The Weyward book family tree of Altha, Violet and Kate

The oldest women on the Weyward book family tree are Jennet Weyward and her daughter Altha. Jennet treated the people of the village as a healer and was suspected of witchcraft for it. She is dead when the novel opens, but she taught Altha her knowledge of plants and her bond with the natural world.^1,2

In 1619 Altha is put on trial for witchcraft.¹ The death behind the charge is that of John Milburn, the husband of her childhood friend Grace, who abused his wife. Altha brought about his death to free Grace, and Grace gives evidence at the trial.²

Grace and John are not Weywards, so they stand outside the green ring, but the lines between the three carry the story of 1619. The red arrow from Altha to John is the death, and the dashed blue line between Altha and Grace is the friendship that both caused it and was tested by it.

In 1942 Violet lives at Orton Hall under the close control of her father, Rupert Ayres.^1,3 Her mother, Elizabeth Weyward, died in unexplained circumstances when Violet was young, and her father will not speak of her. Violet sets out to learn who her mother was.^1,3 That search is what joins the Ayres family to the Weyward line on the chart.

Violet has a brother, Graham. Their cousin Frederick assaults Violet after plying her with drink, and she becomes pregnant. She ends the pregnancy with tansy, and Graham helps her hide it. Violet later infests Orton Hall with insects, and Frederick suffers for what he did.³

The novel never names the Weyward women who lived between Altha and Elizabeth. The Weyward book family tree therefore joins them with a dotted line of kin, which says that Elizabeth descends from Altha without inventing the generations in between.^3,4

In 2019 Kate leaves London and her abusive partner Simon for the cottage of her great-aunt Violet, which Violet has left to her.^1,4 Kate is pregnant. Her father died when she was a child, and she has believed ever since that his death was her fault.⁴

In the cottage Kate finds Altha’s writings and Violet’s letters, and through them the story of the women before her.⁴ When Simon forces his way in, Kate calls the crows, which break the windows and drive him off wounded. At the end she names her daughter Violet Altha, after the two women whose papers she found.^4,5

The daughter is the sixth Weyward woman on the chart, after Jennet, Altha, Elizabeth, Violet and Kate. She appears as an unborn child until the ending, when the chart gives her name.

Most lines on the Weyward book family tree come straight from the novel. Jennet is Altha’s mother, Elizabeth is Violet’s mother, Rupert is her father, Graham is her brother, Frederick is her cousin, and Violet is Kate’s great-aunt.^1,2,3,4

One line is a reading of the text. Because Violet is Kate’s great-aunt, one of Violet’s siblings must be Kate’s grandparent, and Graham is the only sibling the novel gives her. The chart draws Kate’s father as Graham’s son and marks the line in its notes as an inference. If a reader finds a statement in the novel that settles it differently, the line is the one to change.

Frederick’s parents are not drawn either. He is Violet’s cousin, so a dotted line of kin joins him to Rupert, and the chart does not guess which of Rupert’s brothers or sisters was his parent.

A square is a man, a circle is a woman and a cross marks a death. The green ring holds the Weyward women and the grey ring the Ayres family. Grace, John and Simon stand outside both.

Dotted lines are kin that the novel names without the people between. The red zigzags are the men who harm the Weyward women, and the red arrow is the death of John Milburn. Each line carries a few words at both ends, one for each side.

To build a Weyward book family tree of your own, or to fill the generations between Altha and Elizabeth for a class reading, open the chart in the editor from this page or start from the story charts.