ROOTS & BRANCHES

I’ve liked the French term éminence grise (which translates as “gray eminence”) for some time even though I didn’t have a full handle on the phrase’s origins.

The phrase has come to mean “someone who exercises power behind the scenes,” and I thought the “gray” part came from an implication that the person was older.

As it turns out, it was first applied to an aide to the French Cardinal Richelieu, who was de facto prime minister of the kingdom in the 1600s. This aide never reached the rank of Roman Catholic cardinal—the traditional title of respect for which is “your eminence”—and the aide wore gray clothing.

That slight but substantial difference notwithstanding, I’m realizing that even though my abundance of gray hairs may have nothing to do with it, I’ve reached the point where a good deal of my work falls into more “behind the scenes.”

Oh, I’m still at the forefront of nationally known genealogy lecturers and looking to help Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania as interim executive director for some time yet, but I’ve also completed or stepped back from some other roles and am looking forward to being more a consultant than headliner in things in which I’m involved.

One of these more “behind the scenes” items is helping review others’ work as well as—for the first time in my life!—being asked to write a “cover line” for a book.

Reviewing a recent book brought to my mind the issues associated with writing genealogy narratives.

The author was billing it as “creative nonfiction” but was upfront about not only making up characteristics for his ancestors (an inevitability) but also inventing a love interest for his immigrant ancestor.

I wasn’t too embracing of this invention and recommended instead using a name of an actual woman from the passenger manifest (the narrative centered on a disastrous mid-19^th century voyage to America).

I do understand that just sticking to the details from documents—as you would in a genealogy journal article or another strictly nonfiction genre—can be pretty sterile. And as long as the author is forthcoming about the items he or she has “added” to the story … I don’t have a problem with that.

Even in “straight” nonfiction, authors of necessity need to make inferences from the documents and records they’ve used. Just as with “creative nonfiction,” the trick, in my opinion, is just full disclosure.

An author should make very clear what is supported by records and how exactly it is supported; that way future readers can evaluate that “support.” There are times when what might have been thought to be an accurate assessment turns out not to be so!