Unless you have an ancestor who was abducted by aliens, pairing genealogy with Science Fiction could be tricky. Family history by definition occurs in the past and most Sci-Fi takes place in the future. I assure you, I am not aware of any of my forebears who had an alien encounter, yet I found a way to plug four of my great- great- etc. grandfathers into my soon to be published Freedom is a Distant Star.
Let’s back up. My first novel Trials by Fire is set in the present day, on a planet that has only plant life. The main character, Fern, is from Earth and is curious about the origin of humans on a planet with no other animal life. She is told they were brought here by Moses, who helped their ancestors escape from their alien abductors and colonize this world. A young man named Tiril, one of the few people on the planet who speaks English, translates the “Tale of Moses and Rila” into English for Fern’s benefit. One evening around the campfire, he recites the story.
Moses, an enslaved man in 1850s Virginia, escapes to Canada and freedom. Moses has latent paranormal abilities that sometimes help him get out of tight spots. While building a new life in Canada, he is abducted by aliens who enslave humans with psychic abilities. The “thortles,” as they are called, use psychics for interstellar communications, thoughts being faster than radio waves.
Although better treated than he’d been on the plantation, Moses resents being enslaved again and never ceases to look for a way to escape. Meanwhile, he falls in love with Rila and they have children. After many setbacks, they find a suitable unpopulated planet and travel there by “wrashiru” (psychic teleportation). Then, 100 years later, Fern arrives accidentally by wrashiru.
What began as a chapter of backstory refused to stay confined to the pages of Trials by Fire. The story of Moses and Rila grew in my mind until it demanded to be brought forth as its own novel. Last year, I entered the manuscript in the Royal Palm Literary Awards and it was judged Book of the Year (Unpublished). An unapologetic perfectionist, I’m now working on final edits and will publish it soon.
Back to the point of this post. On his way to Canada, Moses travels through parts of what is now West Virginia and Pennsylvania. I had ancestors in both places at the time of Moses’s escape. Why not use them as characters in the story?
The first people to help Moses are a Quaker couple, Evan Hiett and his wife. Evan Hiett was a popular name in Hampshire County, Virginia and more than one grace my lineage. Rather than choose one in particular, I fictionalized a character based loosely on history.
After sheltering Moses for a few days, Evan sends him to his cousin, John Hiett, in Middleway, in Jefferson County, now West Virginia.
John Hiett was a real person. He had a farm on nearby Opequon Creek.
Several years ago, I visited Middleway.
I didn’t find John’s farm, but I was enchanted by the quaint village that has changed so little over the past century and a half.
In the story, John takes Moses to Shepherdstown, near Harper’s Ferry, where members of the Underground Railroad send him on the next leg of his journey.
In Pennsylvania, Moses is befriended by the family of David and Eunice Perkins, who helps him get to western New York State where he could cross into Canada. David Perkins was actually David Rogers, but in the story I used Eunice’s maiden name, Perkins. David Rogers’s ancestors were actually slave owners in Connecticut in the 1700s. (We all have skeletons in our woodsheds.) Later, they saw the error of their ways and became abolitionists.
David was a quirky fellow, and I tried to bring his personality to life in the novel. His son William Lewis, my great-great grandfather, is a teenager in the story. William later served in the Civil War, homesteaded in Kansas, and eventually ended up in West Virginia. His son John Thomas, my great grandfather, married Rebecca McDonald, who was descended from the Hietts. That’s how I came to have roots in both WV and PA.
You, dear reader, are the first to know my secret. None of my advanced readers were aware of my relationship with the Hiett and “Perkins” characters, and no one has questioned their roles in the story. So the answer is yes, you can use family history in Science Fiction. I like to think that by using people with whom I have a connection, I could better breathe life into the characters. Besides, it was fun.
My ancestors are heroes in the story. If not for the Hietts, Moses may not have made it as far as the Potomac River. David “Perkins” didn’t just point Moses in the right direction, he took the time to drive him from Montrose, PA to Elmira, NY. Of course, there were others who helped him on his way to Canada. After he left Earth, however, I had to depend on purely fictional characters. To my knowledge, I have no relatives residing on other planets.
