Why History Matters
Richard Warren was one of the original pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower. His daughter, Elisabeth, married Richard Church and had a son, Caleb. Caleb Church married Joanna Sprague, and they had a daughter, Hannah. Hannah Church married Mathew Boomer Jr., and had a son, Caleb Boomer. Caleb married Sarah Martin, and had a son, Mathew Boomer. Mathew married Jane Weld, and had a son, Benjamin Boomer. Benjamin married Mary Collins, and had a son, Jonathan Boomer. Jonathan Boomer married Niobe Franklin, (related to Benjamin Franklin) and they had a son, Jasper Boomer. Jasper married Grace Baker, and they had a son, Holland Baker Boomer. Holland married Loretta J Kelley, and they had my grandmother, Grace Marie Boomer.
If I counted correctly, that made 12 generations between me, and Richard Warren. You might be wondering why I would share this information with you. Well, recently I was talking to my oldest son and he said he had not retained much of the history he learned in school, just held it in his head long enough to pass the tests and then promptly forgot the details. He’s 30 years old now and he regrets that he didn’t keep the information in memory. This is something I hear quite often. The problem for many people, in my opinion, is that they don’t feel connected to the history they are learning. They don’t know why they need to learn about things that happened so long ago or what it will do for them as they go through life. It’s all so boring and dry. Doing a little family history research on Ancestry.com showed me just how connected we all are to history. It’s really is just a matter of perspective.
When I write, I do a great deal of research. Often that involves research about historical figures and events, and I weave that information into my books. I hope that anyone reading my work will learn a little something about history and will retain some of that knowledge long after they finish the book. I don’t want to simply entertain, but also educate along the way. I personally happen to be a history buff and love learning about the subject. I’m always stuffing some new history lesson into my head one way or another, reading, documentaries, etc, and I am always happy to learn something I’ve never heard about before. Tonight I learned about the orphan train that sent orphans from the east coast out west, trying to find families for the children suffering neglect in orphanages in the big cities. Somehow that story never came up in school or anything I’ve studied since. I can already imagine a book, or a character, sparked by that little bit of information I learned from a one hour show.
I’m a firm believer in the saying “history repeats itself,” and the adage “if you don’t learn from your mistakes you are doomed to repeat them.” In other words, we have to learn and understand our history in order to make wiser decisions in the future. Considering the state of things, I’d say we really need to brush up on our history and consider those important lessons. But aside from that, history is truly a writer’s best friend. If you’re thinking about becoming a writer, I encourage you to study history! I believe you will find it will not only be a useful tool in developing characters and plots, but will also provide insight into the way the world works and how to use that insight to help you creatively imagine the way the world might turn out in the future. I promise you won’t be wasting your time!
A snippet about Richard Warren:
Among the wealthier of the original Mayflower people Richard Warren was the 12th signer of the Mayflower Compact. This information is from “Families of the Pilgrims: Richard Warren,” second revision, 1986, published by Mass. Society of Mayflower Descendants. It begins as follows: Richard Warren is among the most enigmatic of the pioneers who crossed the Atlantic in 1620 in the Mayflower. Clearly a man of some rank, he was accorded by Governor William Bradford the prefix ‘Mr.,’ pronounced Master, used in those times to distinguish someone because of birth or achievement. From his widow’s subsequent land transactions, we can assume that he was among the wealthier of the original Plymouth settlers.
Nathaniel Morton, a contemporary, commented: This year died Mr. Richard Warren, who was an useful instrument; and during his life bare a deep share in the difficulties and troubles of the first settlement of the Plantation of New-Plimoth.
Imagine now how much more interested I will be in learning about the pilgrims, and their life struggles, now that I know I have a direct ancestral line to one of the first settlers. Perhaps we should all do a little family research and share interesting finds with our children, so they will feel a real connection with the history they study in school, and perhaps retain some of those history lessons long after the test is over.
