#HistFicThursdays - Beyond the Dark Oceans by Alison Huntingford - Guest Post

 
It is always great to find a book inspired by real people, and even better to find one inspired by the writer's own family research. For today's #HistFicThursdays blog, I am thrilled to be welcoming Alison Huntingford to the blog with a guest post about her book Beyond the Dark Ocean, as part of her Coffee Pot Book Club tour! Read on to find out about how her own family history inspired her new book, and her process of researching it.

But first, let's meet the book...

Blurb

A family united, a family divided…

In 1906, the Huntingford family leaves England for a hopeful new life in Canada, but for eldest son Georgy, the promise of opportunity quickly becomes a test of endurance, responsibility, and fate. As he comes of age amid the hardships of immigrant life, the outbreak of the First World War pulls him back across the ocean and into a world forever changed by loss and sacrifice.

When Georgy’s brother disappears in the chaos of war, grief and uncertainty fracture the family he is fighting to hold together. Reunited with his cousin Nellie, Georgy finds solace in a love as powerful as it is forbidden—one that offers hope in the darkest of times while threatening to tear his family apart.

Based on true events, Beyond the Dark Oceans is a moving story of love, loyalty, and resilience, exploring how ordinary lives are shaped—and divided—by extraordinary moments in history.

Beyond the Dark Oceans

is available on #KindleUnlimited and via this Universal Link

Guest Post

All my novels have been based on my own family history, because that is what I find most fascinating – the stories of real people and their struggles through life. None of my ancestors were rich or famous. They didn’t change the world or hit the headlines, but their stories are just as valuable as those who did. 

Tracing your family history has become very fashionable these days, with websites, TV programmes and the like, all dedicated to it. My own journey into the past started because of my lack of family, however. I am an only child of two only children and so have never had many family members – no brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles -and grandparents who passed away at an early age. Hence, I wanted to know where I came from and who my ancestors were. 

Via diligent research online, plus tracking down very distant relatives, and poring over archives, I have managed to put together an (almost) complete picture of my background. I never set out to write a novel based on this information, but once I had found such fascinating stories I felt they had to be passed on to someone, and not having any children, a book seemed to be the obvious solution. Now I am four novels down the line, and where else I might journey is open to conjecture!

This particular novel came about from an army service record of a missing soldier (William Huntingford) that I discovered in the Canadian war archives for WW1. This intrigued me and made me want to find out the story of the whole family. It was lucky for me that the Canadian archives are freely available to browse online, without cost and this has meant that I have been able to trace the service records of three of my characters. The Canadian national library is a wealth of useful information.

Determined to find out more about this, I contacted some distant relatives and sent them questionnaires to find out what they knew. The answers were surprising, though not entirely accurate. However, this gave me much to work from and supplied the emotional heart of the novel. 

I started to check what I had been told, by delving into a family history website and also ordering certificates of births, deaths and marriages.  These are the only totally accurate way to prove something is true. In the UK, they can be ordered from GOV.UK but you need to know the year, preferably the quarter and if possible the index number in order to get the correct person. (In the past I have unfortunately paid out for certificates, only to find it is the wrong family, but that’s the way it goes sometimes). 

It helps with family research if you have a fairly unusual surname, like Huntingford. I was lucky enough to find there was a Huntingford ‘one name study ‘which gave me some pointers in the right direction. A one name study is when an individual undertakes to collect all the records of that surname in the whole country (or even worldwide) and then attempts to sort them out into branches. This can be very useful and often supplies documents or images that you might not otherwise see.

This novel would not have been fully possible a few years ago, as much of the later part of it was informed by the 1921 census records which have only become available since 2021. 

There is a 100-year confidentiality rule on the census records and so it is hard to get any information for people after that. The census gives us details of family members, occupations, ages, marital status and address and is vital to understanding what is going on at that time. For example, through the 1921 census I discovered that one of the family members had joined the newly formed RAF. I also discovered the occupation of my heroine, and this allowed me to trace her employment records as she worked for the London telephone exchange which still holds staff records from that time.

Another main source of research was the Commonwealth War Graves commission where I was able to find information on burials and memorials to WW1 soldiers. I was also able to look at medal cards, which showed awards for bravery etc.

As for more general research, I found I needed to know a lot more about emigration in the early 1900s and what Canada was like, having never visited it. I joined a variety of Canadian Facebook groups and got first-hand accounts from people who live there, as well as details of the history. This was where I discovered that there was a huge explosion in Halifax in 1917.

Emigration in 1906 was a harsh and exhausting experience for those brave enough to undertake it. I looked into the steamship voyages and was able to find a picture of the actual ship that the Huntingfords travelled on. I also found out about the quarantine station at Lawlors Island. Using the website for the Canadian Museum of Immigration I was able to read about and see images of the shocking conditions at the time. There is also a very good book available: Quarantine, What is Old is New: Halifax and the Lawlor's Island Quarantine Station 1866-1938 by Dr. Ian Arthur Cameron, published by New World Publishing in 2007. 

To immerse myself in the Canadian environment, I watched everything I possibly could on DVD or online, such as the Readers Digest Canadian Wilderness DVDs and any fictional films set in Canada, especially if they were historically based.

Further research into World War 1 followed. I found an extremely useful guide to the battles in a book aimed at teenagers, by Dorling Kindersley. But the army service records were probably what served me best and gave me the full picture of what happened to my hero, Georgy and his family.

The reason I focused on Georgy, is that he was the eldest son and therefore was old enough to remember life in England before emigration, plus go to school and work in Canada, before being swept up into the chaos of WW1. It seemed that he would have experienced everything, and in looking at his life I discovered a love story which was controversial, because of the close relationship (cousins). Until I researched this, I never realised that it was so frowned upon at that time, and in fact still is, in many places. 

My aim is always to present a story full of historical detail but without being a dry history lesson. At the heart of all my novels are the people and that is what comes first. 

Now, let's meet the author:

Alison Huntingford is a writer with a deep passion for family history and storytelling. With a background rooted in the rich traditions of the Huntingford family, Alison seeks to honour the stories passed down through generations. She is the author of a successful series of works that explore historical and personal narratives. She is an only child of two only children and so has always felt a distinct lack of family. This has inspired her work.

After an upheaval in her personal life, Alison achieved a degree in humanities with literature through the Open University which helped to give her a new start. A teaching career followed which then led naturally to writing. She is now retired from full-time work, but busier than ever.

In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their pets, listening to music, going to the cinema, and gardening on her allotment. She also runs the South Hams Authors Network, a local writers collective based in South Devon. 

You can follow Alison on these links:

Website - Facebook - Threads - Instagram - BookBub - Amazon Author Page - Goodreads - Pinterest

Keep up with the rest of the Beyond the Dark Oceans tour stops by clicking on the banner below: