Write my family history

I plan for this to be in narrative form. I want to weave family photos into the telling and quote from old letters and other documents whenever possible. The piece should be footnoted using census records, birth, marriage, and death certificates and so on. I consider my five brothers and my sister, my parents and a number of other relatives the audience for it. I hope someday my 13 nieces and nephews will read it and maybe add to it.

My goal is to have a tangible book that has my complete family history back as far as I can go. But more importantly, I want it to have pictures, stories, and elements that bring my ancestors to life. I want to really know who they are and have something that I can pass along to my siblings and eventually my posterity. In addition, I would like to have a PDF of the whole thing so I can continually update it as I go.

visiting my aunt this june

Ancestry.com is addictive. I’ve started a family tree. (I discovered that my mom has one too just the other day. We’ll have to blend them together and see what we can find as a team.)

They have a section on there about writing down stories about relatives.

But I just don’t know where to start. Do I start with my grandmother and move back and forth through the stories as she used to? Or do I start with me and work my way back?

Being a lover of history in general is what i suppose started it all off really and all the old family myths and stories like having famous ancestors or we should of inherited a fortune but cant prove it, ya know?
For me theres no better legacy to leave behind than a record of your direct roots tracing back as far as history allows, documenting your forefathers lives and times on their journey to where you stand now.The very reason that you “are”.Heres a little dedication to Family….....

Your tombstone stands among the rest, neglected and alone.
The name you held, your time on earth are chiselled into stone.
That reaches out to those who care and comforts those who mourn.
You never knew that i,d exsist, you died then i was born.
Yet most of me is cells of you, in flesh, in blood, in bone.
We flow through time and beat a pulse, unique, we call our own.
Today, i fill the place you filled all those years ago.
Your flame still burns in the ones you left who would have loved you so.
I wonder how you lived your life, i wonder if you knew,
that someday i would find this spot and stand and think of you.

I am trying to get my siblings to participate in this endeavor. I have given them an outline to help guide them and they still haven’t come up with anything. I thought I would begin to write the family history strictly from my point of view, let them read it, and then perhaps they’ll want to have some input.

I’ve said this to myself for 8 yrs…My goal is to have record. So I’m writing down bits and pieces…that’s how it must start. I think of the things I wish I had known about my now-deceased family…I write what I know and then I write about that issue in my life and times…Leave something for my decendants.

I used to beg my grandma to tell me stories about her life. She lived through so much, from the Great Depression, to the turn of the millenium. She raised 9 children and 37 grandchildren without ever forgetting a birthday! When I was little I thought she knew everything. When I had my own kids I found out she really did! She was an incredible woman and I’d love to honor her memory by recording her story for my family.

—there are always more stories! I did put together a book, though, for my family a few Christmases ago, full of stories we had told, plus everyone’s individual perspectives on certain family events. I badgered those people for months to write about their favorite snowy-day memory, their favorite Christmas memory, etc. But the results were SO WORTH IT.

I interiviewed Dad’s mom, too, before her strokes. I was in high school and I did it for a class assignment. Grandma Etta wasn’t very forthcoming or talkative in everyday life, and I was fascinated by what I learned. It breaks my heart that my distracted and disorganized teenage self lost track of notes, tape, EVERYTHING once the assignment had been handed in.

I am posting personal-history questions periodically under the goal “Facilitate personal-history writing,” and anyone who wants a little writing prompt or interview spark is welcome to join me or just peek in. I have a huge collection of these questions.

I am the family historian or genealogist for my family. I have over 6500 people in my “Family Origins” database. I love history, especially family history. I began writing my books back in 1987, and started entering it all on my computer in 1994. I love it. Being an English major and loving to write helps a lot.
Some of my ancestors are German, Norwegian, Luxembourger, Moravian, French, and Belgian.