secluded comunity confused by information they receive about the outside world [s]

[Ls]

What I remember abt the story is that the community was secluded for a long time. Somehow they got info abt the outside world but it was all mixed up and misunderstood. They heard abt family trees but instead of geneology they thought every family had an actual tree. I can't remember any other examples. Thanks for your help.

[Cathy]

Could this be The Gammage Cup? The minnipins live in a secluded valley, and one of them had gotten stuck on a balloon that flew out into the outer world generations ago, then come back with a lot of outside information that he had all scrambled up. His descendants put on terrific airs based on all this confused information -- he had brought back a list of abbreviations from the outside world and they thought those were names, so all the prominent families have names like Ltd. (it's a British book) and Etc.

Every family plants a sapling so that they all have family trees, so that fits your remembered story. The heroes are all outcasts for different reasons, because they don't follow the village rules.

[Ls]

That sounds exactly right thanks for your help.