History, Historicals and Deadwood

I’m a huge geek when it comes to history. I love everything about it. I don’t have a favorite time period or a favorite continent. No. My love isn’t localized or specialized. It is all encompassing. I’m an equal opportunity history geek. I like it in all its glorious forms of entertainment. Whether it’s TV, books, movies, internet, I even like reenactments, though I never participate, I like to watch, whatever it is…I like it.

Right now, I’m watching the first season DVD of Deadwood. Favorite part? Not gonna lie. It’s volume 6. They have interviews of historians talking about the real lives of the characters that were portrayed and pictures of how the town of Deadwood looked at the time. Hint: Calamity Jane was a hoot, and the town was a filthy mess.

And of course I like historical romance novels.

I like to be taken back to a different time, place and culture. I’m not a purist, so it doesn’t really bother me when author gets some historical fact wrong. I probably won’t even notice it. If I do have a question, I just Google it. No harm, no foul.

I love it when an author uses real places or events in the book. I’ll Google the hell out of that. Google is my friend. I’ve noticed that a few authors visit the locations they put in their books, take pictures and put them on their web site. Love. That. Authors, if you have an “author notes” or foreword section in your books, that’s where you need to tell me that you have pictures or extra information about the locations or events in your book on your web site and include your site address. That’s a sure fire way to get me to visit your web site and I bet I’m not the only one.

I love that so many of the conflicts in historicals can be attributed to lack of modern inventions. Including medicine, transportation, communication, etc. Life was so very hard and it makes me appreciate my own ancestors and the hardships they endured, so much more. Those hardships make historicals a fertile ground for angst and I love me some angst.

History! Links! Yay!

I use Ancestry.com for my family tree & research and this week the records of Victorian women prisoners, some with pictures, was put online at Ancestry. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/25/victorian-female-prisoners-records-genealogy

The Ghosts of WWII’s Past. I love this blog post from last year. They took modern day pictures of locations and superimposed pictures taken during WWII at the same location over them. It’s haunting.

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/the-ghosts-of-world-war-iis

Bangable Dudes in History. Self-explanatory and oh so awesome. Pie Charts! http://bangabledudesinhistory.blogspot.com/

Google book search is a useful family history tool if you’re looking for information about your ancestors. Just type in your ancestors name and it will pull up historical documents and OOP books where your ancestor is mentioned. You might be surprised what comes up. Most of these old books have been scanned in their entirety, so you don’t have to travel to a far away library to read them.

Interesting history twitterers:

http://twitter.com/loves_history

http://twitter.com/HeadlineHistory

This is a web site of archeological objects and has a database of historical artifacts that includes pictures. This link takes you to a description of a circa 1600-1700 AD toy frying pan with molds of cute little fish in the bottom of it. http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/425672

Do you have a favorite historical time, place, person or event? Any favorite history links? If so, please share!