One of the reasons I love history is because so often it is full of mystery. As a novelist, I love stepping into that mystery with my imagination, building from what I know of an era to fill in the spaces of people’s stories that history has left blank. But being trained in history, I also love pursuing the mystery, digging and digging until an assumed-to-be lost story suddenly comes to life.
So I was fascinated by a documentary we recently watched on PBS called Searching for Augusta: The Forgotten Angel of Bastogne. (I discovered this program is also streaming on Amazon, free for Prime members!)
While I love history, I rarely pay attention to some of the “bigger” aspects, like names of battles or the timeline of a war, so in case you are like me, let me set the stage.
Bastogne is a town in Belgium. It was part of the Battle of the Bulge and cited as the last German offensive of WWII. The Americans held the town against a great siege and the tide of the war turned. During the siege, which included the bombing of a hospital, many heroes emerged, one of whom was a Belgian nurse often called “the angel of Bastogne.” Her name was Renee LaMaire. But there was another Belgian nurse working in the midst of the chaos. Her name was Augusta Chiwy, and her story had been essentially lost to history.
But one historian changed all that. There are so many twists and turns in this story that I don’t want to give it all away, so if you enjoy history and its mysteries, check out Searching for Augusta on Amazon. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!
Another take on the mystery of history comes in the form of a book I discovered in college. In Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time, a bored detective on the mend needs a mystery to occupy his mind. A friend suggests he apply his current police detective methods to a historical question: Did Richard III murder his two nephews? It’s quite a fascinating read.
Sometimes history’s mysteries are less public and hit more closely to home. My father’s paternal grandfather is a mystery in our family. My parents started looking into the real history, wondering if the family lore would measure up. So far, little that they have found matches the passed-down stories. So many trails have led to dead ends. But they haven’t given up. On a recent scavenge into small town archives, they ran across a piece of information in a census record that had never been mentioned before: a marriage previous to my dad’s grandfather’s marriage to his grandmother. And at least a ten year marriage at that! But instead of clearing up our historical mystery, it only added to it! Who was this woman? What happened to her? Where, then, did he meet the woman who would become my great-grandmother, for we thought he had moved to Oklahoma territory to be with her, yet now it appears he was already there!
I’m not sure we’ll ever discover the true story behind my great-grandfather, but now that we have another name to connect with him, who knows what we’ll find. Perhaps we’ll discover a new stream of information we didn’t know existed. Or perhaps, once again, we will have only our imaginations of the path of his life over 100 years ago. Either way, I love the searching out of a historical mystery even as I embrace wholeheartedly the joy of filling it in with my own imaginings.
Do you have any historical mysteries in your family tree or elsewhere that you long to find more detail about?
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I love those hidden tidbits of history, D’Ann! And you are such a research sleuth. Even in your own family. How interesting. I hope you uncover more clues to your great-grandfather’s story. 🙂
Me, too! Although it will have to wait awhile now, I think, since my parents won’t be making any research trips again soon. 🙁 Glad there are books and documentaries out there se we can enjoy the search and find through others’ experiences or imaginations!
First, The Daughter of Time was my introduction, aged 13, to the concept of dissenting from any traditional historical narrative.
key question – how reliable is any witness ? Finding that the Thomas More,author of the primary official version of RIII was five at the critical time was a revelation, never forgotten.
Own family mystery ? Aged about four, newly reading, I struggled with some graffiti . Apart hate ? Close, said my grandfather, then explained that it meant treating anyone without love, just because their skin’s a different colour. Can’t improve on that, as an explanation for small child. His anti-racism message was powerful – but did he know about our African ancestry ? Two years ago, a Christmas present test kit
verified some oral history, corrected self protecting fiction, and revealed my African ancestry – many quite closely related
African Americans. Hoping to trace our shared history.
‘ Am I not a man and a brother’ now means cousins too.
Wow! Great stories! You have your own personal version of Finding Your Roots–have you watched that show with Henry Louis Gates Jr. on PBS? Very cool to discover your heritage. And that you discovered The Daughter of Time at such a young age!
Hi,
Credit to my teacher mother – who also suggested Anya Seton’s superb Katherine too. Teaching oral history, I wonder how many more family legends will be upheld ? Will enjoy your site from now on, .
I hadn’t heard of Katherine, but just looked it up and immediately added it to my wish list! 🙂 Oral history is fascinating, isn’t it? Especially when you get to compare it to a paper trail and imagine why the stories became what they became.
I also read “Katherine” by Anya Seton from my local public library and enjoyed it. The edition I read was an older one.
I read and own the biography “Mistress of the Monarchy” by Alison Weir. She did a great job researching Katherine’s life despite the scarce historical records.