1632 Tech

Virginia's Grid of Up-time Characters

Virginia DeMarce maintains a grid containing the names and relationships of all the people who came through the Ring of Fire.

She asks that we state emphatically:
THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. WE MADE THESE PEOPLE UP!

Now that we've established that, you may consider these fictitious persons real for the purposes of the 1632 universe. Canon states that only up-timers from the grid are to be used in fan fiction. (If you expect to have it published) (If you are writing something just for your own amusement, you can have a battalion of Marines with arms and armament, stopping in Grantville for a pack of cigarettes at the moment of the Ring of Fire.)

To Claim a Character . . .
Send an e-mail to Virginia or ask her in the 1632Tech conference on Baen's Bar to reserve a grid character for you. Character Claims made since this version of the Grid will be listed on the Grid Errata page until they can be merged to the main document.

Download the current version:
grid_7b [RTF]
(1.67 Mb file)
June 28, 2008
CSV export of selected Grid data:
grid_7b [CSV]
(3.45 Mb file)
June 28, 2008
Both files in one ZIP archive:
grid_7b.zip [ZIP]
(1.2 Mb file)
June 28, 2008

There are many items of information included in the Grid. In addition to information on each and every person who came through the Ring of Fire, there are also statistical lists of several items of interest. Included below are a few.

(SPOILER/SLUSH WARNING - Contains information about some characters up through the latest scheduled book. Please don't bother going through it for snerks, as you may find an unclaimed character whose story only you can write.)

28 June 2008

163x GRID DATA, Version 7b.

Version 7b of the grid is up to date with the published books and stories, but somewhat behind the planned books and stories, moving the vital statistics events, with the exception of those yet to be caused by the authors in the course of future books and stories, to the end of calendar year 1635 and showing the consequences of some events that have been plotted but not yet written. Workplace status is as of the end of the calendar year 1635 (also omitting changes for characters which may occur as the result of yet-to-come book and story plots rather than through the process of the grid program).

Version 6w added a new item of information, “canonized character.” This means that the individual, even if never claimed by any author, has appeared in one of the published books or stories (both print and on-line), or is known to be scheduled to appear in a forthcoming scheduled book. This indicates to other aspiring authors that they will have to “write around” what is already “canon” about the person. Thus far the items “canonized” are:

Incompletely, for the convenience of authors who will need to “write around” things that are definitely “in the works,” I have canonized some “proto-canonical” books and stories. I’m hoping to get this category of “proto-canonical” works more complete, as time and knowledge permit. The grid includes as “proto-canonical” works contracted books that have been at least partly drafted, but not yet snippeted – thus far from:

Proto-canonization does not include what was to be

Some books covering events in 1635 through 1637 have not proceeded beyond the planning stages – e.g.

Therefore, there's no proto-canonization for them. These will move quite a few of the characters around the European stage, so the arrangement of the grid and the matter of which characters have survived the exigencies of various authorial plots as of the end of 1635 will not be complete until all of them have appeared.

Aspiring authors should use this "canonized" feature in combination with Mike Watson's search engine. The main difference is that "canonized" includes mentions under such items as nicknames and anonymous references such as "his dad" and "her boss" that aren't easily located in a text search, but the text search will often provide more data on what the character was doing. For canonization, someone has to read the story and decide who the unnamed individual was.

The grid itself now includes “canonized” down-timers, both invented and historical, but these do not export to the .rtf printout here, with a very few selected exceptions. Please request a copy of the latest GEDCOM if you want to check them.

As of version 6y, when an up-timer dies leaving children by a down-time spouse, that spouse is now carried on the grid independently, in order not to move the post-RoF-born-and-still-alive children of an up-timer to the “deceased” category.

Version 6y also removed the italics for separate entries concerning persons who were under 18 at the time of the RoF. There are too many persons in that category by the end of 1635, more than four and a half years later, to make it useful. The only characters italicized are the 1635 high school graduates, newly entering world of adult activities. Individuals who are “18 and under” as of the end of calendar year 1635 (NOT as of the date of RoF) do not have separate entries as “available adults” but rather are listed under a parent (the mother if she is alive and present in the 1632-verse; the father if not). Most of the older teenagers would be working part time, summers, etc., whether for their own families or elsewhere, but these jobs will be so fluctuating that it isn’t practical to try to track them on the grid.

Beginning with version 6x, the character sketches in footnotes were eliminated from the .rtf printout (they are still in the grid and available if writers request them; they also appear in the “Notes” section of the GEDCOM version). This was because with the “canonized character” showing, the .rtf printout of the grid was becoming so large as to be unwieldy.

The 6r version of the grid, per decree of Eric Flint, “froze” it insofar as it establishes the up-timers and their basic characteristics (name, year of birth, highest educational level at RoF, veteran status at RoF, marital status at RoF, church affiliation at RoF, occupation at RoF) as of the moment that the Ring of Fire occurred. No new up-timers will be inserted into the Ring of Fire and be transferred to the seventeenth century. Aspiring authors are encouraged to continue claiming characters and writing about them, and can make changes in what they do after the Ring of Fire as long as it doesn’t contradict established canon, but there will be no more changes to names, ages, educational status at the time of the Ring of Fire, church affiliation or lack of it at the time of the Ring of Fire, veteran status as of the Ring of Fire, etc. (the items generated by the grid program). For further details, see Eric’s post on the http://www.1632.org web site.

