Jeremy Boggs, over at ClioWeb tries imagining history from the 1870 census.

I've personally tried this trick myself over the years, as an amateur genealogist. Often times, you have little to go on but the census records or an ancient photograph. I've tried to imagine the voice by looking at the face or the work ethic from the "Value of Personal Property" column on the census page.

Adding some character to the dry facts helps keep me interested, but I've not written much of it, although I once considered (an ill-advised mission, to be sure) a historical novel, a la James Michener, about the fictionalized happenings of my real ancestors arrival in Texas in 1836.

Occasionally, you do strike gold.