one who spearheaded this colonization, I know a great deal of what happened in private and in the public, from Roanoke to Jamestown. I will share about the trials and heartbreak regarding the lost colony. I know personally all of the key players and have spoken with each of them about Roanoke, before and after they were lost.

I will also share the success of Jamestown, after much turmoil. The truth is what Jamestown became was in part because of the vision of my husband and Queen Elizabeth, God rest their souls.

Several years, my husband and I risked the chance of losing our heads. My husband lost the battle, but I survived because of the grace of God and it is how I am able to tell you the stories now. It is also the reason why I found it all the more important to capture the stories those of the throne would never dare divulge. History is incomplete without the full story, of those of wealth, of course, because they have the power. However, history is also incomplete if the stories of the commoners are not shared, learned from, or remembered.

I write so we will never forget.

I hope the plans I have for preserving these stories help true and you are reading these words hundreds and thousands of years later.

This first volume of the stories I have collected will be more about life in England than the rest of the volumes I will share with you in time. I have twenty-six or so planned at this point. I will do my best to entertain you and not bore you. Most of these volumes will be told through the eyes of future generations, though. You just get my stories for a volume or two or three. We shall see.

These stories are of the best sort. They are full of adventure, conflict, romance, and drama. No. I do not think you will get bored. Just remember these stories really happened. That is the most exciting part of all.

Let us get started, shall we?

The Stories of the Lost Colony of Roanoke

Last week I went to a writing conference and was able to focus my vision for my writing and this blog. Hence, the book title mentioned in the image above. It is just a working title at this point.

The Stories of the Lost Colony of Roanoke:
The Family Trees of the USA

I have decided to write the history of the United States through the eyes of my family, which had been here since 1607 in Jamestown. I will share the stories first in blog posts, which will be short stories and a combination of American historical fiction and creative nonfiction. Then, in time, I will combine the stories and put them into a book.

It's an unique way to learn American history, which is appealing to me. After all, I hated history in school. It was before I knew about my family tree. Knowing my family's stories changes the way I view this country and the way I view my life today.

The stories could take me a few lifetimes to tell, but I will try to capture the most intriguing stories in this blog and in my writing. They are the stories of the names we all recognize, but also of the commoner, which has the most appeal to me personally.

This will be an epic saga of my family and their plight in the United States from Roanoke Island to today. The stories will be of adventure, drama, love, patriotism, and faith. It will be a sweeping tale and will take us across many lands, events, times, and families.

I am in the research phase and it will be a couple of weeks before I share a short story here. I will share with you my writing process and progress, though, in the meanwhile.

I am researching in order to find out about the people from my family tree I want to share first, along with the events and the state of the families of the individuals I will write about for the first book in this family tree series.

Then, I will start planning how to write the short stories and how to fit them into a novel.

Then, I will write them and do several edits before they are shared on this blog.

Therefore, at first, I imagine I will start here only one short story per week for a while, then two, then three. In time, I hope to build up to at least three per week.

Bear with me as I make sure to get their stories right. They deserve no less, the people and their stories.

The sweeping epic story which traces a family in the USA from the year 1607 to today

A NEW BEGINNING

I have decided to share the facts of history through my family's story. I will not just list the facts any longer. Rather, I will tell them through the medium of story... through short stories.

This will be highly based on the facts of history, first and foremost. However, in order to learn these facts, the best way we can learn them is through story.

Every story is sacred. The story of an individual. The story of a family. The story of a nation. They are all holy, set apart, and are sacred. Hence, they should be shared so we can all learn from them and see how others live and have lived.

Hence, I have written a new blog description.

A NEW BLOG DESCRIPTION

This is the epic story which traces a family in the USA from the year 1607 to today. Their tale will be shared through the medium of short stories of American historical fiction and creative nonfiction. The family is mine, by the way. Hence, this is a true story. (I will share some thoughts and tips on how to do your family tree as well.)

So, stay tuned. The stories will be shared soon.

My Family

I also write this blog, and share all of this, with the hope it will help my family (anyone on my family tree, direct relation or indirect) to get to know our history and American history.

I hope my family will find these stories, fact and short stories based on fact, helpful to imagine what our family went through in the day.

Therefore, if anyone knows any true stories, I hope you'll share them so I can in turn share them here. Use the contact form on this blog, email me, or add a comment at the end of any blog post.

I also help we can help each learn as much about our family as possible.

Every person lived and should be remembered, along with their stories. This is the goal of this blog and my writing.

What Am I Doing and Who Am I to Do It?

As I sit here this morning, after everything I did yesterday, and after starting this blog five days ago, and I have developed butterflies and nervousness.

What am I doing? And who am I to do it anyway?

I am not a historian. Not in the least. History was my worse subject in school. Then again, twelve years of leaning about the explorers could do that to anyone. Never kind all of the false history I was taught. For instance, I was taught that Plymouth was the first English colony and that Thanksgiving began there. Both are lies. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement and the first Thanksgiving was at Berkeley Plantation. Both were in Virginia, let me add. Never mind how I was never taught that Virginia was the birthplace of the United States of America. But, the only reason why I know these things is because I lived in Virginia for four years (and visited the historic sits at least once a month) and because of my family tree.

But, no. I am no historian. My degrees are in psychology and chaplaincy, for goodness sake.

So, what am I doing? I am so far out of my league it isn't funny. Who am I to do it? Probably most everyone is far more qualified than I am to write this blog.

Nonetheless, I realize not everyone has a traceable family tree that goes back as far as mine does and they don't have the same ancestry I do. My family tree makes me uniquely qualified to write about my family tree.

But, the historical part... I am scared of erring and of not learning enough, never mind sharing enough. Then, I also am fearful of sharing too much. I sure don't want to bore anyone to pieces.

Then, to complicate things even more, I am attending a writing conference this week and will present this idea and learn more how to write these stories. No pressure. It's all self-imposed pressure, I realize. Am I on track? Am I doing what God really wants me to be doing?

I find sharing the facts a little on the dull side. But, that is what I need to do first. Then, when I write the short stories, there is a background to the story, so it makes even more sense. This is the ultimate goal. I will use short stories of historical fiction to help us go there and see it for ourselves in our minds and imagination. I hope to make history come alive and help us remember the facts, not opinions, of American history.

Yesterday, though, felt great with everything I accomplished. Learning and sharing the facts can be a slight bore, but it wasn't yesterday. In fact, it pumped me up and got me excited for what is to come and my writing short stories of historical fiction based off of my family tree.

I pause.

Yes. This blog is what I am supposed to be doing, regardless of how intimidating and how insecure I feel. This blog is one big homecoming where I learn about my family and the history of the country I love.

Since I leave tomorrow for the writing conference, I pray I am able to get even more done than I did yesterday.

Bear with me dear and precious readers and friends. I will find my way and my rhythm of writing this blog.

Writing this blog is sure stretching me. I am far outside of my comfort zone. However, while it makes me feel horribly uncomfortable and nervous, not wanting to get it wrong, it is not unbearable and I will not try to avoid it. The best things in life come from times of uneasiness and fear. It's what we do with them that counts. I am going to to keep at this no matter what.

Learning history from my family tree will make history come alive and will help me make sense of my nation today and will help me speak out about it. It will also help me pray for my nation.

Leaning, though, is never a fruitless activity. And, I sure love to learn. I cannot wait to see what all I learn. Even though I still wonder... What am I doing and who am I to do it?