You Can Do It!
Writing a family history can seem like a rather daunting task. It needn’t be. It can be a highly rewarding activity. Will it be easy? Probably not. Will it take time? Almost certainly. Will it be worth it? Absolutely. You’ll not only be saving an important piece of history, but you’ll be creating links between the generations that will bring your family closer together.
Looking at the whole process of writing a family history may be discouraging. After all, most of us are not writers, historians, or publishers. But when the process of putting together a family history is broken down into its smaller component parts, it isn’t as complicated as it may seem at first glance.
The purpose of this blog is to break the process down for you and to give you some helpful hints and tricks that will make writing and publishing a family history easier for you. So go ahead, have courage, read on, and then just go to work. You won’t be sorry!
In this blog I talk about some basic ideas to help you in gathering information and the kinds of information to look for to create interesting family histories.
Gathering the Information
Your first step in creating a family history book is to gather the information that will go into your book. As you go about this, think about it from the standpoint of those who will be reading the book. Ask yourself how you can help them get to know these individuals on a personal level and what you can do to engage and hold them as a reader.
Obviously, you’ll be telling the story of a person’s or family’s life and how they are connected to one another and to your family now, but perhaps more importantly, you’ll want to help your readers understand who these folks really were, not just what they did or where they went, and to whom they were related. Communicating the “flavor” or personality of an individ
ual brings that person “to life” for the reader, and isn’t that what you want? Family histories should be more than a collection of dry facts, dates, travelogues, or a daily journal of tasks, although even the right amount of that information can communicate some very important things about the individual and their life. Remember too, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Find ways other than just words to communicate interesting things about these people. Use photos, certificates, official documents, and other images liberally.Detective Work
Finding out what really made the person who they were will take some detective work. My cousin, and family history nut, Russ Robison gives some good advice on getting started.
Russ says, “The most important part of the process is attitude”; he continues:
- Have a strong desire to learn about your ancestor
- Have faith that you will have help in finding important material when you need to find it. Don’t worry about learning a new computer program or function until you need to use it. (Just read and study the help section of a program when you want to learn about it.)
- Then go to work even though you only know one or two places where there is or might be information you need. As you work, additional doors of information will be made known to you as fast as you can gather and record the information you have found.
As a family history detective, gather up as much “evidence” as you can. Realize right from the start that you’re not going to be doing this project alone. You’ll need to go to outside resources like relatives, on-line research sites, and already published materials. Here are some ideas on the kinds of information you may want to try to find and include:
- Stories, written or verbal accounts of events, thoughts, feelings, experiences
- Autobiographical writings and journals
- Other published histories
- Photos of individuals, activities, and places of interest
- Genealogical charts including pedigree charts and family group sheets
- Famous (or infamous) quotes or sayings by the individuals
- Official civic, religious, secular or military certificates
- Awards or achievements
- Newspaper articles
- Postcards, letters & greeting cards
- Poems & songs
- Reproductions of artwork such as paintings or sculptures
- Favorite recipes
- Maps
- Examples of advertising, products, cars, and clothing from the period
- Important world events, people, innovations, and other general time-period specific information
You can download a helpful 28 page booklet on preparing your family history that includes the information in this blog. Go to www.imageproprint.com and click on the Free Guidebook on publishing your family history.
