Tips for Organizing Your Stories

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Permalink Reply by Emily Doolin Aulicino on July 16, 2009 at 9:38pm

Create a Time line.

By starting with the year of your birth either on a piece of notebook paper (one year per page on paper) or on a page in your computer's word processing program, list each year vertically and continuing to the present. You can easily jot down your memories (a few sentences or a paragraph) under the respective year, as they spring to mind. For those events with no dates, make a miscellaneous section. These may find a home in the time line later. Yes, you will have blanks, but also you will have many ideas in an organized manner just waiting to become complete stories. If you never finish writing all your memories (and who does!), you will at least have a wonderful "outline" providing many clues for your descendants about you and the family.

As you will have more than one entry for many years, put them in the best date order, even if you have to guess. Note that each event has a separate line. Make certain that you indicate it is a guess by adding some note or symbol, such as: circa (ca), ?, pos. (possibly), prob. (probably). Try to add a location for each event, as well. Be sure to add all the addresses where you have lived with a short memo of why you moved.

Here's an example:

1923: Jan 1. Birth of Helen……blah, blah, blah….

ca Sept. Parents moved from an apartment to 2314 Southeast 27th Street, Kansas City, Missouri

1924: Mar 23. Sister Rachel is born

1925:

1926: Aug 10. Brother Samuel was born, weighing 9 lbs. 3 oz

1927: July. Major flooding of the Missouri River

1928: Sept. Hellen enrolled in Kindergarten at Whitman Elementary School, located on Langdon Road. within walking distance from home. Teacher was Mrs. Barber.
During the school year the class made kitchen appliances from large cardboard boxes covered in butcher paper. We also had a “dressing” room in a corner behind the upright piano which our teacher played. Here we put adult clothing over our street clothes. I remember taking a “nap” on a mat for a while, even if our school was only a half-day then.

1929: Mrs. Brown, my first grade teacher, always “sang” our first names and we had to answer “present” in the same notes. We learned to read with Dick and Jane books, and to print. When I was a teen Mrs. Brown attended our church (Rivermore Christian Church) and she was still talking to us as if we were in the first grade!

NOTE: This an excerpt from my booklet: "Memoing" Your Memories: A Simple Technique for Writing Your Family Stories.

Emily
©Aulicino 2003