How are you telling your family stories?

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Permalink Reply by Bonnie Skiles Rost on March 27, 2012 at 6:50am

Good question Trudy. I want desperately to tell our family stories, but I'm perplexed as to where to start. I've written several memoirs over the years, which has never been a problem. However, when I try to write our family history, the first question that arises is, "where to start"?

One of my favorite authors is Sharon DeBartolo Carmack. I purchased her book, You Can Write Your Family History, a few years back with hopes of writing ours. She lists the seven genres of genealogical and family history writing. My gosh, after reading what each entailed, I found myself so perplexed. Of course, my first thought was to just write "the bare bones," and take the easy route, since I have so many stories, historical documents, photos, newspaper articles, etc. If I chose to write other than the bare bone, I would not live long enough to write it (65) ;-). 

I have read several historical stories by my ancestors, and they seem to mostly give an account of their lives, which is rather intriguing and informative; however, I would like to write about a story about every family in all lineages. It's been three years now, and I haven't written the first line. My first love (interest) is writing, so it's more about where to start.

As I look at your list, I clearly see that possibly I'm not being realistic or at least I think I'm not. Where on earth does one start if they want to write a historical book, which includes the history of that area, along with each family's story. Do I go back to the 1700's and work with one lineage to the present and try to complete all lineages? This is sounding more like a daunting task as I write my thoughts.

We (family genealogists) have yet to carry one lineage abroad. In some respect this makes my dilemma a bit easier. I'm a member of Ancestry and work mostly in FTM. As you know the family trees are not always accurate, but some have done their homework. Although they provide the birth/death dates back to the 1400-1500's, there are no sources. I have the World Deluxe membership, but I have yet to find a document, etc. to carry our lineages back, which is aother subject altogether.

I have my grandmother diary, which I would like edit, for sure. So I know I have at least one genre; however, we have yet to find her burial place when she died at the age of 34 in 1944 - no last name, no idea where she died, but we do know it was in 1944, so this book will be a cliffhanger.

I've narrowed down 3 genres thus far: Life Story Writing (Historical Biographies of Ordinary People), Family History Narratives, and Family History Memoir.

I ask myself the question, am I taking on a too large a task, and I should just do the bare bones?

So my question is, has anyone found themselves in this dilemma? If so, how did you finally make a decision on which genre? Any answers to my questions are welcomed. Also, thanks for being a sounding board. Bonnie

Permalink Reply by Myo on April 9, 2012 at 5:19pm

I know exactly how you feel, if I didn't have my cousin's work I would not have known where to start.  I don't think she did it in a traditional way or the way they tell you to do it in some of the books, but it works for me and is easy to add to when we find more information.  I put it on cd's because printing it would have been very expensive and as I said I didn't know how many family members were really interested in it.  I also have my mother's diaries from when she was in high school until she died. I know I should copy them or transcribe them but it looks like such a big job I keep putting it off.

Permalink Reply by Bonnie Skiles Rost on April 10, 2012 at 8:34am

I have my grandmother's diary, and I plan to transcribe it in the next couple of weeks. It is tattered, so I need to find some way of perserving it. All my work is on CD until I'm ready to publish my work. It's the safest way to go. I lost my work to many times by trusting my computer before I decided enough is enough.

As for my earlier post, I am outlining the plot as DeBartolo suggests. When I first started it, I thought I knew where the story would begin, but as I began creating the plot, I realized I really needed to reconsider my approach. I began with creating a timeline, which is still ongoing. This has helped me to see the flow and structure more clearly.

If anyone is interested in Jon Franklin's outline approach, he suggests outlining conflicts and resolutions.

1. Complication or Conflict

2. Development

3. Resolution

By using his method, I've narrowed my genre down to Life Story Writing (Historical Biographies of Ordinary People).

Now, I'm really getting excited. Now, to determine which of the 5 structures: chronological and altered chronological order, reverse chronological order, parallel to convergent, flashback/flash forward or flash forward/flashback or journey. All of which is sounding like Greek at the moment. I feel as though I'm back in school. However, I must say learning the mechanics of writing my family history is a bit more complicated than I realized. I hope everyone is doing much better in writing their family histories.

Permalink Reply by Anita Wills on July 16, 2012 at 10:07am

I have written three books about my family history. In the books I combine my oral history with what I have documented. My latest book is Black Minqua The Life and Times of Henry Green. The book contains excerpts from Frederick Douglass and a recounting of historical events in Lancaster County Pennsylvania.  My latest book is available at this link, Black Minqua.  My other books were Notes and Documents of Free Persons of Color and Pieces of the Quilt: The Mosaic of An African American Family. The first two books are available through Amazon.com.

Permalink Reply by Myo on October 18, 2015 at 2:19pm

I have my fathers line and mothers line at standstills. I did a cd on my father's side and am now working on mom's. Most of the basic research was done by a cousin who put each additional family line in a separate folder. I now have these in a digital format and ready to do the book.

Here is my question, I am including all the husband and wife lines so it adds up to a lot of file folders. In doing the book I will start with my mother/her fathers line, This doc has all the generations of that direct line. Now in another folder is his wife's direct line. Each generation adds another set of husbands and wife. 

Have any of you tackled a project of this size?  How do you organize the sections?  A: Main line, B: beginning person's wife's line. Now were do I go. Neither of these names are the same as person 1. from there on the number of Names keeps multiplying so how do I organize them.  Do I just forget generations and list them alphabetically - easiest way.

 I hope some one can understand this and give me their thoughts

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