My Research Journey for My Novel
Author Susan McGuirk shares her research journey for her novel that started with sifting through family history for fun.
Like so many of us, I found myself looking into family history a few years back. It was strictly for fun, and I did not have a grand plan of how it would play out. It wasn’t until I came upon an advertisement that a relative placed that things began to change.
My protagonist found me, not the other way around. When I came upon an advertisement looking for my 2nd great aunt, Catherine McGuirk, placed by her husband, I was intrigued. It was in the Missing Friends column, which was syndicated to newspapers all over the country in the mid 1800s. It was where Irish immigrants could try to locate their lost loved ones in the new world. He was writing from Ohio in 1864 stating that she lived in Sag Harbor, New York, in 1844. I wondered how a husband could lose a wife but left it at that.
It wasn’t until I happened upon another advertisement that Michael, the husband, placed four years later still looking for Catherine, that my imagination went into overdrive. Why didn’t she answer him? Was she dead or alive? Was she hiding from him and if so, why? Was there a reason he used her maiden name in the ad instead of his? From these questions a story was born.
It took the better part of a decade to do all the research in fits and starts for the book. Along the way I read 50 books on related topics including: Irish history, eastern Long Island history of Native American, African American and Portuguese whalers, the history of Sag Harbor, of the whaling industry, of the Gold Rush, of the local maritime Underground Railroad, and of New York City. The full bibliography is on my website, https://susanmcguirk.com. I also have an extensive Notes section at the end of the book with pictures and records of the various lives, including federal and state census records, ship manifests, whaling logs, maps, deeds, newspaper clippings, graves, death and birth records, and war service. They are also on my site.
I also traveled to Ireland to explore my family’s ancestral home. A local historian showed me our family’s farm and the school Cath most likely attended. We visited a nearby castle where he said the family members might have worked during the seasonal harvest for extra money.
One particular setting from the book that holds meaning for me is a house still standing in Sag Harbor that was bought by the character Jane Perdue. She was of mixed heritage, descended from a free Black whaling family and as a member of the Montaukett tribe, which she identified with. For a poor woman of color to save her money in the Sag Harbor Savings Bank for decades and purchase her own house almost 150 years ago, which she owned free and clear, is astonishing. It still sits proudly on Liberty Street, a telling and fitting address.
The main two settings, Sag Harbor and New York City, have much of the past preserved in them. Sag Harbor was economically depressed for most of the century following the whale fishery collapse in the 1850s. Little was torn down or built up for a long time, so it still retains much of the character and flavor of the era. In New York City, gazing down from the Highline onto 14th Street at the still relatively low-rise landscape, now closed to most traffic, it’s easy to still imagine horses lashed to hitching posts along the cobblestone streets.
All the settings used in the book were real places the characters lived, and I researched their travels and pursuits to follow the tale. The deep dive into this story was never boring. I didn’t know where it was going, only that the facts would dictate the direction. It was my job to fill in the whys and wherefores, but the events steered me, not the other way around.
Check out Susan McGuirk's Dear Missing Friend here:
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