How are you telling your family stories?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Myss Story on July 30, 2009 at 10:16am

I forgot to mention that I am using the organizational functions of the family tree software I use to set the time lines. I use Family Tree Legends because it lets me put in more notes in more places than Family Tree Maker. I like them both, and they both offer export to MS Word and both provide a "book" outline that is printed in .pdf. I am also looking at PowerPoint for the most simplistic way to present the info, once it's organized. I considered slide-making programs, but the PP is easier, and the reader is freely available over the net, just as pdf reader is.

The slide format is good since it is easy to add a new slide and re-order the whole thing without changing paragraphs. In my mind's eye, I see the family gathered just like old slide projectors, and we can all talk about each slide that is interesting. Then they can play it again and remember the get-togethers as well as the ancestors.

Permalink Reply by Myss Story on July 30, 2009 at 5:29pm

Another element I'll be using is a variety of fancy fonts. I realize there are problems with embedding fonts, so I will use my graphics program for the extra fancy fonts. With a matched background, the graphic should appear as text. I can also apply fancy filters, make the text metallic, or fabric textures, etc,

Using a variety of fonts as graphics should provide the extra pizzaz for the dry B-M-D info.

If I want to make a printable version, I will keep in mind that the text and graphics should look good on white, too. I'm excited, and already choosing fonts that "go with" the people I've selected to highlight. I think it will be a fun project and make something that will catch my family's attention.

Permalink Reply by Trudy Doolittle on July 30, 2009 at 6:08pm

Once you get this done, then you can animate PowerPoint and put music behind it....then its like a video. While I used a video program to do this, people really appreciated the music I used for each section of the memorial video for my aunt and mother.......My aunt did a lot of traveling so I used the Happy Wanderer in that section, my mother stayed at home and had kids so I used My Blue Heaven.

Permalink Reply by Apple on August 10, 2009 at 12:47pm

I'm no where near ready to start on a book. I do however want to get my stories and information not only written down but out there where other family members can find see/find them. So I have a genealogy blog. It is not organized, I write about whatever I've recently found or projects I am working on. There is a label function that allows others to focus on the family lines that they are interested in. Just a thought for those who are ready to start jotting stories down but not ready to take on a book project. There is the added benefit that my children, nieces and nephews get their family history fed to them in small doses.

Permalink Reply by Molly McKinley on September 2, 2009 at 3:42pm

Wow, what wonderful ideas! I too have struggled with the amount of info to add or leave out. Who to focus on, the whole clan or just one line at a time. How much detail and how much storyline. My family is greatly interested (or at least act like they are) when I share some wonderful new discovery of someone in our family history. But...they glaze over if I add too much detail. So my plan is to keep dvd or other type record of all the thousands of pages and info I have gathered these last 15 plus years for those who come behind me to continue the work as they please, and write a simpler version of the info for those who want to know something about our rich heritage. Most of my known ancestors were here in the 1600's and helped establish the New England states so there is a lot of great info available to flesh out the dry facts. The problem is just like others of you have stated, knowing where to start and getting started...no more procrastination!
Thanks for all the advice and sharing found here. I have already got some ideas stirring.

Permalink Reply by Trudy Doolittle on September 2, 2009 at 7:28pm

I think this is a good start. You know the old story " How do you eat and elephant, one bite at a time." I did some research on my gg grandmother. I then shared it in my Christmas letter to my relatives. Another thing to consider is use of MyFamily.com or any other group communication tool, to share you findings with your relatives.
Trudy

Permalink Reply by Evelyn Steinberg on September 2, 2009 at 7:49pm

I really like your approach and like the idea of including some of the details of my research.

I have started recording what I call "vignettes" about family. They are snapshots of people and events - I include the bare facts then embellish with research so it becomes a story. I don't know if I will ever be able to tell the story from start to finish - too many gaps and brick walls. Eventually I think I would like to scrapbook these vignettes digitally, using photos, texts, artifacts, and other images. Perhaps one day they will make it to a web page for others to enjoy.

Permalink Reply by Trudy Doolittle on September 3, 2009 at 9:06pm

When you discuss about the trip over, you could mention the running aground and what their thoughts might have been about that. What you have to do it relate the information to your ancestors and how it might have effected them. The after their trip information may not apply because they may not have know about it.

I have a document identifying the battles my ancestor fought in during the revolutionary war. I also found a diary of a soldier of his level who fought in the same area. I think I can easily use this to give color to my ancestor's story.

If you have any kind of story or description of life on the ship, it would be great to include that.
Trudy

Permalink Reply by Molly McKinley on September 6, 2009 at 7:38am

I love these ideas as so many times we just have the bare facts. Mary Smith born--died, married John Jones...had 3 children.etc... Adding a bit of the events that were occuring at the time of their living in a certain town or their leaving an area helps you know the person of your ancestor better. I have tried to find out what was going on in the places they lived before they moved to see if there was an obvious reason to leave. My ggggrandfather leff Granard, County Longford, Ireland in the late 1700's. I was puzzled as to why. When I researched the area at the time there were all sorts of wars going on. It has been hinted that he was opposed the local opinions of the day and left rather than fight his own family in the disagreement. That would suggest a cowardly person, yet he was a captain in the War of 1812 here, and his other lifestlye is one of an adventurer rather than a coward...I had to conclude looking at all the evidence there was some other reason he left at that time. I have yet to find other relatives who were left behind (parents or siblings) so I have wondered if he was the last one alive and grew tired of the constant battles and decided to try the "New World" of America. We will never know, but I plan to add all those thoughts with the known facts to fill in the story.

