Behind the Quill: The Family Tree

I’ve already talked about the importance of timelines and background—but now it’s time to talk about the family tree. Because frankly, none of the background connections I’ve built—like the Gardiners, Middletons, Jenningses, and Dashwoods—would have worked without the family tree to support them (and myself in remembering the details. The timeline influences the family tree. The background influences the family tree. And the family tree, in turn, shapes both of those.

Now, I don’t expect everyone to go off the deep end like I did, but I do think that more Austen fanfiction authors could benefit from putting effort into building family trees. These days, there are so many free tools online that it’s easy to start one. No, you don’t have to build one with over 20,000 people like I did (yes, really—23,188 and counting), but if you want to be a little bit insane, you’re in good company.

So… why 20,000 people?

It started simply. I had a few basic trees:

• The Bennet family, including the Phillipses, Gardiners, and Collinses.

• The Darcy family, with the Fitzwilliams and de Bourghs.

• and so on.

But I didn’t want to just throw characters together through random family connections like I’ve seen in many mashups. Too often, writers force connections that don’t make sense: oftentimes, they disrupt and change the canon in order to connect the families.

That’s where my approach differs: I want my variations to feel grounded—not like completely unrelated stories with Austen names attached. A proper what if should change one key thing, not rewrite the entire world, cast, personalities, etc. to suit a new narrative.

So I did what any good writer would do: research.

As I built connections, I also wanted them to make sense realistically—based on shared social class, geography, education, marriage circles, or political and professional ties. That’s when I started going deeper.

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One turning point was when I researched the real-life Fitzwilliam family. The 4th Earl Fitzwilliam had several sisters, including Lady Anne Fitzwilliam, born in 1745. She lived a long life, never married, and is rarely mentioned in family records. Her low profile made me wonder—did she simply marry below her station? Was she unmarried by choice? Or perhaps she was overlooked due to a disability, as happened with Jane Austen’s brother George?

Either way, she became the perfect candidate to be the mother of Fitzwilliam Darcy. Around the same time, I noticed that George Darcy, the eldest son of the last Earl of Holderness, was also born in 1745—but died at age two. In my timeline, I merged these two threads: what if George lived and married Lady Anne Fitzwilliam? Their union creates a historically plausible lineage for Darcy and ties him to both major noble families and other real families of the time.

That opened the door to even more historical weaving. I started slotting Austen characters into real families, using peerage records, public family trees, and other sources to ground them. This led to deep dives into 17th- and 18th-century genealogies, inheritance customs, and naming traditions. Along the way, I learned fascinating things:

• Living to 100 wasn’t as rare as people think—it happened with surprising frequency, even in the 17th and 18th centuries.

• Not all noblemen married teenage girls; most couples were close in age until the later 1700s and into the 1800s.

• Grand Tours were not a universal rite of passage for every upper-class young man or even for nobles.

• Inheritance, name changes, and estate transmission were more complex than most fanfiction accounts reflect.

• Longbourne, Delaford, and the Crawfords' estates that all bring in £2,000 were very good estates. The average estate income in the 1790s was only around £600 to 700 per annum: which is the stated income for Mr. Willoughby's estate of Combe Manga.

So yes, my family tree is huge—but it’s also deeply informative. By going back several generations, I’ve learned more about Austen’s era (and the lead up to the time) than I ever expected. For example, I now know that the first Darcy to settle in England was Norman d’Areci of Saint-Clair-d’Arcey, Eure, Normandy, who came over with William the Conqueror. He was granted manors in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and his descendants are historically documented there. So next time someone insists that Darcy “came over with the Conqueror,” you can tell them—yes, and his name was Norman.

Anyway, in case you were actually paying attention and noticed that I said George Darcy—who marries Lady Anne Fitzwilliam (in my story) and becomes the father of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy—is the eldest son of the 4th Earl of Holderness, and thought, Wait, what? That doesn’t work… don’t worry. It does.

You see, historically, the 4th Earl of Holderness was actually the second son. His elder brother, also named George, died in infancy. In my version, I simply let both Georges survive, and gave the first a family line to continue the title. That made the historical 4th Earl into the Honorable Robert Darcy and allowed his son to be an ordinary Mr. George Darcy. Problem solved!

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Making those kinds of adjustments is one of the more satisfying parts of building this Austenverse. I’m not suggesting everyone dive into this level of detail—it’s a lot of work, and if everyone did it, it wouldn’t feel very original anymore—but it’s a process I really enjoy. Sometimes the connections are tricky and I feel like I have to invent entire lines from scratch. But sometimes, like with Lady Anne and George Darcy, the pieces just fall into place and it’s too perfect to pass up.

Another lucky find came from researching a Bennet family in Hertfordshire that matched surprisingly well. They were originally from trade but inherited an estate and become part of the landed gentry. The family was known for having a strong love of books and learning.

And more than that—their backstory (connections, status, educational background, etc.) helped me develop a better sense of Mr. Bennet’s character and how he became the man we all know. Without giving away too much, that history helped me in explaining things like his love of books, his dislike of London, and his detachment from estate matters. This gave me a framework for a Mr. Bennet who feels more grounded, more real, and still entirely in line with Austen’s original.

So while not every author needs a family tree with 23,000+ people, I can honestly say that researching and constructing mine has made my Austenverse richer, more consistent, and far more satisfying to write.

Next in the series: The Controversy of using AI