MEET THE AUTHOR

LUCYANN CURLING discusses her new book exploring her family tree, Curling Wisps & Whispers Of History

Why did you write this book?

My father gave me a document that I ignored for about 20 years, although it looks really lovely – it’s bound in leather, and has gilt edges. It’s a record made in 1848 of my great great grandfather Edward Curling receiving a gift from the town where he was living, because he was moving from Mildenhall in Suffolk to County Limerick in Ireland. As I say, I ignored it for a long time and then I thought, “Well, I must do something about it.” It has Edward’s birthdate in it and where he was born, which was really helpful. I traced him back and found out that his father’s name was Thomas Oakley Curling. That middle name proved to be invaluable in a lot of my research, because it made it very easy to identify him in the records.

Then I left it for a few more years after that. Finally I started thinking, “I must follow all of this stuff up.” So I went to Devon Record Office because I knew Edward had once worked for the Earl of Devon, and found wonderful accounts there that he’d written himself. Because I was working backwards from him I thought, “I wonder if he had left records like that when he was working in Suffolk.” So I contacted Suffolk Archives and they said, “We haven’t got anything, but there’s some stuff in the British Library.” On my first free day after that I went to the British Library and signed up as a reader, and since then I have spent many, many hours there transcribing his letters. I discovered that there were letters from his siblings and his mother, and even one written by his father much, much earlier. Then it was just a question of putting everything in order. I found loads and loads of material, and I just couldn’t ignore it.

What were you most interested to discover? There’ve been so many jaw-dropping moments, it’s hard to pick just one. For instance, I found out that my 3x great grandmother had married again after the death of her first husband, and she married in Rio de Janeiro – what was she doing in Brazil? But I think finding that collection of letters was the most inspiring thing.

What will the next books in the series cover? The second volume is finished and just waiting for the post-editing stuff, so it’ll be out very soon. And that takes the story on from 1825 to 1832, and then the third book covers 1832–1848. The fourth and final volume will run to the end of Edward’s life which was 1874.