However, physical descriptions, personality quirks, hobbies, civic and social organizations, etc., remain to be developed by the individual authors. It is also acceptable for you as an author to have your character, post Ring of Fire, change jobs, get married or divorced, have children, go back to school, convert to another religion, move out of town, and the like. They are not frozen into the site where the grid has placed them as of 1635. Each time the grid runs a new annual projection, there will be a lot of changes in those things, in addition to those advanced by the authors in the books and stories. They are not fixed characteristics the way birth date is.

Version 6w projected the “retiree” deaths (people who were 65 or over when the RoF occurred) scheduled for 1637-1640. They are marked (three *** for 1637; one # for 1638, two ## for 1639, three ### for 1640). The retirees projected to die in 1636 have been moved to “deceased.” The marked characters remain available for use and claim for stories that take place prior to the dates of their projected demises.

Version 6j added those down-timer children who were incorporated into up-timer households as foster children or adoptive children by the end of 1635. There have been changes between 1632 and 1635 (changes in placement, changes in status, new placements) but these have not been tracked unless they appear in a canon book or story. There are comparatively few individuals in these categories for the reason that the majority of unattached children in need of care who came into the RoF would have already been in the custody of other refugee/immigrant adults. Many may be in the “foster” category because they are known or believed to have a surviving parent from whom they were separated. Some in the “foster” category, such as the two boys who lived with Willard and Emma Thornton, belong to intact families, but had been sent into GV by parents in nearby towns to attend school. Individual authors have to decide this sort of thing when they claim the characters.

When a down-timer marries into an up-timer family, that individual and any stepchildren are named in this version. The GEDCOM version, available upon request and a very handy thing to have if you use genealogical software, also lists any other known relatives of the in-marrying spouse. Children born since the RoF to marriages between an up-time father and down-time mother are listed within the father’s entry.

Those classified as “active adults” at the time of the Ring of Fire were aged 19-64 as of April 2000/May 1631 PLUS the June 1631 high school graduates. The names of individuals who were “65 and over” as of RoF are underlined when they appear in work places. Those “active retirees” who have aged into the “over 65" category after the RoF, between June 1631 and the end of 1635, are not underlined, but the year of birth is underlined.

Veteran status is in accordance with the US Census 2000 question 20(b). It does not mean that a person served on a given battlefield. It just indicates what period of history they served in the military (branch not specified unless developed by an author; specialization not determined unless developed by an author).

From Census 2000, question 20(b)

When did this person serve on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces?
Mark a box for EACH period in which this person served.
April 1995 or later
August 1990 to March 1995 (including Persian Gulf War)
September 1980 to July 1990
May 1975 to August 1980
Vietnam era (August 1964—April 1975)
February 1955 to July 1964
Korean conflict (June 1950—January 1955)
World War II (September 1940—July 1947)
Some other time

Throughout the grid, for the sake of simplicity, the annotation WVNG also can be interpreted to include the concept USAR.

Acronyms for 1632-verse politics:

CPE
Confederated Principalities of Europe (August 1632-November 1633) OTL, this acronym stood for Gustavus Adolphus' desire to establish a Confederation of Protestant Evangelicals - Confederatio Protestantorum Evangelicorum.
USE
United States of Europe (November 1633-indefinite future) with Gustavus Adolphus as emperor
NUS
New United States (1631-30 November 1633, independent republic; member of the CPE confederacy after August 1632 with Gustavus Adolphus as "Captain General" and military protector; state within the USE after 30 November 1633); the earliest mentioned additional state within it is Badenburg; then Suhl; by April 1632, all of southern Thuringia; by 1 December 1633, all of Thuringia
SoT
State of Thuringia (1 December 1633-April 1634), change of name for NUS, no longer an independent country, but rather a state within the USE; the former "states" of the NUS take on the functions of county administrations within the state (see 1634: The Ram Rebellion for technical explanations)
SoTF
State of Thuringia-Franconia (April 1634-indefinite future), change of name after the Franconian referendum, state within the USE.
Gustavus Adolphus' suggestion of "East Virginia" as the name for the new entity, made in David Weber and Eric Flint, 1633, was not adopted by the inhabitants for various reasons having to do with American History and the American Civil War, primarily.
RoF
geographically, the circle of territory transferred down-time from West Virginia, including Grantville, Deborah, and rural areas; politically, by December 1633/January 1634, it was amoeba-shaped because of annexations (all the exact border changes have not been canonized). In December 1633, the entity voted to be called West Virginia County, State of Thuringia (WVCo.). In April 1634, it became WVCo., SoTF, after Franconia voted to merge into the SoT. See also WVCo.
GV
Grantville, town within the RoF. After the Ring of Fire, it provided local government services for all of the RoF and its directly annexed territories until December 1633/January 1634, after which a combined city/county government was established for West Virginia County (WVCo.), SoT/SoTF
WVCo.
came into existence December 1633/January 1634; from December 1633-March 1634 it was in the State of Thuringia; thereafter in the State of Thuringia-Franconia (SoTF). WVCo. is structured as an incorporated city/county, without separate governmental levels for the town of Grantville and the county as a whole. See also RoF. E.g., the Grantville mayor became the WVCo. mayor, the Grantville police department became the WVCo. police department.

1632Tech