Permalink Reply by Julie Carr on October 8, 2009 at 8:20pm

I started a little reseach in high school when my great aunt was still alive and she sent me somethings. That got put away as my life began college years and a family of my own. I started back up in 1997 right after my son was born and off and on throughout the years I researched. As more and more relatives die I realize how important it is to do the research now not later. I just recently connected with a great aunt on my husband's side so been working on the SHRINER line for the last few weeks. My husband's CARR line was at a brick wall until a month ago where I was able to find them in the 1930 and 1920 census and from there the crossing from Canada and the ship from England, all because of the ww2 card finally gave us what part of England they came from. My husband's family all come from Pa and WV. My side of the family mainly come from 3 counties in Mo. Now that my daughter is 2 yrs old, I've been working on family research a lot -- I'm blessed to be a stay at home mom, who not only takes care of my 2yr old, but my mother-in-law lives with us -- she has parkinson.

Anyway, on my mom's side of the family I have been able to find almost all census for each family for about six generations. I've been writing them up in a way where all the info is right there. I'll post what I got. It's very time consuming and right now I only have up to part of generation 5 complete on the write up. I have more of the census images saved on thumbdrive waiting for the write up. I also have a paper that I've been writing on the documents of the deaths I have on my mom's side. I think it's interesting, but I'm sure not everyone will agree. It also helps me see where my wholes are in my research.

I write "but I'm sure not everyone will agree" because I recently had a cousin on my husband write the following "Julie, this is not how I want MY family name to be researched!!! PLEASE!!! STOP doing this! It is for this reason I have not responded to your request for info."

I hope these open ok. I originally did this on works so not for sure how it looks with saving it in rtf.

I also have on my thumbdrive folders within a folder for each couple for example The main folder is Goeller information then folders within start with 001 Marie (Goeller) & Don Allen and each folder under her has the number of the father and the couple's name. I then put any documents I get from the internet or others in their folder. I plan to make a CD for my mom, Aunts and Uncle for Christmas and as updates are needed.

I want to this for my mom's side, dad's side, my husband's mom's side will split in two, and then my husband's dad's side. My side of the family has enough relatives who can use all of my mom's side and/or dad's side. I have 5 cousins, who their dad was my dad's brother, and their mom was my mom's sister. Then I also have my Grandma married my grandpa, who was a brother to the wife of my grandma's 1st cousin. They all came from Miller, Osage, and Maries County, Missouri -- then my mom's side goes back to different parts of Germany.

Sorry -- I don't get to talk to many people about my reseach -- they aren't interested in it.

Julie Carr
http://shrinersgenealogy.ning.com/

Attachments:

• census 1790 to 1930.rtf, 65 KB
• The Death ofMarie Helena Goeller's Ancestors.rtf, 48 KB

Permalink Reply by Catherine Davis on November 2, 2009 at 8:26pm

Everyone has posted so many thought-provoking ideas! I mean that most sincerely. Tonight was my first night of reading through this discussion's posts, and I find myself in tune with so many of you, sharing both your hopes and frustrations. I look back on my youth and realize I was the poster child for glazed-eye-think-of-something-else-while-Grandma-tells-us-one-more-time-about-her-childhood (yawn, yawn, boring). Unfortunately, my Grandma isn't there anymore now that I want to know about the family and I'm searching through all kinds of documents to find my family's history, which I realize would be so much easier to do if I had paid attention to Grandma back when. That is partly what motivates me to attempt to write my "masterpiece" of family history--that some where down the pike, one of my children, nieces, nephews, etc., will, like me now, have the time to get beyond the immediate need to focus on his/her own world (and let's face it, we've all had times when anything outside of today is beyond comprehension) and will also start to wonder about the family's collective past. (And, if no-one ever gets that urge, I'm having fun, searching and writing--and that is the most important part of this whole family search thing, as far as I'm concerned.)
I do like some of your ideas for "weaning your family" into paying attention to their ancestors. The blog idea intrigues me, for instance. Along the same lines, I have put little "tidbits" into my annual Christmas letters.

Permalink Reply by Echo Fisher Renner on January 27, 2010 at 2:28pm

In 2005, I did a book on my father-in-laws family. He was one of 13 children (11 lived to adulthood). In the front of the book, we put the pedigree charts of several generations. Then we had a biography chapter on my father-in-laws parents, followed by a bio chapter on each of the 11 children with dates, locations, education history, spouses & kids, and lots of stories and photographs. At the end of the book, we had names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses for everyone in the family who agreed to let us print that info, along with a sentence describing how they were related to the central figures in the book.

Ten of the 11 children had passed away, so to do the biographies, I first wrote the bio on my father-in-law. I then contacted the descendants of the other 10, explained what I was doing, asked them to write a bio on their ancestor, detailed what I wanted included in the bio and the due date, and enclosed a copy of the bio on my father-in-law as an example. Most of the families came through with flying colors. If they left out dates or other info I thought was important, I added that. The few who did not have bios, I researched and wrote them myself (I'm a writer).

We took orders on books ($ up front) and had a few extras printed. I formatted everything on my computer and printed a high-quality copy on high-quality paper on my good printer. Then took everything to a good copy shop and had it printed black-and-white on good paper, front-to-back. The book has a soft cover with plastic ring binding.

That July, we had a large family reunion, and people picked up their books. Everyone loved the books, and they are a great keepsake for generations to come. Occasionally, I still receive an order for a book. I've kept my original loose (unbound), so I can take it back to the copy shop to have more printed and bound any time I need more.

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