Writing your Family History
Before you start to write your family history or memoir, we strongly recommend you give considerable thought to the writing approach you should take. Don’t just rush in and start writing, give some thought to the structure of the book, draft a synopsis – it will make the writing much easier and less frustrating.
We have prepared notes which raise points you should consider, we are sure you will find these helpful. There are also a number of books available that provide guidance on writing your family history.
We have also prepared tips on writing technique, so that you avoid some of the common writing errors.
Getting started
Family history research can uncover fascinating information about your ancestors, but where do you begin writing it all down in a cohesive story? How do you choose which ancestors to focus on? The hardest part is often identifying a starting point; the rest usually follows.
Do you have an ancestor that stands out as being interesting or who lived in interesting times?
Did an ancestor have a fascinating tale about his or her immigration? You could start the story with that, and then use flashbacks to fill in the person's later or earlier life.
Did one ancestor have a unique line of work? You could research that occupation and fit your ancestor into the story. Perhaps your ancestor’s children followed his footsteps?
Do your ancestors come from the same village or town? Research and write about the local area, placing your ancestors within the context of where they lived (regional histories can be a fascinating subject in their own right, and you may wish to write your book as purely a village history). But, as a backdrop to family research, it can make one’s ancestors lives far more interesting.
When deciding what or whom to begin writing about, it’s often easier to concentrate on one branch of your tree; there is usually one that will stand out as a logical starting point. Begin with the generation that you know the most about and then work backwards (or forward) to further generations.
Keep in mind that there will always be some ancestors that you will either leave out completely, or just mention briefly in your book. This could be because you find them less interesting, and we all have vast swathes of those, or because you haven’t completed your research. Family history is a venture that is never finished, even when you’ve completed your first book! Remember too, you want your book to be fascinating and informative, not merely a list of names.
~ History has no ending, it is always just part of a story ~
You will also want to choose a format for your book. There are plenty of options to choose from, the most common being the narrative. This tells a story and usually focuses on a group of ancestors. This could be one family line, or more, and can extend back for several generations. The narrative is ideal if you want to interweave the lives of several people.
A biography or memoir is often the best format when you just want to focus on a single person’s life. Your book could be a series of interwoven biographies of your most interesting ancestors. This is a particularly good way to record the lives of those who were in the Armed Services.
One rather different approach that works particularly well when writing about more recent family members, is a cookbook. You can record all those family recipes that have been passed down from your grandparents, whilst writing about the people who created them. A family cookbook, interspersed with stories and pictures, is a wonderful gift for other family members.
Perhaps you are fortunate enough to have a box full of family photographs. You could tell your story using photos with lengthy captions. This is a terrific option for those less confident about writing in a longer format. Include pictures of family houses, or the villages or towns that the family came from, to help incorporate the social history aspect. This adds enormous interest to a book.
However you choose to write your family history, adding illustrations is a great way to add interest and context, as well as making it easier to read. If you do not have photographs of your ancestors, you could use photos of their graves or the churchyards in which they are buried. Also include maps, copies of documents or newspaper clippings and quotes from diaries etc.
~ Events that occurred centuries ago can echo down the ages ~
If you don’t have many illustrations to use, you could also include short timeline snippets. What was happening in the rest of the world at the same time? Who were the famous people or politicians of the day? What was the music of the era?
Creating a timeline is a very useful way of organising your book chronologically. It can help pinpoint the social history and events that may have shaped your ancestors’ lives, and is a good first step toward writing an outline for your book. Outlines are flexible, so you can add to, delete from, or edit as you plan and write the book.
Throughout history, people have been affected by the world around them. Incorporating local, world, and social events can make even the most mundane lives absolutely fascinating. To document the changing times in which your ancestors lived is a way of connecting the present day to history and bringing the past to life for the readers of your book. Great events, like wars, or disasters like the Titanic, can become part of our own lives rather than just abstract events.
Don't wait until your research is completed before you start writing. If you uncover further fascinating gems later on, there is nothing to stop you writing a second volume!
Besides, one of the certainties of family history research is that it is NEVER complete. One should always leave something for the coming generations to do.
